I’ve just peeled myself away from GB Tetris to post this. About a year or two after the Game Boys UK release I got one with, of course, Tetris. Since then I have gone through a Spectrum ZX, a NES, SNES (or Famicom and Super Famicom in the US isn’t it?) two PCs and countless throwaway LCD games. Absolutely no game on any format came anywhere close to Tetris on any level. The game has universal appeal. My sisters and parents wanted to play it and they never play any video games with the exception of my youngest sis’. The gameplay is ruthlessly simple and rules are so easy to pick up. There is nothing more to playing it other than having a machine with it installed. It can be played by anyone, anytime ie if you’re whiling away a little time or looking for something engaging for a long jouney, evening at home it will more than suffice. It is totally without any affiliations to any gender age race or social group (OK there was a little Russian window dressing on the GB version but that was in no way integral to the game itself.)
So compared to other games that have carried on through the ages eg Chess, Patience how does Tetris compare? I would have it as one of items to accompany me on a desert Island ( on a GB with solar rechargeable power pack) and it is one of the games I play not out of nostaglia but out of pure addiction to its ultimate gameplay. Does anyone else agree?
I enjoy the version included in myMonty Python and the Holy Grail game. You stack bodies in a mass grave. Every so often one of them bleats “I’m not dead!!”
After you master that level, it’s on to “Spank the Virgin”.
I was just thinking about that today… I have been debating whether or not to purchase a GBA for tetris. God I love this game! I’ve never found a puzzle game that compares yet. Wetrix was ok, but got too hard way too fast. Dr Mario is ok, but it doesn’t have the same appeal for some reason… maybe it is matching colors?? Dunno.
But, by far, the best tetris I’ve ever played was the one for the N64 which allowed you to form these cool-ass blocks… as if the game could be any more addictive! If that comes out for the GBA I’m gonna go insane.
It’s definitely one for the ages, and I would perhaps go so far as to say that it’s the only computer game currently out which will have the same longevity as chess. Most computer games are tied to one or a handful of platforms, but it seems that as soon as any new device comes out with a graphical display, it’s got a version of Tetris.
Tetris® (a heavily protected trademark, mind you) is definately a game for the ages.
It can be described with my adage that I think applies to all classic games-simple, yet challenging.
What is it about the seven simple blocks made of four squares each (Tetris=tetra, “four” in Latin) that keeps us coming back for more? Was Tetris a major player in ending Communism? Who knows?
The story of Tetris’s origins and travels to America is in itself an interesting story.
Alexey Pajitnov, I salute you!
The official Tetris website. Check out some of the stories they link to on their “News” page (Ever dream about those blocks? It might improve your playing.)
I thought Tetris was already considered a timeless classic five years ago. What’s “new”?
But not just in the sense of a good video game but a good game full stop like Chess as I have mentioned.
I’ve liked the sega version called columns better as it matched the colors than most home versions
Note dr.mario and the sega game dr robotics mean bean machiene is the american version a old japanese matching/stacking game called puyo-puyo
Note If you can find it and have MAME get the rom of the atari arcade version of tetris Its the ultimate version and more varied that any home version ive found
The japanese sega arcade version plays like bombtris you line yp certin blocks and you get bombs and other “power up”
Now theres tetris plus which I played on the ps1 but theres a arcade version which attacthes a lame story to tetris
your a professor and you get stuck in various places you have to play tetris so the professor reaches the bottom of the screen before this spiked thing comes down and crushes him or you get the stack so high he touches the top the downb side it the idiot will climb the blocks …
It becomes more of a puzzle than normal tetris … and theres a “version” of tetris on the game but it just speeds up the game at certain levels and just blah more like speetd tetris ,
I think theres more versions but at the moment jaleco is the only one making any and I dont think the original creator has much to do with the franchise anymore
Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine (my wife invariably calls it “Mister Bean”) is still played frequently in my home. One of two Sega cartridges we own.
The “game format” is irrelevant. After all, we aren’t saying that chess is the “best board game,” or that poker is the “best card game,” do we?
What does Tetris being an electronic game have to do with anything, other than being an arbitrary point for discrimination?
Exactly. Some reckon the idea that its an electronic game works against it. Anyone can carry around a pack of cards with them but not a computer. The abundance of pcs/consoles rubbishs that idea for me.
Also there is a tendency to think of video games only in relation to other video games a sort of media snobbery some would dismiss them automatically in favour of books/tv etc. The effort and ideas put into most video games these days ensures that the anticipation surrounding the release of a new game is almost equal to that of a new movie.
Hey, I can go to Target right now, slap down five bucks, and get a black-and-white LCD game console that will play TETRIS (and twenty other titles), and have it fit in my pocket.
Again, picking on Tetris just because it’s an electronic game is nothing more than an arbitrary and meaningless discrimination. :mad: