Tetris Forever

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Tetris has long been called “the perfect game” by many, a designation I wouldn’t argue against, and there’s no denying its staying power. Since first being developed in communist Russia on the evening of the collapse of the Soviet Union (some say the game helped end the Cold War, right up there with Rocky IV) we’ve seen Tetris become a cultural juggernaut with endless iterations, spin-offs, reimaginings, books, more books, and chicken nuggets. Even last year’s Taron Egerton-starring Tetris movie was mostly reverential, despite its ludicrous high-speed chase scene through the streets of Moscow.

Just shy of the game’s 40th anniversary next year comes Digital Eclipse with the latest addition to their incredible Gold Master Series of interactive documentaries with Tetris Forever, a title that’s both factual and inspirational, a reminder that Tetris is probably the one game that you’ve played, your parents probably played, and your children’s children will still be playing long after you’ve shuffled off this mortal coil.

via YouTube

While recent entries in the series have laser-focused on individual personalities and their most famous creations, most notably The Making of Karateka’s Jordan Mechner (Prince of Persia) and Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story about (who else?) the iconic British developer, Tetris Forever pulls double-duty by detailing not just the wild history of the game itself, tracing its lineage from a Soviet-era Electronika 60 computer to its ubiquitous presence on any platform that will have it (DOOM has pregnancy tests but can you play it on buildings?), but that of the special relationship between Alexey Pajitnov, its creator, and Henk Rogers, the man who would sell Tetris to the world.

We learn it was Pajitnov’s love of mathematics, specifically his love for the game of Polyominoes, that occupied his thoughts while he toiled away as a programmer on speech recognition at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre in Moscow. It would be the tetromino specifically that would inspire him to create what the world now calls Tetris, the name itself a portmanteau of “tetra” (four) and tennis, Pajitnov’s favorite game. Fun fact: the popular domino is itself a polyomino, one limited to just two squares. Knowledge truly is power.

Elsewhere on the timeline are fascinating trivia and knowledge bits about the game, its creators, as well as those inspired by it. It made me incredibly happy to see Jaleco’s incredible Tetris Plus get a mention. It was also wonderful to see so much attention paid to Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his landmark Tetris Effect, which we only get to see and not play (of course).

Speaking of Nintendo, the company gets the lion’s share of content here, which isn’t surprising given how intertwined the cultures of its Russian, Japanese, and American parts have become. Not only is the famous story of how Rogers would secure the home console (and subsequent mobile) rights for Tetris from deep within Mother Russia fully recounted here, but there’s lots of behind-the-scenes footage from inside the walls of Nintendo’s typically secretive workspaces recorded by Henk Rogers himself.

As we’ve come to expect from other Gold Master games, the interactive timeline returns in all its glory, still the best and most entertaining way to present material like this. You’ll navigate a treasure trove of exclusive video interviews, historical image galleries, factoids, inspirational quotes, promotional materials, and so much more. Your progress is tracked via an addictive little “swoosh” after viewing material, and also displayed on the main hub. Will you be able to collect 100 percent of each timeline?

Yes, it all amounts to a giant commercial for the Tetris Company, and its three main employees, but it’s an enjoyable commercial I don’t mind spending time with. And, of course, you’ll be able to interact directly with many of the games discussed as they’re discussed thanks to the instant play feature when it’s available.

There’s a bountiful selection of Tetris and Tetris-adjacent games that can be played as you progress throughout the timeline or accessed outright. Given the number of different versions, permutations, and spinoffs including them all would be a logistical challenge, but the 19 playable games here (some Tetris, some not Tetris at all) include: versions of Hatris, Tetris Battle Gaiden, Super Tetris 2 + BomBliss, Super Tetris 3, Super Bombliss, and more. Many have never been released outside of Japan before.

Even Henk Rogers’ Igo: Kyuu Roban Taikyoku, his digital Go game for the Famicom that helped convince Nintendo’s Hiroshi Yamauchi (a rabid Go player) to let Bullet-Proof Software publish games on the Nintendo console, opening up a window for Tetris. The NES version of Tetris isn’t playable, not surprising given how Nintendo-loaded it was, but its Famicom cousin is.

The real surprise of the playable titles is Tetris Time Warp, an exclusive new game made for this collection which matches familiar Tetris play with a killer concept: time travel! After making ten lines a special tetromino will drop, and completing a line with that piece temporarily warps you to three different eras (1984, 1989 or 1993) of Tetris. Given how much the gameplay and aesthetics have changed over the decades this twist is bound to play havoc on gamers with muscle memory trained on certain iterations of Tetris. To soft drop or not to soft drop?

The game supports up to four players battling it out, but I was unable to test this madness for myself. Overall, Tetris Time Warp feels more like a prototype than a fully fleshed out experience, but it’s still a very fun idea I’d love to see given a deeper look.

More than anything else, it’s the close relationship between Alexey Pajitnov, with his amazing Tetris-themed sports jackets and t-shirts, and Henk Rogers, now looking exactly like a Hayao Miyazaki doppelganger, that steals the show. Friends to this day, hearing them reminisce about maneuvering the game outside the Iron Curtain or watching Alexey play with his wooden set of pantomimes while explaining the logic of transferring the physical to digital is heartwarming and inspiring. Make no mistake, listening to Alexey and Henk talk about eating sushi is adorable.

If I were to have any gripes it would be to suggest allowing users who’d completed 100 percent of every timeline an easier way to review the videos, especially as so many are pretty short and are over before you know it. As much as I love and appreciate the interactive timeline, having all the videos on-demand (and in one place) would make sharing this incredible story with others who might never “play” a lot easier.

Conclusion

Is Tetris really the “perfect” videogame? Probably, though the amount of revisions, alterations, and variations that have come along since Alexey Pajitnov’s original Soviet-era ASCII version would prove the old adage true that perfection is less a destination and more the journey itself. Tetris Forever continues to prove that nobody treats the legacy of these games – and their creators – better than Digital Eclipse, and is another outstanding addition to their Gold Master Series of interactive documentaries. If nothing else, it’s a compelling argument that maybe Tetris really is forever.