Tetra’s Escape is a pretty harmless family-friendly puzzle platformer after all: well-made, but nothing mind-boggling. The “changing who you are” referring to the ability of converting your puzzle pieces into tetris-shaped terrain for Grey-Blob McNopowers (made up: again gotta spice things up somehow) to step over to get to the exit. Let’s get into the details.
There are 6 worlds to explore that very organically expand the transformations your pieces can make, the level layouts themselves (lava, ice, fall dmg), and trickier paths to 100% a level. All you need to do to be a completionist in this game is collect the three stars scattered throughout your pathway towards the goal portal. After collecting the last, you just need to backtrack a bit to pick up a trophy and you’re home free (btw later levels can prove challenging because you can inadvertently lock yourself out of picking up the trophy after picking up the 3 stars, so be careful!). The visual aesthetics of the game are very cutesy and basic 3D models: after all, we are dealing with cubes and tetriminos. The music; ok real talk, I was about to throw shade about the repetitive nature of the quirky stock music throughout the first few worlds. However, the music does come to its own and throws in some decent chiptune and piano jams that impressed me; so just keep playing.
Other than that, I really don’t have too many gripes with the game: I do think if you are in the mood for a calming, casual play session, Tetra’s Escape is perfect just to knock out a few levels. The one detail I was a bit irked about was that there is no way to step back and undo one action: it’s either you finish the stage, or you start all over. The levels themselves are short enough for me to forgive it, but this is a simple quality-of-life change that I would love to see. I think the Switch might be the best option for this sort of game, mainly because there’s no concern for graphical fidelity or framerate issues, and portability enables that pick-up-and-play life.
Tetra’s Escape: Steam, Xbox One, Switch, PS4, PS Vita ($3.99-$4.99)
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/tetras-escape-switch
Review copy provided to me.
Indie Gamer Team 