Tetris 99 gets an unexpected crossover with Paper Mario: The Origami King in the form of an in-game competition with a special theme as the prize.
Surprisingly, Tetris 99 is getting a crossover tournament, this time starring Paper Mario: The Origami King. Tetris 99 is a free title for Switch owners who have a Nintendo Switch Online membership, and it takes the form of an online game of Tetris in a battle royale format; 99 players compete until only one remains. While many initially scoffed at the idea, Tetris 99 has performed pretty well since its release, and was even complimented by the original creator of Tetris.
Paper Mario: The Origami King is the most recent game in the divisive Paper Mario series, and the first to release for the Nintendo Switch. The game released on the 17th to generally favorable reviews, which is surprising for some who have complained about the design decisions made in the most recent games. Indeed, there are some players of Origami King who have already complained about the newest game’s unique circular battle system. Even people who enjoyed the new combat system may find it regrettably underutilized.
But apparently Origami King has performed well enough for Nintendo to cross it over with another game in order to promote it further. And perhaps surprisingly, the game Nintendo has chosen to cross it over with is Tetris 99. A recent tweet by Nintendo showcases a new Tetris 99 theme representing the characters from Paper Mario: The Origami King, as well as folded paper tetriminos. This theme is the prize for collecting at least 100 event points in Tetris 99‘s newest Maximus Cup, an in-game event that tasks players with competing with each other for high scores.
This isn’t the first surprising crossover event Tetris 99 has been a part of; the most recent Maximus Cup event offered players an in-game Xenoblade Chronicles theme, and before that the prize theme depicted characters from Nintendo’s landmark title Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Nintendo seems to be settling into a familiar rhythm of pushing new releases through Tetris 99 and incentivizing players to compete in the Tetris battle royale at the same time. Since the only cost of admission to Tetris 99 is ownership of a Nintendo Switch Online membership it’s unsurprising that Nintendo would try to get more value out of the game.
Paper Mario: The Origami King remains a divisive title. Critics, including Screen Rant, adore the game, but many fans aren’t impressed. They were hoping for a return to the traditional turn-based RPG mechanics seen in the earliest games in the series, and were let down by Origami King‘s further departure from tradition. But the game still has a lot of fans, and those fans will likely be more than happy to compete in Tetris 99 and show their support for The Origami King. Or at the very least, they’ll probably just enjoy the opportunity to play more Tetris.