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Into the Past: Tetris and How the Pieces Fell Into Place

We take a look back at the rich handheld history of Pajitnov's classic.

How could someone as simple as one man craft such an elegant time-waster that would take up hours, nay, days and weeks with such a simple puzzle structure? Simple. When you're a genius like Alexei Pajitnov, and when you create Tetris, that's how.

It was way back in the 80's that we were first introduced to Pajitnov's labor of love, a skill-based game revolving around a number of odd shapes that you had to stack together to form lines to eliminate from a limited playfield. It used to be all the rage for personal computers, like Macintosh and such, but the system found its overall popularity rocket to a new high thanks to a partnership with Nintendo.

In 1989, Nintendo lauched a handheld machine called the Game Boy, a lime-green screen handheld system with limited visuals, but a comfortable control scheme similar to that of the NES pad, as well as a lengthy battery life, for the time. With it, they launched a calvacade of classic games, including HAL's Revenge of the Gator pinball game and Super Mario Land, a pint sized take on the Mario legacy. But it was Tetris that would end up being a pivotal release for the handheld, selling on a nearly one-to-one basis with systems.

That's because of the simple yet addictive nature of the game. Nintendo didn't take the Tengen way out in terms of design (which, by the way, was too bad for the NES build- Tengen's was better), but kept things on a simple plateau, with intense one-player action backed by a rising challenge level and cheesy Russian tunes. The game was a big hit for the Game Boy, making it a popular item for the '89 Christmas season- even moreso than the NES for that year.

Nintendo and Pajitnov reteamed in 1998 for yet another version of Tetris, this time being Tetris DX for Nintendo's next handheld, the Game Boy Color. Utilziing a colorful palette and the same great gameplay, it continued to be a gigantic hit with audiences, and almost again sold on a one-to-one basis with every Game Boy Color system that managed to fly out the door. Once again, simple design won the day thanks to the structure of the gameplay.

But it wasn't always this way. In 1993, Nintendo tried to do a slight change with the formula with their release of Tetris 2 for the NES and Game Boy, and, surprisingly, disaster struck. The ability to break apart pieces and adding complication in terms of specific line structures broke free from the gameplay that had worked so well over the years, and the result saw good sales, but a lot of complaints that made people feel a bit irksome about the whole formula. Fortunately, the feeling would not last.

The Tetris era from Nintendo's end kind of skipped out on the Game Boy Advance, although, in 2001, THQ tried their luck with a Tetris title of their own, Tetris Worlds. The results, however, ended up being even more broken than anything Nintendo could have done, thanks to gameplay being altered yet again to fit a storyline and a lackluster presentation. Fortunately, Nintendo would have the last laugh down the road for their Nintendo DS.

In 2006, Nintendo unleashed Tetris DS for the Nintendo DS, unleashing their flavor of Tetris back onto the public and, for a change, added a few extra features that were actually quite helpful to the build. First off, the game featured Wi-Fi support for nationwide play over Internet servers, allowing gamers to hook up against each other in competitive battles. There were also a bevy of new modes introduced, including a "Touch" mode where you shifted puzzle pieces into place using the Nintendo DS stylus. Finally, the game featured a number of classic Nintendo characters, including Mario, Link, and more from the NES era, providing a personal touch that neither Tengen nor THQ could ever achieve. Nintendo had struck gold once again.

It's fascinating that the history of handheld Tetris has come so far, even incorporating online play and an actually helpful contribution to keep things fresh, all while the core gameplay remains just as lively as it's ever been. Hopefully, with whatever Nintendo's got around the corner, we'll see a version of Pajitnov's masterpiece that's certainly up to the task.