ROTETRA is Tetris where the blocks fall from four different sides at once and lord almighty I don't have the brainspace to be good at it, but it sure is fun

Look, I'm pretty reasonable at Tetris. I'm not one of those grand masters or anything, but I can both have fun and get a score that would at least make my hypothetical nephew impressed (assuming he also wouldn't be in the Roblox mines). Sometimes, though, a take on the beautiful block game rocks up that makes me question any such skills I may have. Today, that is ROTERA, a block stacking game in which you must manage tetronimos falling from four directions at once.

This is both easier and harder than you might think. A round starts off fine, with the usual format of random tetronimos falling down from the top, with the option to spin them for optimum slotting, making them move faster, or dropping them instantly. And then after a few successful lines, blocks start falling from another side. To deal with that side, you must rotate it to the top, absconding your control of the previous falling block. That doesn't stop it from falling, of course, so you must constantly keep on your toes.

As you rotate back and forth between the two directions, you might start to build up complete rows that get stored up until you rotate into a particular direction, releasing themselves into the aether, adding onto your score total. When it's just two directions you have to deal with, it isn't too bad. Developer Michael Kamm is at least kind enough to keep the speed increases at a reasonable pace, if it was as per usual it'd be far too difficult to deal with for my puny brain.

Of course, get far enough and a third direction opens up and, while I didn't manage this because oh lordy is this Tetris-like a toughie, eventually a fourth will open up, meaning you've got four lots of falling blocks to keep your eyes on. Just the three directions were tough as nails, truthfully! But a damn engaging twist on the formula, I will say. There will be over eight gameplay modes to choose from too. The demo only has standard, but there's also cross, which starts you out with four sides at once, classico, where you "stack with opposing pieces on a completely overlapping grid," and puzzle, "handcrafted puzzles that showcase the nuances of the game."

Charmingly, the base difficulty mode is just called hard. This is accurate, Mr. Kamm, no notes there. I like it! And if you fancy giving it a go yourself, you can check out the demo, or just wishlist it, on Steam right here.