Tetris is 25: A Look Back at the Greatest Game Ever

Written by John Scalzo  on June 06, 2009

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While there is a general consensus among Tetris fans over which version is the best, the series has also inspired some heated debates among gamers. Just mentioning the words "infinite spin" (officially called Easy Spin by The Tetris Company) is enough to send many Tetris players into fits of rage. Infinite spin is the way in which Tetris pieces do not "lock-in" at the bottom of the stack until a player stops trying to move it. Previous Tetris games (before 1999's The Next Tetris) locked a piece in as soon as it hit the bottom. Infinite spin allows players to "dance" the piece across the bottom of the stack and sometimes around other pieces.

The Ghost Piece is another point of contention among Tetris players. The Ghost Piece creates an outline of the piece currently coming down the stack at the bottom of the screen. This outline then shows how the piece will fit in among the other pieces. Some call it cheating (even when used in single-player mode), others just think its use is distasteful in competitive play.



One thing that is not up for argument is that Tetris has moved beyond gaming and out into the wider consciousness of the world. Mothers who hated "them vidja games" loved Tetris. And how many kids would recognize "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" first as Music 1 from the NES version and a song from The Nutcracker second? Then there was the time Homer Simpson packed his family into the car by reshaping their bodies into tetrads (and not leaving room for himself, d'oh!). Tetris has even snuck into the realm of performance art, such as this recording of "Human Tetris" by Swiss artist Guillaume Reymond:



And who among us has not experienced Tetris Dreams (AKA, ,a href = "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect" target=new>the Tetris Effect)? After a particularly heart-wrenching round of Tetris, it's common to dream about the falling shapes. Studies have even been performed on amnesia patients who experience Tetris Dreams even when they have no recollection of playing the game. That is how powerful the pull of Tetris is. She is a siren song and we fans are just poor sailors smashing ourselves on tetrad-shaped rocks (and none of them are shaped like the dastardly "long" piece.

On it's birthday, Tetris has even earned that ultimate badge of geek honor, a Google Doodle:



Today, Alexey Pajitnov works for Microsoft, where he is the creator of the sorely underrated Hexic HD and Hexic 2. He has also designed an online version of Tetris, dubbed Tetris Friends. Along with Rogers, he even dreams of creating an international Tetris Olympics someday. I hope he succeeds and I will gladly enter my name in the competition.

Tetris has earned a whole trophy case full of awards over the years. It was ranked as the Greatest Game of All Time in Electronic Gaming Monthly's 100th issue. The series as a whole has sold over 125 million copies according to The Tetris Company, which would make it the third biggest franchise of all-time. Counting the unofficial variants and bootleg Soviet versions, its likely that Tetris towers over all other video games in total sales. The L-Block even won GameFAQs' 2007 Character Battle contest. Finally, I consider my own personal favorite game of all-time.

So here's to Tetris. May Alexey Pajitnov's creation continue to enthrall gamers the world over for another 25 years.