Editing Tetris

|release='''Game Boy:'''<br>{{flag list|Japan|June 14, 1989<ref>{{cite|author=Nintendo|title=ゲームボーイ|url=www.nintendo.co.jp/n02/dmg/index.html|publisher=Nintendo (official Japanese site)|language=Japanese|accessdate=November 27, 2024|archive=web.archive.org/web/19970128181113/http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n02/dmg/index.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite|title=テトリス（TETRIS） (ゲームボーイ)|url=https://www.famitsu.com/cominy/?m=pc&a=page_h_title&title_id=13820|publisher=Famitsu|language=Japanese|accessdate=November 27, 2024|archive=web.archive.org/web/20121028061044/http://www.famitsu.com/cominy/?m=pc&a=page_h_title&title_id=13820}}</ref>|USA|July 31, 1989<ref>{{cite|author=Mike Minotti|date=April 21, 2014|title=25 years of the Game Boy: A timeline of the systems, accessories, and games|url=venturebeat.com/games/25-years-of-the-game-boy-a-timeline-of-the-systems-accessories-and-games/|publisher=VentureBeat|language=English|accessdate=December 12, 2024|archive=web.archive.org/web/20220905102305/http://venturebeat.com/games/25-years-of-the-game-boy-a-timeline-of-the-systems-accessories-and-games/}}</ref>|Europe|September 28, 1990}}'''Virtual Console (3DS):'''<br>{{flag list|USA|December 22, 2011|Europe|December 22, 2011|Australia|December 22, 2011|Japan|December 28, 2011}} '''Game Boy - Nintendo Switch Online:'''<br>{{flag list|USA|February 8, 2023|Japan|February 9, 2023|Europe|February 9, 2023|Australia|February 9, 2023|South Korea|February 9, 2023|HK|February 9, 2023}}

|languages={{languages|en_us=y}}

|platforms=[[Game Boy]]<br>[[Virtual Console]] ([[Nintendo 3DS|3DS]])<br>[[Game Boy - Nintendo Switch Online]]

|format={{format|gb=1|3dsdl=1|switchdl=1}}

'''''Tetris''''' is a puzzle game for the [[Game Boy]] released in 1989 in Japan and North America and 1990 in Europe. It was developed and published by [[Nintendo]] (with the rights to a Game Boy version sub-licensed from [[Bullet-Proof Software]]<ref>{{cite|quote="Tetris licensed to Bullet-Proof Software and Sub-licensed to Nintendo."|author=Boot-up screen|title=''Tetris''}}</ref>) and is directly based on {{iw|harddrop|Alexey Pajitnov}}'s original rendition of ''{{iw|harddrop|Tetris}}''. The basic gameplay involves stacking a series of {{iw|harddrop|Hard Drop Tetris Wiki:Glossary#B|blocks}} to create full rows with increasingly fast speeds. There are no ''[[Super Mario (franchise)|Super Mario]]'' elements in single-player, though two-player mode represents [[Mario]] and [[Luigi]] as the first and second player, respectively.

The goal of the game is to stack blocks into complete lines, removing them from play. All of the blocks, called {{iw|harddrop|Tetromino|Tetriminoes}}, are based on the {{wp|tetromino}}es (every geometric shape that can be created from four perfect squares). As play begins, a random Tetrimino falls to the bottom of the screen, and the player can position it and rotate it without being able to move it back up. After one is placed down, another appears, and this continues for every subsequent Tetrimino. In single-player, the player can choose from the A-Type or B-Type modes to play. In A-Type, the player selects the speed at which the Tetriminos fall, then the game begins. It continues forever<ref>{{cite|author=Breandan Vallance|url=www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe6MHRkgxR4|date=January 22, 2023|title=Gameboy Tetris maxout (999999 points)|publisher=YouTube|accessdate=June 21, 2024}}</ref> until the Tetriminos reach the top of the screen, with no more room left for them to appear. In B-Type, the goal is to {{iw|harddrop|Line clear|clear twenty-five lines}}, and both the Tetriminos' falling speed and the number of misaligned blocks that are already on-screen can be selected. Once the necessary lines have been cleared, the player is scored on their performance. If they complete B-Type with the maximum settings, a special ending plays featuring the launch of a spaceship. It does not show any ''Super Mario'' characters, unlike with the [[nwiki:Tetris (NES)|Nintendo Entertainment System version]].

In two-player mode, Mario and Luigi stack Tetriminos on separate fields. If one player clears more than one line, extra lines suddenly appear at the bottom of the other player's screen. Play continues until either one player runs out of space or one player clears at least thirty lines, at which point Mario and Luigi are seen celebrating or moping. The games then begin anew, with a cleared screen, until one player wins three times.

Though the Game Boy had four launch titles upon its Japanese release, none of them were bundled with the console. Henk Rogers of Bullet-Proof Software convinced Minoru Arakawa to bundle the Game Boy in North America and Europe with ''Tetris'' rather than ''[[Super Mario Land]]'', stating that the former would have broader appeal while the latter would only appeal to children. As he put it, "[i]f you want little boys to buy your machine include 'Mario,' but if you want everyone to buy your machine, include 'Tetris'".<ref>{{cite|author=Levy, Karyne|title=The Complicated History Of 'Tetris,' Which Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary Today.|publisher=Business Insider|date=June 6, 2014, 10:59 AM EDT|url=www.businessinsider.com/tetris-history-2014-6|accessdate=June 20, 2024}}</ref> Nintendo consequently encouraged Rogers to seek out the rights to develop a Game Boy port; since the game's creator, Alexey Pajitnov (Romanized on the game's startup screen as Alexey Pazhitnov), was an employee of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, this meant arranging a deal with the federal government of the Soviet Union itself.<ref name=mcgrawhill>{{cite|author=DeMaria, Rusel; Wilson, Johnny L.|date=December 18, 2003|title=''High Score! The Illustrated History of Electronic Video Games''|format=Second Edition|publisher=McGraw-Hill Professional|language=en|isbn=0-07-223172-6}}{{page needed}}</ref>

