Tetris; a "Formally Written" review.

I've finally done up a small review of Tetris for my blog, read on, enjoy(maybe) and my references will be at the bottom of the page as soon as I figure out how to put the weekly readings into Zotero so I don't have to type them all out. It's a lengthy thing, scratching the 1500 word limit so grab a cup of tea and read on.

----------------------------------

I’m going to review Tetris, which was developed by a Russian lad named Alexey Pajitov and released on virtually every platform possible, and is known best for its 1989 Game Boy variation. However the game was first made and released in the USSR in 1984 before it came to the states and the rest of the world.

First; Tetris is a very simple game where blocks fall down from the sky in no specific pattern and you are left to the whim of the almighty Tetris God as he decides whether or not you’re worthy of scoring points, losing or not. It’s an epic struggle in other words. You’re supposed to utilise these “Tetrominoes” to create a row at the bottom of the screen, and if you’re successful then the row will vanish and you’ll be rewarded with points. It’s possible to use this strategically and maybe create imperfect rows and then eliminate them all at once for a combo to score some massive points. To do this you have seven different tetrominoes, a 2x2 square, an L shape and an upside-down L shape, a squiggly line and a reversed squiggly both resembling an S and a Z, a T shape and a four square line piece (which is infamous for falling when you don’t need it). You are playing the almighty tetromino manipulator and as such you are given the ability to rotate the tetrominoes into any position which is beneficial to you or the opposite if you make a mistake or miscalculation.

As you complete rows and score points while listening to a jolly and easily recognisable USSR tune, you move forward in terms of difficulty levels but this transition between levels doesn’t break the flow of the game up, instead it’s not really noticeable until it’s already happened. When a player is on a higher level, then the Tetris blocks fall down faster and faster still on higher levels, this creates a panicky atmosphere where the player often loses control of his tetrominoes and ends up placing them incorrectly.

As you can see from my little summary (if you don’t see it then I’m doing it wrong), this game utilises elements of chance as well as a form of struggle.

I’ve previously mentioned how the blocks fall from the air above in a completely random order, this is where the chance element comes in to the game. No one knows what block will come down, all you know is that it’s not going to be a line piece and that you have to plan ahead for any circumstances. The player must be prepared for anything that falls down from the sky, in his rows he must leave openings for any situation.

But because of this chance element in the game, the game becomes significantly more lasting. It is because every time you play the game, you’ll never run into the same combination of blocks falling down from the sky at once. Of course, a squiggly might be followed by a square tetromino every now and then, however in all the blocks are completely random, so your strategy for placing blocks must change every time. This makes the game more engaging and active; the player is forced to think quickly as the blocks begin to fall down faster than the speed of sound and pressure the player into making snap decisions a lot of the time. However as I said before, you’ll be expecting to see a lot of line pieces when you don’t want them, however this is nothing more than a myth amongst Tetris players.

Struggle in Tetris is presented to the players in the form of spacial segmentation. As the player advances through the game, he advances through the levels of the game and in higher levels the blocks fall faster, which presents a struggle for the player to respond to these fast falling tetrominoes.

Other than that the other part of the struggle lies in the strategic placing of the tetrominoes, or rather it’s not the placing but however it’s because of the element of chance in this game, which presents the struggle. It’s the struggle of not knowing what to expect from the next two few tetrominoes, which adds pressure for the player to adapt through his struggle and create faster reflexes for himself so he can survive the Tetris-apocalypse.

To overcome the struggle, perceivable consequences could be used to create tactics against the random elements of the game. For example; I mentioned a tactic previously that some players might use. A player might build rows without closing in a row of gaps until a line piece comes along to fill the large gap for the player to get a lot of points. This can score the player a large amount of points at once to help him venture into higher levels. This can, of course, be used more strategically; spaces can be left open for other shapes that you don’t expect, or spaces can be left open for shapes that appear to be more frequent. By using perceivable consequences that you gained from playing the game before you are able to develop tactics against the random nature of the game.

While there is no story in the game, there is a lot of player driven narrative, that is, the story of the players past experience in the game. “A player secured some points after eliminating a row of tetrominoes.” It’s as good as that. However to make up for the lack of actual story in the original game, players can always use their imagination. I’ve certainly been doing so all the way though this review, I find it more enjoyable to create your own story and reason for playing the game. But, of course, without a sort of story narrative in the game, you’ve no goal to accomplish. While you yourself are playing while knowing that you’re supposed to build rows of blocks and the collapse them, you don’t know why you’re doing it.

Yes, the absence of a goal in the game is certainly a downfall and definitely something that will put off a lot of players, I mean, a lot of other retro games like Jumpman had a goal. You had to climb the ladders to beat Donkey Kong and rescue your woman, simple as. In Tetris you get nothing other than “If you win you should start again” that is if there is indeed a “Win” in the original game. In it’s various other incarnations such as the NES version of Tetris, there was a “Win” state and you could see all the different Nintendo characters dancing around with what appears to be a Russian castle in the background blowing up to some cheerful music, but that was it. You didn’t even know it was there until you completed the game. Was the goal of that incarnation of Tetris to destroy a Russian palace in a very gunpowder-plotty-sort of way?

 In the end the player will create his own narrative and Goal, like myself for example; when I was a child and I played Tetris I always imagined that I was actually the worst builder ever, and my goal was to build a perfect row of bricks and then destroy them just to spite my boss. It’s this kind of sick imagination that could make the game fun without a clear goal or narrative.

However when it comes down to it, when there is no goal in the game there is no need for the players struggle because if the player struggles through the game and receives no reward, he’ll be pretty peeved at the game.

However the game does not cease to be fun, the player plays the game because he finds it mentally stimulating and engaging without adding anything extra onto it that might not be needed, like characters or villains or something that you’d find in a JRPG. To create the fun in the game, it presents Sensation, Challenge, Submission, Discovery and Fellowship to the player and as the player plays the game he will surely discover other things that make a game fun. Changing his tactics, getting advice from other players, challenging other players to a contest to see who can get the most points or get to the highest level. This is all part of the fun of Tetris, and undisputable fun it is.

When all of these elements of Tetris come together they make for a really fun game that everyone speaks highly of, and the words are not just words, however they are the collected opinions of the people of the gaming world. If everyone thinks that Tetris is a fun game, then perhaps it’s true? Well it certainly makes it popular however, if it’s a good game or not is not for one individual to decide.