Tetris (NES)

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Tetris is a Nintendo Entertainment System puzzle game developed by Nintendo R&D1 and released by Nintendo in 1989. It was released a few months after the Game Boy version.

In 2024, Nintendo announced to rerelease it for the first time on Nintendo Switch Online on December 12th, 2024.^[1] This is also the first time Japan gets it due to having their own version.

Gameplay[]

This implementation 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 game 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.

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 blasts off into space. After a high-level B-Type game, various Nintendo characters perform in front of the cathedral. These cameos include Pit, Link, Samus Aran, Donkey Kong, King Koopa, Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach.

Music[]

This variant of Tetris uses at least two songs: The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker Ballet and the Toreador Song. They were used for Music 1 and the win screen, respectively.

Development and release[]

Nintendo acquired the rights to publish console versions of Tetris directly from Elorg.^[2] This version of Tetris was after a legal battle between Nintendo and Tengen.

Legacy[]

This was the Tetris version used in the Classic Tetris World Championships.

This game was featured on the cover of Nintendo Power volume 9 in 1989.

Reception[]

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 $109 million in 2020), surpassing Spectrum HoloByte's versions for personal computers at 150,000 copies for $6 million (equivalent to $13.1 million in 2020) in the previous two years since 1988. As of 2004, the NES version had sales of 8 million copies worldwide.

See also[]

• Tetris
• Tetris 99

References[]

External links[]

• Tetris at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Tetris at GameFAQs
• Tetris at MobyGames