Tetris

"A true classic never dies out!"

It's a shame to know that none of the consoles or portables come with games anymore. My Atari 2600 came with Desert Falcon and Ms. Pac-Man (at least one of them, anyway), My NES with Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt, my SNES with Super Mario World, and my Gameboy with Tetris. Ah, Tetris. Such a warm and welcoming little puzzle game. One that's not too frustrating, but not too simplistic. It sucked time from my life, for certain, but the time sucked was well worth it (I hope that didn't sound too pornographic). It's also not hard to believe that Tetris is still around today in many forms, reappearing in the form of Tetris Worlds recently, and will probably materialize in a multitude of forms over the next few years as consoles and portables continue to evolve. It almost seems one could say that whatever the evolution in gaming history, Tetris has been there. While not to say it was even one of the first games, it does seem to be available for quite an alarming amount of systems under many different names (one I remember for the old Texas Instruments computer was called Tris). There's got to be well over 100 versions out there, including various shareware versions you can download off the internet and even flash versions. I think it's safe to say that it'll be a while before we finally see the absolute death of Tetris.

Tetris is a Russian puzzle game that has appeared in many translations and in many forms and clones (i.e. Blocks from Hell). In Tetris, you get falling blocks composed of four square mini-blocks. As the blocks fall, you place them down along the bottom and try to make a full line straight across. The more lines you make, the more points you get. You can also take out multiple rows at once. If you take out four rows, it's called a Tetris (the game revolves a little around the number four. Then again, Tetris is rooted from the word ''tetra,'' meaning four). As you advance in levels, the blocks begin to fall faster.

It may be fun for that brief 5 minute period to make all the ''communist Russia'' jokes (where the game plays you!). After you've gotten past the inanity in that, it's time to start gaming. If you're anything like me, you won't know the first thing to do and just start randomly dropping blocks down without any consideration for a goal to the game. This cost me a quarter and almost turned me into the type of person you see on this great site who gives a game a 1/10 based on playing the game for 5 minutes and having my ass handed to me. It is with time that you can come to appreciate this game.

The gameplay is dreadfully simplistic, easy to get into, and easily addictive. It really doesn't take a genius to figure the game out. As the blocks keep coming down, you have to position them just right into the little nooks and crannies you've created with the other blocks in the hopes of making more and more lines disappear. No violence, gore, or bloodshed. No suggestive themes. No need to read tons of text or derive a high learning curve. It's no wonder so many people can easily get into, and enjoy, this game. It has everything that the non-violent types would want, all the challenge that the hardcore types would want, and an easy get-up-and-go style that the casual gamers would want. Many would claim Tetris to be the perfect game. Most of these people are 40 and up and have never played any other game except Solitaire and Hearts. Not that I'm dissing Tetris at all... If you think about it, just the idea behind the game almost does secure it as a near-perfect game. It is a game that can be enjoyed by a vast amount of audiences.

To accompany such simplicity, the game's graphics and sound are also fairly simplistic, but not exactly primitive for their time. You really don't need much graphically to make a Tetris game; just blocks with either different colors (such as the various color versions of Tetris on NES or in arcades) or different patters, which is what the Gameboy version does to compensate for the lack of color. This was a great move and worked out well for the game. It's much better than just pushing down blocks that are all one color and texture. The in-game music features some decent old classics from Russia. If I knew more about Russian musical history, which I most certainly should, I could probably tell you who composed and wrote them. Being the layman that I am in that subject, I think I'm going to have to decline. Anyway, using what was then known about the Gameboy's early on musical capabilities, Nintendo pulled off quite a decent score, despite only having three songs on the entire soundtrack. The best part about them is that they all fill you with a different emotion and give the game a different feel listening to each of them, all while maintaining the same basic feel of the game. Thoughts of peace or despair may cross your mind while switching from one music to another. It almost seems the developers didn't want you to walk away with just one feeling in particular. If only Konami would have taken this note when developing NFL Football...

Did you think they were just going to let you snake along by with just one gameplay mode? At the time this game was made, people didn't anticipate more than two to three different modes of gameplay with a puzzle game, unlike nowadays when things must have Super-Orgasmatron Mega Mode or Toughie Challenge Supreme. Tetris has what is plainly referred to as B Mode (DUN DUN DUN!). In this mode, you can have set up a certain amount of blocks already on the screen. These are not nicely organized ones, either. At times, it can look like a five-year-old was playing the game. You must work around the preset mistakes the game has made to try to get as many lines as possible. Just like original Tetris, except someone has made the mistakes for you.

Multiplayer is also available, in case you want to challenge someone. There really isn't much to say about this mode, as it is exactly like what has been described above, except you have to compete against someone, seeing who will be eliminated first. This adds quite a bit more dimension to the game; more so than most would think. Not only are you trying to survive for as long as you can, you're trying to out-survive your opponent. Of course, unlike other multi-player puzzlers like Bust-A-Move, you cannot dump blocks on your opponent or mess with their screen in any way. It does kind of deter the competitive value, but you have to figure that this came at a time when such an idea wasn't really thought of much, if at all.

The only downsides that accompany this game can accompany just about any other, and they usually come from overplaying the game. Those two in particular are the repetitive nature of the game and the fact that you can easily be burnt out on it. You can only stand falling blocks for so long before you crack. After a while, you really just don't want to look at falling blocks ever again. This game, as with most puzzle games, does not change much as you get further. Unlike an adventure game or an RPG, the first level is almost exactly like the tenth level, sans the change in speed. The repetitive nature makes it so that the game is easy to become burnt out on. In short, you really don't want to play this game in one huge splurge. Rather, taking it in small doses seems to be the best course of action.

Tetris is and always will be a classic among games and probably the definitive game to the puzzle genre. It's almost analogous to Resident Evil in the survival/horror genre (aside from the fact that RE wasn't the first true survival/horror game, but it did get the genre widespread recognition). It doesn't take a master to play the game, but it doesn't take anyone to master it. That statement alone is meant to proclaim this as a very versatile game, for the greatest gamers and even for beginners and non-gamers.

This version, being a Gameboy launch title, displayed its early on power very well. The developers worked around lack of texture very well and generated peaceful music that kept the game at its usual atmosphere and took nothing away from its original prestige. It's probably hard to find this game anymore, short of emulation, but if you do come across this for GB at a used game store or even a pawn shop, do pick it up. It's a worthy addition to your collection, especially for classic game collectors.

FINAL JUDGMENT
Graphics: Fair enough 7/10
Sounds: Love the music, love the sound effects 10/10
Controls: Work well enough 8/10
Plot/Storyline: Well, you see... These aliens come and they threaten the world with a fighting tournament in which the winner saves the fair maiden. [shudders] My three least favorite storyline concepts all thrown into one. Tetris has no storyline. See what indignity it could have suffered? N/A
Gameplay: Wonderful and best of all, addictive 9/10
All Together: 8/10

Perks
*Addictive
*Nice way to compensate lacking color with patterns
*Peaceful music
*Original idea
*A great ''Get-Up-and-Go'' game!

Downers
*Gets repetitive after a while
*Easy to get burnt out on

Recommendations
If you love puzzle games, then this is the game for you. I've noticed even people who don't play many video games actually like this game (i.e. my dad). I guess you could say that this could be easily recommended to anyone who wants to waste some time.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/30/01, Updated 09/18/03