Recycled Gaming

When the Game Boy’s Tetris (the original version of the classic) first showed its face to the world in 1989, it sent a shockwave throughout the globe and almost every gaming soul was instantly hooked on it.

I remember playing it for the first time while it was on display at the local Target store and I couldn’t believe what happened. I fell in love with the game right away.

It wasn’t because the blocks were good looking; it was the fact that guiding shapely blocks around a boxed-in area and making rows disappear was just that damn addicting. This was puzzling because I had never been that big of a fan of puzzle games, and I’m still not, with the exception of Rampart for the NES and SNES.

First off, there are four different species of blocky shapes that fall down from the top of the screen. Each of the four varieties consists of four blocks that are arranged together to form a certain shape such as a straight line, a perfectly square box, three segments in a straight line with one block jutting out on one side, and some that have two pairs of blocks put together with one pair being slightly higher or lower than the other. With all of the shapes except for the square boxes, you can press A or B on your Game Boy to force them to rotate around to a different position.

Before you even think about changing the block’s shape, you must first choose exactly where you want to place it on the playing field below. When both hemispheres of your brain come together as one and decide precisely where to put a piece, you just have to move it left or right, and then wait for it to fall in place or press down if you’re feeling a bit impatient. (more…)