Tetris (NES video game)

This article is about the official Nintendo game. For the unofficial Tengen game, see Tetris (Atari). For the Famicom game, see List of Tetris variants.

Tetris
File:Tetris NES cover art.jpg North American box art
Developer(s)	Nintendo R&D1
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Producer(s)	Gunpei Yokoi
Composer(s)	Hirokazu Tanaka
Series	Tetris
Platforms	Nintendo Entertainment System
Release date(s)	NA: November 1989 EU: February 23, 1990
Genre(s)	Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single-player

Tetris (also referred to as Classic Tetris) is a puzzle video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) released in 1989, based on Tetris (1984) by Alexey Pajitnov. It is the first official console release of Tetris to have been developed and published by Nintendo. It was released after two earlier NES versions of Tetris, an official Family Computer version released by Bullet-Proof Software in Japan in December 1988, and an unofficial Atari version released by Tengen in North America in May 1989.

Gameplay

See also: Tetris § Gameplay

File:Tetris NES play.png

A-Type game

This version of Tetris has two modes of play: A-Type and B-Type. In A-Type play, the goal is to achieve the highest score possible. As lines are cleared, the level will advance and increase the speed of the falling blocks. At the beginning of a B-Type game, the board starts with randomized obstacle blocks and the goal is to clear 25 lines. In B-Type, the level remains constant, and the player chooses the height of the obstacle beforehand.

During play, the tetriminoes are chosen randomly. This leaves open the possibility of extended periods with no long bar pieces, which are essential because tetrises are worth many points more than lesser line clearings. The next piece to fall is shown in a preview window next to the play field. In a side panel, the game tracks statistics of how many of each tetrimino appeared.

In A-Type, the level advances for every 10 lines cleared. Each successive level increases the points scored by line clears and changes the colors of the game pieces. Some levels also increase the speed of the falling pieces. In particular, level 29 represents a tremendous increase in the falling speed, which typically results in the game ending almost immediately. Level 29 is often called the "kill screen", although in recent years skilled players have progressed beyond level 29. When starting a game, the player can select a starting level from 0 to 19. When starting on a later level, the level is not supposed to advance until as many lines have been cleared as it would have taken to advance from level 0 to the starting level. Due to a bug, the levels will begin advancing earlier than intended when starting on level 11 or higher.

File:Moscow StBasilCathedral d28.jpg

Saint Basil's Cathedral appears in the title screen and ending, alluding to the Soviet origin of Tetris.

At the end of an A-Type game, a substantial score yields an animated ending of a rocket launch in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral. The size of the rocket depends on the score, ranging from a bottle rocket to the Buran spaceplane. In the best ending, a UFO appears on the launch pad and the cathedral lifts off. After a high-level B-Type game, various Nintendo characters perform in front of the cathedral.

Development

See also: Tetris § Acquisition of rights by Nintendo and legal battle

By 1989, about six companies claimed rights to create and distribute the Tetris software for home computers, game consoles, and handheld systems. ELORG, the Soviet bureau that held the ultimate copyright, held that none of the companies were legally entitled to produce an arcade version, and signed those rights over to Atari Games. Non-Japanese console and handheld rights were signed over to Nintendo. Tetris was shown at the January 1988 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where it was picked up by Dutch-born American games publisher Henk Rogers, then based in Japan. This eventually led to an agreement brokered with Nintendo that saw Tetris bundled with every Game Boy. The Nintendo home release was developed by Gunpei Yokoi.

The game's code includes an unfinished and inaccessible two-player versus mode, which sends rows of garbage blocks (with one opening) to the bottom of the opponent's board when lines are cleared. This feature may have been scrapped due to a rushed development schedule, or to promote sales of the Game Link Cable which enables a two-player mode in Nintendo's Game Boy Tetris.

Music

The soundtrack was written by Nintendo composer Hirokazu Tanaka, who also scored the Game Boy version. Focusing on Russian classical music, the soundtrack features arrangements of "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker and the overture from Georges Bizet's opera Carmen. The former replaces the arrangement of "Korobeiniki", present in the Game Boy version, which has become strongly associated with Tetris.

Reception

Reception
Review score Publication Score AllGame

In its first six months of release by 1990, Nintendo's NES version of Tetris had sales of 1.5 million copies totaling $52 million (equivalent to $99.3 million in 2021), surpassing Spectrum HoloByte's versions for personal computers at 150,000 copies for $6 million (equivalent to $12 million in 2021) in the previous two years since 1988. As of 2004, the NES version had sales of 8 million copies worldwide.

IGN noted that "almost everyone" regarded Nintendo's Tetris as inferior to Atari's Tetris, which was pulled from shelves due to licensing issues.

Legacy

Tetris & Dr. Mario (1994) features an enhanced remake of Tetris. Tetris Effect: Connected (2020) includes a game mode that simulates Tetris's rules and visuals.

In 2009, Harry Hong became the first independently verified person to achieve the maximum score of 999,999 points, known as a max-out score. Earlier plausible but unverified max-out scores were claimed by Thor Aackerlund c. 1990 and Jonas Neubauer c. 2002.

Competitive play

See also: Classic Tetris World Championship

The 1990 Nintendo World Championships were based on A-Type Tetris, Super Mario Bros., and Rad Racer. In each round, contestants were given a total of six minutes to score as much as possible across all three games. As the Tetris score would be multiplied 25 times in the final tally, the prevailing strategy was to immediately exit the other two games to spend all available time in Tetris.

Since 2010, the NES version of Tetris has been featured in the annual Classic Tetris World Championship. It has a 1-on-1 competition to score the most points. Specialized cartridges give both competitors the same piece sequence.

Hypertapping

The speed at which a game piece moves horizontally when the D-pad is held can be increased by instead repeatedly tapping the D-pad, a technique called "hypertapping". Since 2018, this technique has been heavily utilized in Tetris tournaments. For hypertapping to be a viable strategy, the D-pad must be tapped at a speed of at least 10 times per second. One way that players exceed this speed is by flexing the biceps until their arm tremors, allowing the thumb to tap the D-pad extremely rapidly.

The success of hypertapping has inspired young people to acquire NES consoles to play Tetris competitively. In contrast to the older playerbase of past tournaments, every world champion since 2018 has been a child below age 18 who used the hypertapping technique.