Tetris Forever review

Digital Eclipse, the developer behind Tetris Forever, has been doing a cracking job with their beautifully curated trawls through video game history, as you would expect given the team’s rich tradition of working with retro ports and updates. You will see from our recent interview how passionate they are about the subject matter of this, the latest in the Gold Master Series that takes a documentary-led look at the timelines of important franchises, this time choosing the timeless mega-phenomenon that is Tetris.

What you get with Tetris Forever is a sumptuous package that features a huge amount of content, taking in a 90 minute documentary involving key figures in the development of the classic puzzler, including super-interesting outsider Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers, a treasure trove of artwork, interviews, historical adverts and photographs, and of course a great big bunch of Tetris variants from over the years.

The titles included are fascinating and surprisingly varied. You can play the original Pajitnov vision of the block-stacking mainstay which as originally put together on arcane Russian micro the Electronika 60.

If you fancy trying to decipher it, this can even be played in Russian, not that language was ever really a barrier for what is a universally understood concept. It will be jarring to most Western gamers that the versions of Tetris that we are most familiar with – namely the NES and Gameboy originals – are not included in Tetris Forever, but there is a sneaky approximation of the Nintendo version tucked away elsewhere, more of which later.

Pajitnov may be the poster boy for all things Tetris, but this package for me serves more as a love letter to the unsung work of Henk Rogers and his Bullet-Proof Software. They published and developed some interesting and idiosyncratic takes on the source material that dared to try something different. Hatris replaced the angular blocks with hats, and is a far better game than the sales back in the day demonstrated. Bombliss introduced explosives into the mix and is a similarly engaging take on things.

Super Tetris 3 has a trio of interesting modes – namely Sparkliss (like Bombliss but with orthogonal explosions), Magicaliss (multicoloured blocks which can be matched in a Puyo Puyo/Columns style), and Familiss (multiplayer Tetris with 7 column-wide playfield). But perhaps the best game on the compilation is the criminally Japan-only character-led Super Famicom title Tetris Battle Gaiden from 1993. A fave of importers on the down-low for years, this is very much in the same vein as Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo and is great fun against the menagerie of cartoony CPU foes or indeed couch multiplayer, with the kanji negotiable with minimum fuss.

New to the table is Tetris Time Warp, which features multiplayer for up to four contestants, and has a unique time-travel mechanic where after clearing a certain number of lines you get whisked back to a different era of Tetris. This could be Bombliss, the ancient Electronika version, or, crucially, a take called “1989”, which is to all intents and purposes the Nintendo version that we are all most familiar with. Winningly you can also pick this one from the main menu.

The main drawback of Tetris Forever was always going to be the omissions, which for legal reasons was inevitable. There have been some pretty cool 3D stabs at the game, as well as a bevy of licensed tie-ins and the many excellent Nintendo versions. And one could argue that Tetris 99 is perhaps the pinnacle of the series in modern times, and available for free. But as a history lesson, a superbly put together package, and an eye opening documentary with some genuinely fascinating footage on show, this is well worth picking up.