This Tetris watch suffers from the one thing it should be great at

the Tetris: My gaming watch It may look like an Apple Watch, but it eschews most of the functions you’ll typically find in a smartwatch to focus on two things: gaming. Tetris And celebrate the game through a comprehensive user interface Tetris– Under the title. They are very good at making you He wants To play Alexey Pajitnov’s popular Tetromino stacking puzzle game, but not on a watch due to the frustrating touch controls that require more concentration than the game itself.

The included tapes are colorful Tetris-Theme (you can replace these with the standard watch bands if you want to tone it down), as is the set of nine different faces. There are digital and analog options with different themes and colors that display a mix of different metrics, including battery life and fitness stats. They all managed to do tetromino and Tetris The logo is in their designs, but there is no possibility of customization.

The watch face is navigated using the touchscreen and a side dial that is pressed or rotated to make selections or scroll menus. There aren’t any other buttons, but you won’t need them as the watch’s functionality is very limited.

From the main menu, you can play Tetris Or use other features including a stopwatch, timer, calendar, calculator, fitness tracker, and alarm clock. They are all very basic. You can set multiple alarms, for example, but you can’t customize when they repeat or choose anything other than the main alarm Tetris Theme with gentle vibrations to alert you. Even the Game Boy version of Tetris Which was launched 36 years ago had alternative themes to choose from.

There’s a heart rate sensor that matches readings from the Apple Watch Series 9, but other fitness tracking metrics are limited. There’s a step count with an adjustable daily goal and step length options for improved accuracy, and an estimate of the calories you’ve burned that resets every night. There’s no history, no proactive health warnings, and no notifications at all because the watch lacks Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and doesn’t connect to your smartphone.

It’s an upgrade over the traditional digital watch and could be an option for anyone who wants the look of a smartwatch without the notifications. But anyone thinks Spend $79.99 on it He bought it to play Tetris. Unfortunately, this is not a great app.

Previous versions of My Play Watch used the crown dial to play older games such as Space invaders and Gobut Tetris The version is operated only via touch screen. when The watch was announced in September, I was worried The touch controls “can be difficult on a small screen for those chasing high scores”, but it turns out the controls make quick play sessions frustrating.

You can move the pieces by dragging your finger across the screen from side to side, rotate them by tapping, increase their falling rate by tapping and holding, or instantly drop them onto the stack below with a swipe down. Gestures are easy to learn, but I found that the Watch’s touchscreen regularly either didn’t detect them or misinterpreted what I was doing. Short finger segments intended to change the position of the segment by a few cells were frequently detected as a click, resulting in unwanted rotation. On more than one occasion, when I quickly tapped in a panic to rotate it again, the watch would interpret the gesture as a downward swipe and drop the piece where I didn’t want it.

There are options in the game’s settings that try to make the touch controls easier to use, including auto-rotate, which predicts the best direction for a piece based on what’s underneath it. But accidental spins still happen and often ruin your game. Playing Tetris On the Watch it’s not impossible, but because of the frustrating touch controls, I found myself focusing more on carefully executing taps and swipe gestures than on any kind of grouping strategy. The challenge has increased, but not by any means Tetris You’ll want the fan.

It’s also disappointing that the control issues I encountered can’t be addressed through software updates, since the watch isn’t able to get any. Even something as simple as limiting rotation to taps on the edges of the screen would help, but it’s a change that can only be implemented in future versions of the watch.

Battery life isn’t great either. I’m already used to charging my Apple Watch every night, but you need to schedule your gaming time to get a full day’s use out of it Tetris He watches. During the first day of testing, I reached maximum brightness and volume, and in less than 15 minutes of play TetrisThe watch’s battery drained in 6.5 hours. Reducing the brightness to its lowest setting and halving the volume doubled the battery life to about 12 hours. The battery lost about 6 percent of its charge while gaming Tetris For five minutes.

I like the idea of ​​having a wearable version of Tetris I can play quickly without being distracted by notifications. It’s a game that relaxes my mind and is a good stress reliever, but this version had the opposite effect. You might still be tempted to wear one if you want the world to know how much you love the game. If you want fun, look elsewhere.