Honestly, Tetris doesn’t need an introduction. It’s a gaming legend. This is the game that shaped the puzzle genre of today. No matter how you look at it, any puzzle game involving multi-colored shapes that are lined up in some sort of sequence, can be traced back to Tetris.
Tetris used the incredibly simple mechanic of rotating pieces with a single button, and controlling where they fall with the D-pad. This control scheme was fluid and intuitive. Tetris was not, however, an easy game by any means. As players were required to reach a set number of combos before reaching the next round, they had to keep a close eye on how their current pieces were aligned and the blocks that were queued to drop next. This combined with the fact that the gameplay sped up with each new round challenged players to try and stay two steps ahead of the game.
With every new gaming system released, a new variant of Tetris is born. Tetris Worlds saw release on both the Gamecube and GBA, and included a variety of modes including Sticky Tetris, Cascade Tetris, and Hot-Line Tetris. Tetris DS payed homage to the old NES games of Zelda, Metroid, and Mario, and included online multiplayer modes. There has even been a Tetris variant released for the Apple iPod.
From Russia with love, Tetris saw a jump in popularity that was unheard of during the years of its heyday. Which is not to say that it is at all unpopular today, as each new game in the series performs admirably in both sales and critical reception. But the original Gameboy cartridge is the most successful game for the handheld system to date. Hexic, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, Dr. Mario – all of these have Tetris to thank for their design and success.
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