Developer: Atari Publisher: Tengen Release: 05/89 Genre: Puzzle
History is written by the victor. Atari under their Tengen brand were the first to bring Tetris to home consoles. But legal trouble with Nintendo took it off the market before it could reach the mass market. I only played it briefly on a rental back in the day and thought nothing of it when the game disappeared. Unless you are a big video game nerd chances are you have either never heard of or played Tetяis. If you are lucky enough to spot a copy out and about do snap it up. It remains a great version of a legendary video game classic to this day.
Tetяis is a game lost to time. This version was the first released on the NES as Atari were the creators of the arcade game it is based on. As such they naturally ported it to Nintendo’s grey box. However Nintendo had already negotiated a deal for the exclusive rights to the console version. Combined with the fact that Tengen were not an officially licensed third party it meant the game was taken off the market a month after release with most copies destroyed. While there are still copies in the wild you will pay an arm and a leg for it. That is a damn shame as it is a great game.
Tetяis is largely based on the arcade game and as such has different rules. Levels only increase every thirty lines you clear. At that point you receive your point bonuses and the game continues. After level five it rises every fifty lines instead. Instead of 29 levels Tetяis tops at 17 but by that point you will have created so many lines it is almost similar. Thirty or fifty lines gives you more room to create doubles, triples, or Tetrises to increase your point bonus at the end of each “level”. It also gives the game a more relaxed pace as you will not have to deal with the speed increase as often.
Although the two games are obviously similar the feel of both versions of Tetris is different. Pieces only rotate left and as such forces you to think ahead of time. The overall pace of the pieces falling is slow and even at higher levels it does not feel unbearable. The tuning of the falling speed is one of the reasons this version does not have as steep a difficulty curve. There is no hard dropping of pieces and they immediately lock in place but that makes little difference. As I cut my teeth on Nintendo’s game with its vicious curve around level 9 this edition feels like a cake walk. I am an average Tetris player and achieved respectable scores routinely. I wonder which version players would gravitate toward if both games were on the market?
As silly as it sounds Nintendo’s version of Tetris nails the visuals and player feedback better. The Atari version has specific colors for each block. However once they lock they become the same uniform color. Each level of the other Tetris has its own set of colors that offer some visual variety. There are five music tracks to the three in the Nintendo game. But they are not as good or memorable. The arrangements of Russian folk music does a lot to liven up the game even if the majority of players are not aware of their origin. Getting a Tetris or clearing multiple lines has little fanfare but at least you get a little celebration for every level you reach. While minor these little details enhance the experience although in the long run the variety of content on offer makes up for it.
While Tetяis is not as aesthetically pleasing as its Nintendo counterpart it is more feature complete and offers a variety of modes that are insanely fun. Two–player competitive matches would have been more than enough but Tengen went above and beyond. Aside from playing against a friend you can also compete against the AI. The computer is dumb and does not put up much of a fight but I appreciate the option. The game also has cooperative modes as well. Coop Tetris sounds like a nightmare however it is insanely fun. Working around a partner is equal parts frustrating and challenging but also compelling. I freely admit I am not the greatest Tetris player so in coop I am a liability. But for the brief time I got to play this back in the day I enjoyed it immensely. I question why it has not been brought back.
In Closing
Tetяis is oft forgotten but a great version of a classic. Of course the comparison to Nintendo’s version is unavoidable and in that Atari’s game is superior in many ways. The different modes give the game a lot of life and the easygoing pace means even the worst Tetris players can rack up a decent score. It is just too bad you will probably have to sell a kidney to afford it.
