Tetris DS

Name: Tetris DS
Genre: Puzzle
Platform: Nintendo DS 

I have a theory. I believe that some games tap into a part of the brain that otherwise remains unused. It has to do with problem solving on a level that no one would need in their day-to-day lives.

The first game to do so was Tetris. Who hasn’t played Tetris for a few hours only to turn it off and continue playing it in their head? Something about puzzle games breaks open that part of the brain and makes it so you can literally close your eyes and see blocks fall; playing Tetris for however long you wish in your mind.

Tetris started as a game made by a Russian computer programmer named Alexey Pajitnov. However, this was in a different time: The Cold War. The greedy, fire breathing communists took the rights to Tetris away from him and sold it out to random companies and messed with licensing.

Over 20 years later you have the most addictive game of all time. I could review the new Nintendo DS Tetris, or the original, but instead I will review the concept of Tetris as a whole. It is easily the best game of all time by any standards put forth. It is fun, easy to learn, addictive, the music is fantastic and reminds me of “Hava Nagila” far too much.

YOU BE THE JUDGE

It started as simple roots and was released for the Gameboy, then the Nintendo, then…well, you would be hard pressed to find a single platform capable of supporting Tetris that it hasn’t been played on.

The game has continually changed itself to different times. When multiplayer games became larger, so did Tetris’s multiplayer. Once the internet became a haven for gaming with strangers someone coded Tetrinet, which was a free version of Tetris that let you play with people online. Tetrinet and other multiplayer games lead to the Nintendo DS version which supported online games as well as local area games with up to eight people. Not only did the game grow with multiplayer support, but the addition of items to either harm your opponents or help yourself just added to the already addictive mix.