Tetris Effect: Connected - 1989
25This is the only skin not available in Journey Mode, and Relax happened to be this past weekend's Saturday theme, so why not? Here is the former Easter Egg for Tetris Effect: Connected, a theme based on the Game Boy Tetris known simply as "1989," the year that it originally was released.
On each release of Tetris Effect: Connected up to the Switch version, and for the first couple months afterwards, there was one obscure way to get 1989: On the title screen, you'd press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B. Instead of moving to the next menu down, the game will display a retro 1980s style monitor look. From here, type in "06061984," the day Alexey Pajitnov shared Tetris with his colleagues at the military laboratory in Russia. (Well, for the first few days, this didn't work at all.) This number must be typed with a keyboard attached via USB. You cannot pull up the Switch's built-in keyboard for it.
Later on though, 1989 was provided to everyone who reached Level 50, which is for the best for me as I don't own any USB keyboards. I record footage, edit it, and upload it entirely using my MacBook Pro.
As you can see, this entire scheme is an homage to Tetris as it was on the Game Boy. Tetriminos take the form of the blocks as it was in that game, everything is in an olive-to-white color scheme, and sprites from that game come flying through and past the camera. I was wondering how they'd make such an homage work for VR, but this is how it's done.
Like all other skins, there are three parts, each with evolving music and each more exciting than the last. The first part has a largely unchanged Game Boy Tetris main theme playing with pieces of St. Peter's Cathedral and brick blocks passing on by. Once you get to one-third of the goal, the music resets into a remix, and squat dancers and women in traditional gear join in. When you get to two-thirds of your goal, the background turns black, the sprites are dimly lit, and every clear invokes fireworks to shoot.
Though I wonder if the existence of this skin is because The Tetris Company requires the Tetris main theme be somewhere in every Tetris game.