– https://youtu.be/_uUwSLALfs0?t=338
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Wordtris was the one SNES game my dad bought for himself. While I’m not sure it’s accurate to consider him a gamer, he (and technically mom) did get an Atari 2600 as a wedding present, and his game collection, by the time I got to play it, was a fairly respectable one. One of the things he did with one of our first family computers was install versions of games like Centipede and other games of that generation, so he’s obviously got some affection for that particular era. Writing this, I really want to ask him what got him to stop playing games, and what got him to try this particular one.
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Tetris Forever is kinda bad.
It’s a collection of pretty much just Tetris games from Bulletproof, most of them mediocre to bad. They’re good for historical demonstrations but they’re extremely unfun to play.
The documentary clips are boring and I honestly don’t trust a single word out of Henk Rogers’s mouth. He has such a scummy “conman” vibe to him.
Also it glosses over major events in the history of Tetris just because BPS/TTC had nothing to do with them.
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The entire middle portion of this is a trip, and not just because of how many 15-year-old forum posts it cites
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That was not the runtime I expected clicking play.
this one was at least originally put out as a series
I think “masochistic hyperspecialized” is a bit much, the nuances between TGM and other Tetris games are technical and not readily apparent but, as the video shows, they’ve A. always had the default mode be a simpler/traditional tetris, B. Post guideline included those rules as option (or default) The tetris license being, effectively, a gameplay system rather than branding, I think Arika would be in no danger of not appealing to the general Tetris audience with a home port, just in danger of not having the cash to market it. It’s not like the Ubisoft/THQ/etc. releases are innovations of casual tetris gameplay design.
I would actually say Mihara is very much to blame because the paranoia about copyright theft and taking down any associated videos or content that isn’t proven to be streamed off an actual board is the exact thing that stifles an audience in it’s tracks. Especially for something reliant on (effectively) an arcade/esports audience that obligates a community to introduce others into it and explain why this isn’t identical to any other tetris game.
Tetris 99 could also be called “masochistic hyperspecialized” (aggressive, 99% of people lose, by arika) but It had publicity + funding + and it did find an audience, moreso than Pac-Man 99 (rip beloved). redemptive latter half of the video also, is basically that community members/events were able to publicize it in a way that (generally) utilized actual boards and people who saw it were interested. Personally I lean towards, yeah, copyright paranoid self-sabotage, rather than there not being any possible market.
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I don’t know, on some level, while Mihara and Henk Rogers have blame in this, the fact is in the West, the default mode of Tetris is the Game Boy version and the various BPS follow-ups and the Sega ruleset mostly stayed in Japan so by the time TGM came around, it would have been an uphill battle to get acceptance in an audience whose tastes had been largely calcified and by the time TGM could have had a chance to appeal to perverts around the world, we were deep in Tetris Holdings having final say on what Tetris is
at the same time, Arika made plenty of Tetris games that were outright for general audiences and their ruleset was used in a globally released, Disney-licensed Tetris video game so I find the idea that people would reject, at the very least, the base system somewhat laughable
which is to say, it’s easy to armchair quarterback this with hindsight
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As a Sega superfan, I love to inform people that this version of Tetris, Tetris Dekaris, has a soundtrack composed by the composer of Hang-On/After Burner/Outrun/Space Harrier except it’s all idol music with lyrics by the creator of Segagaga. It’s such a delightful thing to think about:
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Coming from the opposite side of Tetris as a Sega fan, I love to show the unique aspects of Sega Tetris. Did you know Sega Tetris has its own theme song that shows up in every Sega-made or Sega-related Tetris game? It’s called TETREMIX
From the 1988 Sega developed arcade game:
From the cancelled 1989 Genesis/Mega Drive port:
As a cheeky ref in the 1990 Game Gear Columns port:
From the 1996 Sega Saturn Tetris S:
From the 1999 Sega Tetris for Naomi and Dreamcast:
Basiscape did a cover in 2006’s PS2 Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol.28 Tetris: New Century:
From 2014’s Puyo Puyo Tetris 1:
A great remix in Puyo Puyo Tetris 1:
it’s such a crime they never put this in the later PPT games!! I sometimes fire up PPT1 just to hear this
From 2019 Sega Mega Drive Mini’s new port of Sega Tetris:
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There’s also an official beautiful Tetremix album from 1989:
Blind Spot, the former Sega Sound Team that later made a new band post-Sega, did a live cover in 2017/2018:
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Despite being a Tetris game made by Sega, Tetris Dekaris does not feature Tetremix but does feature Korobeiniki, which kind of unfortunately makes it a Nintendo Tetris:
Anyway, that’s all the Tetremixes I can think of. I’m sure they’re hidden in more Sega games! Tell me if you know of any!
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This is the story Tetris Forever refuses to tell.
Have any of you guys ever played Famicom Tetris?
Notably not NES Tetris which was made in house by Nintendo, I’m talking about Bulletproof Software’s Famicom Tetris.
The control scheme is alien and hilarious, and I recommend going in blind and trying it just to see how quickly you make a mistake.
If you don’t want to do that, here are the controls:
Controls spoiler
D-pad left and right - Move piece
D-pad down - Rotate piece
A - Hard drop
B - Unused
It’s frustrating and bizarre.
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I have this on cart! got it pretty cheaply a while back. it’s uhh…interesting. the NES version is more enjoyable to play, but it’s an interesting artifact of Nintendo rushing to put out a home console version of the game
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