GamerEscape

Believe it or not, it’s been four decades since series creator Alexey Pajitnov put together the concept for one of the gaming’s greatest franchises. It’s not just a cornerstone of the gaming community at large, it’s an institution at this point. Many a gamer, casual or otherwise, has gleefully fired up some version of the game over the years to get their puzzle game fix on the go or at home. It’s always been a simple, yet hopelessly addictive gameplay loop that lends itself well to slipping into a zen state of flipping and stacking blocks to form lines. Tetris has always maintained a constant presence in my life as well, and I’ve often relied on its avalanche of titles to help me get through a rough day or let me blow off some steam.

It’s equal parts “interactive documentary,” game compilation, and a celebration of the franchise as a whole. Being the latest entry in developer/publisher Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master Series, I found Tetris Forever to be something of an odd duck to cover. Namely, because it stands on the foundation laid by Atari 50. There are quite a few games in this compilation, many that were previously exclusive to the Famicom and Super Famicom. It’s by no means a comprehensive collection of games, because the star of the show is the documentary portion. You’re basically playing through history with this approach to game preservation. Regardless, it’s a story worth telling.

Tetris Forever will release on November 12, 2024, on prior gen consoles (PS4/Xbox One), current gen consoles (PS5/Xbox Series X | S), Switch, and PC (Steam/GOG Galaxy). The Switch version was played for this review.

From Russia With Fun

Like any good documentary, Tetris Forever does its best to be as comprehensive about the story that’s being told as they can. Presented to the player in multiple chapters in a timeline format, we’re given the origins of how the introverted math/computer whiz Alexey Pajitnov came up with the idea for Tetris and goes from there. Since home computing and gaming in general was still in its relative infancy in the early 80s, Alexey found himself relying on more analog/physical forms of entertainment since computers were room-sized punch card monstrosities in his youth. Like many of his generation, this was just a part of his childhood that he held dear. One such piece of entertainment came from the pentomino box puzzles of his youth, and this is what became the primary inspiration for Tetris.

Working within the limits of his Electronika 60 desktop computer and the monochrome display that came with it in the early 80s, Alexey created tetrominos using the brackets on his keyboard and gave them the ability to rotate and drop them in a well. It didn’t take him long to realize the potency of his idea, as he couldn’t stop playing his own game. Even in its extremely primitive state (frequency of block drops were prioritized over line clears, and the single/double/triple/tetris mechanic wasn’t introduced until later on), Alexey knew that his creation had potential. It ended up making waves around his workplace and beyond, but trying to share his creation on a grander scale required a little assistance from someone outside the Soviet Union.

This is where Henk Rogers comes into play. Having caught wind of Alexey’s creation, he takes a big risk and goes to meet him in Russia. Henk was intent on obtaining the rights to Tetris, as he saw the potential for big things with the concept. Most of the early days of this story are indeed centered around who has the rights to his game. Bullet Proof Software (now folded into The Tetris Company by way of Blue Planet Software at the time of this writing) eventually lands a deal with Nintendo, where the franchise really started to take off on the Game Boy since planting stakes on the Famicom.

I’ll admit, I am being a bit vague about the overall story of the documentary portion. But let me say with confidence that the entire story is as comprehensive as a Tetris fan could want, and that’s saying something. Tetris Forever uses a mix of text-based information, images, modern day interviews, and archival footage to help tell the story of everyone’s favorite block-dropper. It’s something that I found myself really enjoying, as I was able to point out many of the points in its history I’m personally familiar with.

But really, I’m being vague because I found myself enjoying uncovering the story through this timeline format. It’s really, really detailed in its execution. Because of that, I really enjoyed just filling myself in on simultaneously learning the origins of the game as well as the story of the explosive popularity that followed in its wake. Obviously, I don’t want to share too much here. It’s dense enough that trying to explain it fully wouldn’t do it justice. It’s honestly best that you go out and go through the minutiae of it for yourself.

