[Review] Tetris (NES)

REVIEW # 00000000 00011011

If Tetris has taught me anything it is that errors pile up and accomplishment disappear

Tetris is one of the three games my mom ever played along with Dr. Mario and Arkanoid. She thought she could be a Tetris master but actually her reflexes were nothing compared to the speed of a 10-12 year old boy. For this reason I always smacked her down. Apart from my family stuff and trying to be a bit more serious, Tetris is one of the 4-5 games that changed the history of the gaming and it will be always remembered along with titles  as Pac-Man or Pong. In May 2016 Teteis is reported to be the highest grossing video game in gaming history with almost 500 millions of copies sold and is in the Guinnes World Record book for being the most ported video game in history (65 consoles!!!) and has inspired a swarm of player to make thir on videos doing the craziest stuffs with the game, like drawing Super Mario Characters or doing insane challenges, like this

My heart says…

There’s a big issue about Tetris. Once you start play it you can’t stop, it’s like eating cherries. I’ve always had my tetris moments and they always last 2-3 weeks in which I play until I get blisters on my fingers. My last tetris moment is ongoing, and this time I’m doing an hyper-crossover 3.0, running a NES game on my PC and playing it with a PS2-style USB controller: for this reason I’m proud to have now callus on both of my thumbs and I think I will stop stacking tetraminos when I will be about to lose the sensitivity on my hands.

This should be enough to explain why I gave Tetris a 9/10. Not 10 because that is reserved for the games I REALLY love and to the ones I can’t live without, but for sureit deserves a 9.

Splash screen

As always good work for Nintendo: except the very first screen, dedicated to the credits, the real splash screen, despite its darkness winks at the player with that Kremlin on the background. A couple of years before the end of the Cold War, I think Tetris was the biggest russian-made thing to have success in the USA.

Graphics

When you make a Tetris game you have nothing to invent: we all know the game and the graphics can only be simple. By the way, without denaturing the game, Nintendo did a good job (different colors every level, funny scene at the end of the game…). So in this case better to have it simple instead of having a graphic like you are on LSD…

Narrative

I don’t have anything to say about the plot, but I can tell you they’re working on a movie about tetris with actual actors. I don’t know how it’s possible to make a screenplay out of the game, but it seems is possible. Let’s wait and see. For sure I will review the movie on my other blog MoviesTavern…

Gameplay

I don’t have to spend time explaining how Tetris works because even my mother know it. And she touched the computer for a total of 5-6 hours in all her life.

At first stacking the 7 differente tetraminos, named after the letters they resembles (I, L, J, S, Z, O, T) can be quite amusing but it will turn quickly into a hell callenge after which you’ll probably broke your keyboard/joystick.

There are two different modes: A-Type, the classic one, where you have to clear the lines in order to pass to the next level, and a B-Type, in which you will find the screen full of pieces of tetraminos you have to clear (a bito more difficult). Sincerly I played B-Type only a couple of times and I focused always on A-Type.

The world’s full of crazy people and below you have the proof. The video shows the fastest 999.999 score, reached in 3’12”. I thik you have to be really crazy to do so: my record is like 200.000 and when I reach it my eyes and my fingers feel like they’re bleeding. If in the world there’s a game that causes serious brain damage, this is Tetris, for sure.

Sound

Tetris for NES features three different mind-blowing in-game musics. Everyone gets faster when the player starts to accumulate too many tetraminos and he’s almost filling all the screen. It seems stupid but listening to a so-fast musica during a topic moment is reeeeeeally tough.

Apart from the in-game music, a notable mention goes to the end-game music, which is one of the most famous in gaming history.

However below you can hear the three musics. They’re absolutely AWESOME!

Longevity

There’s a reason if we’re still talking about Tetris after more than 30 years fron its original release. Although some scientists (scientists!!!) confirmed that is impossible an infinite tetris play, since lately the player is doomed to lose for the abundance of S and Z tetraminos (which in fact are the most complicated to place), the longevity of this game is probably one of the highest of all time.

Final Score 90/100

---

Year: 1989

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

Genre: Puzzle

Games Mode: Single Player, Multiplayer

Original Platform: Electronika 60, Arcade

From same developers/publishers:

• Donkey Kong (1981)
• Mario Bros. (1983)
• Super Mario Bros. (1985)
• Super Mario Bros. 2 (1986)
• Super Mario Bros. 3 (1988)

Inspired to:

• Tetris (1984)

If you liked you can also try:

• Uhm…Tetris maybe???

Other chapters of the saga:

Follow I Old Games on Facebook!