18. tetris effect: connected
i bought the original tetris effect, a physical copy for ps4, for $40 + tax on the day of its release. i remember playing through its main campaign over the course of a single day. my strongest memory of this day was my dad coming to the living room, inquiring about the game, and ending the conversation with "you spent $40 on tetris?" yeah, dude, i guess i did.
my favorite theme in the game was called downtown jazz. it's the one where i, weeks later, put in my all-time best endless marathon performance. 1324 lines. i have the picture i took of it on my old email's google drive to this day.
on a day a few months ago that i had decided to perform depression so as not to risk being spoken to by either of my exhaustingly kindhearted roommates, i downloaded tetris effect connected - free with whatever ps plus plan my roommate pays for - and once again played through the entire campaign in a sitting. when i was done, i played a round of endless marathon on downtown jazz. around 400 lines in i nuked the run; hard drops down the middle for a few seconds so as to force a game over.
i was panicking, as per usual. downtown jazz is very clearly inspired by the touristy-to-the-point-of-repulsion idea of a new york city jazz lounge. i have bad associations, now, with new york city jazz lounges. everything is violence to me.