Overall, this is something I really enjoyed picking through. The amount of granular and obscure information in this documentary just adds to the enjoyment I had while experiencing this “interactive documentary” format. With how insanely granular Atari 50 was with its own dense history, it should come as no surprise that the story of Tetris would also do the same. It will easily satisfy many hardcore Tetris fans, and I’m glad that this does the franchise justice.

Piecing Together History

You don’t become a four-decade long icon of gaming without a compelling hook. The enduring appeal of Tetris largely boils down to the simple pick up and play nature of its base gameplay. You use the seven tetriminos to clear lines while making sure you don’t fill up the field you’re dropping those same ‘minos in. It’s often zenlike, requires a lot of concentration in the higher difficulties, and lends itself to quite a bit of malleability. This malleability is what allows different titles to try new gameplay elements, and the games presented in the compilation portion do a good job in showing how many of those mechanics blend into the base gameplay.

The biggest thing to keep in mind here is that all of these are straight ports from their original platforms, many of them from the Famicom/Super Famicom and making their way to the states for the first time. While there are many that are in English, there are some that haven’t been translated. There is an accurate remake of the original Tetris as Alexey made it on the Electronika 60 here, and it definitely plays like an early era game. It’s a very primitive version of the game, but that’s to be expected in such an early version. There is a Go game in here as well, but this is explained in the timeline. Might be a little odd for those expecting everything to be exclusively Tetris, but the context for its inclusion makes sense. Same with the inclusion of multiple ports of Hatris, the “swap and drop” hat stacker game that Alexey cooked up later on in the 8-bit days.

Collectively speaking, I found myself playing these games like a sampler platter of sorts. There are a lot of minute gameplay details that do set each game apart. Some of these games will help you understand that the focus wasn’t always about clearing lines, others will show you that Tetris can be more of a traditional puzzle game, while some titles here are more multiplayer-focused. The variety of gameplay between these titles really do a good job in letting the player find those granular differences themselves. Those titles (save for Igo) being:

• Tetris (Electronika 60, fully recreated)
• Tetris (MS-DOS, developed by Academy Soft)
• Igo: Kyuu Roban Taikyoku (Famicom)
• Tetris (MS-DOS/Apple II, each version developed by Spectrum Holobyte)
• Tetris (Famicom)
• Hatris (Famicom, NES, Game Boy)
• Tetris 2 + Bombliss (Famicom)
• Super Tetris 2 + Bombliss (Super Famicom)
• Super Tetris 2 + Bombliss Genteiban (Super Famicom)
• Tetris Battle Gaiden (Super Famicom)
• Super Tetris 3 (Super Famicom)
• Super Bombliss (Game Boy/Super Famicom)
• Super Bombliss DX (Game Boy Color)
• Tetris Time Warp (Developed by Digital Eclipse for this compilation)

Naturally, being able to show this history without any modifications to the gameplay might be limiting to some newer players. Hell, even I found myself having to adjust to the older mechanics of early Tetris games because of the absurd amount of time trying to notch a win in Tetris 99 (which does get a mention in the timeline) as of late. There is a modern convience or two thrown in by way of a rewind feature in the older titles, but it’s not something I really found myself using all that often. It’s freakin’ Tetris, after all. There’s a lot of room for adjustment in between all of these games, and Digital Eclipse does include their own entry to the franchise by way of Tetris Time Warp.

Time Warp at its core is a base version of the modern Tetris concept. Which is to say that it firmly plants itself with the modern ruleset (t-spins, etc), gives a lot more flexibility in moving tetriminos, and being able to hold a piece to use it when you need it. The major mechanic here is when a Time Warp tetrimino enters the field. It’ll flash between the different eras of Tetris as it falls, and clearing a line in whatever era it locked into warps you back between different eras made known in the other games in the compilation. It’ll also give you an objective to complete to move to other eras in what basically amounts to a bonus state. The run won’t end if you fail in the Time Warp state, but you won’t get any bonus points either. Entering this state will also change the presentation to make it more appropriate to the version you’re warping back to. It’s a solid take on the game, and I think it slots in well with the rest of the games here by design.

