Tetris: The Grand Master, A Game That Hates You For Playing It, Launches On Consoles Next Week

Tetris: The Grand Master, the feared and respected arcade version of Tetris will arrive on PlayStation platforms and the Switch in Japan next week.

Developed by Arika, The Grand Master series was a staple of Japanese arcades in the late 80s, quickly becoming notorious for its unforgiving difficulty. The series has attained legendary status among series fans who adore Arika’s vision of a Tetris game that actively hates the player and wants to kill them. Pieces fall like rain, meaning only the most rapid and decisive of players can make any headway run-to-run. Somewhat cruelly (or excellently, depending on your proficiency at Tetris), The Grand Master ranks player skill similarly rankings in Chess, all the way up to, yes, Grand Master.

There have been several sequels, including the ominously titled Tetris: The Grand Master – Terror Instinct, but the franchise’s last outing was the Japan-only Tetris: The Grand Master Ace on the Xbox 360 in 2005.

The existence of this new port of The Grand Master was a secret until only a few weeks ago. In fact, no one was even publicly aware the game was in production until Nintendo Life noticed that Arika Vice President Ichiro Mihara had taken to his Twitter account to announce the game had been delayed.

The new game is part of Hamster’s ongoing Arcade Archives series. This puts its release in Western territories in doubt — precious few games in the Arcade Archives have ever found their way outside of Japan. Tetris: The Grand Master becomes only the first 32-bit era title to be added to the collection. It’s being added to the collection along with Galaxian to commemorate Hamster’s successfully launching a new game every week for 300 consecutive weeks. Galaxian sets a record of its own — it will be the first game from the 70s added to Hamster’s collection.

Tetris: The Grand Master comes to PlayStation and Switch on December 1, 2022. You’ll have to import it (pull some VPN trickery) to get it in Australia. Or you can do what other Tetris heads have done for years and enjoy the old ones in an emulator.