One of the most well known and best-selling video games ever produced was Tetris. Originally released in 1984 in the former Soviet Union, Nintendo ported the game over to the Nintendo Game Boy in 1989, selling over 30 million copies with it. Twenty-two years later, Nintendo has re-released this classic to the 3DS Virtual Console and it is now available for download in the Nintendo eShop in all its black and white glory.
For the few who may be unfamiliar with Tetris, I will briefly explain how it works. In Tetris, players manipulate shapes composed of 4-square blocks as the fall down the screen. The blocks are of various shapes (square, “z” style block, “s” style block, “L” shape, backwards “L” shape, and a long straight piece) and players may rotate them clockwise or counter clockwise using the A and B buttons. Moving the pieces left, right and down is accomplished with the D-pad. When one or more horizontal lines are created without any gaps in the playing field, those blocks disappear and the above blocks move down by the number of lines cleared. Players can also toggle the option of seeing the next piece coming down the screen so as to give themselves an idea on what to do next. As the game progresses and more “lines” are scored, the pace increases and the pieces begin to fall down more rapidly. The game ends when at least part of a “tetromino” extends beyond the top of the playfield when set in place.Â
One of the most attractive aspects of Tetris is its simple idea yet increasingly difficult execution of putting the blocks in place without having the game end. When the pace really picks up, you must think clearly, quickly and a few steps ahead in terms of where to setup your pieces especially if you wish to achieve four lines at once with the long, straight block piece.
Another attractive feature of this game is its dual nature of accessibility and simplicity. From the traditional Russian style music (quite catchy) to its game play, Tetris is a game anyone can enjoy. At its core Tetris can be played by almost anyone (including my dad and my wife’s parents). Even younger children can play the game without worrying about complex story lines or cut scenes with explosions, melodrama and such that occasionally takes away the fun from games today. It really is gender and race neutral which is probably why so many people like it and have played it. While Tetris is easy to play, it is difficult to master. I found myself cursing at all the skills I lost since I was a teen. For example, I found my high scores were constantly replaced with ease by my significant other. Yet that only served to motivate me to improve my skills and scores which is accomplished with the more games you play.
It is truly this competitive aspect Tetris that really seems to keep you coming back for more. I remember playing against a friend and chuckling as the pieces on his screen rose several layers after I had already cleared the lines on my screen. That was a lot of fun. Sadly, while the option to play ‘2-player’ was apparently available in this download, it is unknown whether this version would actually work as each time I pressed start to select the 2 player option, it returned to the 1 player selection. In fact, I do not know if two players could play with each other like back in the day of the original Game Boy. Back then, all one person had to do was plug a cable to connect two Game Boys together and the game was on. This is not available as an option for the modern 3DS and it is unlikely Nintendo modified the original Tetris to be able to play this game wirelessly. Still, it would be interesting to see whether the 2-player option would work if another person had the same game on their 3DS. Also, it would have been really cool if Nintendo developed just a minor tweak by playing online against other players.
Because of its popularity, there have been several variants of Tetris style games that have been developed since 1989. Some of the games included the addition of explosions when certain pieces were matched and others used different shapes such as 3D shaped pieces. These were interesting variations of the Tetris experience and some were well received while others not so much. Yet at their core, they maintained that successful formula of fitting the different pieces and clearing the lines while setting up your next move.
At the end of the day, I enjoyed this stripped down, original version of Tetris on the 3DS despite it not having any 3D effects. Tetris on the 3DS eShop is truly the original game in its original form. While the franchise has come a long ways since the late 1980’s, Tetris on the 3DS eShop still managed to hold my interest and it was enjoyable to go back in time and play a game I loved when I was younger. That being said, the inability to play a two player game was a little disappointing. Despite this, one thing is for certain is that Tetris still holds up to the test of time and I would recommend it as Tetris is one of those original classics that every gamer should have in their collection.