Collectively, this is a solid batch of ports. While the amount of games might not be as dense as other compilations released in the past, there is a lot of wiggle room for players to give each take on the franchise a try. Despite me absolutely loving other games in the franchise like Tetris Effect, I often found myself popping into games like one of the many Bombliss variants in this compilation. It’s an interesting take on the Tetris format, and forced me to readjust how I think about playing Tetris in general.

Some might find it hard to adjust to the earlier games, but there’s a level of respect I found in exposing players to the more primitive titles present in this compilation. It’s like you’re playing a history lesson, and that aspect alone helps me appreciate where the franchise is today. Some of those early games are rougher than even I’m used to as a longtime fan, but they’re here as they were originally released. Which is a win for longtime fans and game preservationists. While I am hoping for DLC that adds more entries to the base compilation in the future (Atari 50 adopted a similar concept), what’s already here is a pretty solid way to get your Tetris fix in more ways than one.

Monochrome to Modern

Trying to nail down the presentation here is a bit odd. It’s a documentary about Tetris, while also being an interactive timeline that integrates the games in the compilation. With the star of the compilation/documentary primarily centered around telling the story, what seems to be the more pressing issue is how the story portion unfolds. Looking at it from that angle, this does go toe to toe with a lot of well-produced documentaries of the modern day.

Letting Alexey, Henk, and eventually his daughter Maya tell the story of the franchise and brand does a lot of the heavy lifting in filling in the blanks. Since this is done in more of an interview format (likely done with all of the questions asked offscreen), they’re the ones providing context for each video portion of the documentary. Thankfully, the context they provide is more than enough to fill players in on the overall story of the franchise.

With this footage being integrated into the timeline, the rest of the content provided here does give the appropriate amount of respect and context to many of the entries not present in the compilation. Though the titles that are included in the compilation do get a rendering of their original box art/boxes, advertisements that helped push the game out to the masses, and even the original manuals are present if they were available. This is the kind of granular inclusion I love in games like this, and gives me the same kind of satisfaction I enjoyed when earlier compilation efforts like Sonic Mega Collection threw similar content at the player.

Naturally, we should also consider the presentation of many of the games in the compilation. Like the gameplay, seeing the evolution from inception to now is nice to see in its own right. The graphics may improve, the aesthetics may change (leaning into the Russian aesthetic at first, and then morphing into its own identity), and the music might morph over time. But every title’s presentation leans into the gameplay as well as one would expect from a straight up port of the original. Digital Eclipse knows a thing or two about porting classic games over the years, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that it would nail the performance targets and such for each one.

Really, I’m just happy that everything meshes together as well as it does. Some of Digital Eclipse’s prior compilations often let the presentation of the games in the compilation do some of the heavy lifiting, and I really think that they’re finding some solid footing on striking a balance between that and telling a solid story here. I’m sure those who have sunk their teeth into Atari 50 will also appreciate the refinement of the now-established Gold Master format, and I really think that the effort present in all aspects of the presentation is just fantastic for what it is. Saying it’s a love letter is an understatement.

Tetris is Eternal

I’m usually not one to excessively praise something unless it’s warranted, but I do genuinely appreciate everything that Tetris Forever does for longtime fans and recent converts of the franchise. It comfortably succeeds at being a comptent game compilation as well as a documentary and focused digital archive. Digital Eclipse is really onto something with the content format that they’ve created, and I could easily see it being one of the preferred ways to preserve gaming history and tell its story in a way that only video games could do.

While the slate of classic content here might not be as dense as other compilations in Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master Series, everything included in Tetris Forever easily justifies its more than reasonable asking price. This compilation is easily one of the best I’ve played and experienced in quite a while. Which makes for an easy reccommendation for anyone interested in doing a deep dive into one of the premier lynchpins of the industry. It’s not a perfect compilation, but it’s damned close.

~ Final Score: 9/10 ~

Review code provided by Digital Eclipse for Switch. Screenshots taken by reviewer. Featured image courtesy of Digital Eclipse