This, the first version of Tetris on the NES, was pulled off of the shelves only 1 month after it’s debut and is therefore one of the rarest NES games released by a major publisher. Atari had licensed the game from British software publisher Mirrorsoft, who themselves had been granted a home console license from … Read more
As the game that kicked Tengen’s Tetris” The Soviet Mind Game off of the shelves, Nintendo’s Tetris had a lot to live up to. Unfortunately, and perhaps because they had a monopoly on the market, Nintendo chose to release a decent but entirely unimpressive port of Alexei Pahjitnov’s classic puzzle game. Gone are the head-to-head … Read more
It is a little-known fact that Tetris was not originally intended to be bundled with the Game Boy. Henk Rogers, a game developer and founder of “Bullet-Proof Software”, convinced Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa that Tetris, and not Super Mario Land, would give the Game Boy broad appeal across multiple age groups. Mr. Rogers … Read more
Although Welltris was the official sequel to Tetris, Blockout seems like more of a logical extension of the classic puzzle game. Blockout features a top-down view of a 3D well. As with Tetris, Blockout pieces are made up of smaller cubes, and the object of the game is to clear completed levels made up of … Read more
Tetris Plus was one of only two Tetris games released for the Playstation (the other being “The Next Tetris”), and is identical to the Sega Saturn release of the same name. Along with the requisite “Classic” and “Vs.” modes, Tetris Plus features a “puzzle” mode (isn’t the whole game a puzzle?) that is really the … Read more
Tetris Plus was the only Tetris game released for the Sega Saturn in the United States, and is a port of the 1990 Japanese-only arcade game of the same name. Along with the requisite “Classic” and “Vs.” modes, Tetris Plus features a “puzzle” mode (isn’t the whole game a puzzle?) that is really the meat … Read more
I grew up playing Tetris. I got a Game Boy the Christmas after it was launched and played Tetris more than any other game on that system. The Tengen version of Tetris is one of my favorite NES games, and it is a crime against humanity that Nintendo forced it off of the market. Because … Read more
Grid Runner is a capture-the-flag style game in which two players face off against each other on a maze-like grid. To win each round you must capture a pre-determined number of flags, which are placed around the grid, before your opponent does. Throughout the game, one player is “it”, and while “it” the player can … Read more