 

After a failed attempt at getting Robert Stein of Andromeda Software (who had previously obtained the rights for various home computer ports outside the Eastern Bloc) to work out a deal, Rogers flew out to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to meet with Pajitnov and ELORG, the Soviet Union's state-sanctioned computer company. At the same time, Nintendo contacted Spectrum HoloByte, to whom Andromeda Software previously granted the North American distribution rights, to work on the Game Boy port, leading to a legal dispute with Mirrorsoft, who owned the European rights for home computer ports.<ref name=mcgrawhill/> Eventually, Rogers learned that Stein had never actually contacted the Soviet government to obtain the international distribution rights, instead talking directly to Pajitnov (who Soviet law prohibited from owning the game),<ref>{{cite|author=Evans, David Sparks; Hagiu, Andrei; Schmalensee, Richard|date=August 18, 2006|title=''Invisible Engines: How Software Platforms Drive Innovation and Transform Industries''|format=Illustrated ed.|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=0-262-05085-4}}</ref> and worked out a deal to give Nintendo exclusive home console and handheld rights for ''Tetris''.<ref name="mcgrawhill"/> Consequently, the game's startup screen lists both Nintendo and Rogers' company, Bullet-Proof Software, as copyright holders. Rogers' efforts were later dramatized in the 2023 thriller film ''{{wp|Tetris (film)|Tetris}}''.

{|class="wikitable reviews"

!colspan="4"style="font-size:120%;text-align:center;background-color:silver"|Reviews

|"''Tetris endures. It was one of the greatest video games ever made when it first appeared back in the '80s, and it retains that status to this day. This particular version of Tetris just adds to that sense of awe, as it's inarguably the most important and nostalgic edition of the game ever published.''"

|"''To summarize the Tetris experience is to quote Maynard James Keenan of the great rock band Tool -- as I am often wont{{sic}} to do: I know the pieces fit!''"

|"''Tetris is one game that will never be forgotten, no matter how many pretenders to the thrown come and go over time. Sure, there may be some games that have actually managed to improve on the idea, but the original still stands out as one of those revolutionary games. I should not have to tell you to play this, as the majority already will have in some form or other...''"

|"''Although we're talkin' moving different shapes around and fitting them into the proper positions, Tetris stands as one of the best videogames ever made. The Game Boy would be the Game Infant without it.''"

!colspan="4"style="background-color:silver;font-size:120%;text-align:center;"|Aggregators

The popularity of ''Tetris'' was immense, to the point where the success of the Game Boy is often attributed to ''Tetris'' itself.<ref>{{cite|author=Kaplan, Arie|title="Games To Go." ''The Epic Evolution of Video Games (ShockZone ™ ― Games and Gamers)''|publisher=Lerner Publications Company|date=August 1, 2013|page=15|isbn=978-1-4677-1585-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite|author=Rollings, Andrew, and Dave Morris|title=''Game Architecture and Design''|publisher=New Riders|page=538|date=2003|isbn=978-0735713635|language=en}}</ref> Due in large part to the game being bundled with the Game Boy, ''Tetris'' sold over 33 million copies<ref name="Handheld Market">{{cite|author=Haghirian, Parissa, and Philippe Gagnon|title="The Handheld Market" - ''Case Studies in Japanese Management''|publisher=World Scientific|date=October 13, 2011|page=61-62|isbn=978-9814340878}}</ref> and its combined earnings were billions of dollars.<ref>{{cite|author=Sheff, David|title=''Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered The World''|publisher=Knopf Doubleday|date=November 2, 2011|format=eBook|language=en}}</ref> The game has thus gained a reputation as the handheld's "killer app".<ref>{{cite|author=Bellomo, Mark|title="Bricks and Pocket Monsters" - ''Totally Tubular '80s Toys''|publisher=Krause|date=October 13, 2010|page=348|language=en|isbn=978-1-4402-1282-6}}</ref> Although the game succeeded with Nintendo's core demographic of young children, the game was notably also popular with people outside of their usual audience, such as businessmen and other non-traditional gamers, and Nintendo began marketing the game towards them.<ref name="Handheld Market"/><ref>{{cite|author=Loguidice, Bill, and Matt Barton|title="Nintendo Game Boy (1989)" - ''Vintage Game Consoles: An Inside Look at Apple, Atari, Commodore, Nintendo, and the Greatest Gaming Platforms of All Time''|publisher=CRC Press|date=February 7, 2014|language=en|isbn=978-0-415-85600-3}}</ref>

''Tetris'' holds the distinction of being the first video game played in space, by Russian astronaut {{wp|Aleksandr Serebrov|Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Serebrov}}.<ref>{{cite|author=Plunkett, Luke|title="This Game Boy Has Been to Space. For Real"|publisher=Kotaku|date=May 4, 2011|url=kotaku.com/this-game-boy-has-been-to-space-for-real-5798377|accessdate=June 21, 2024}}</ref> The astronaut received the game from Nintendo's then-chairman, {{wp|Howard Lincoln}}, while the latter was on a trip in the USSR to see Pajitnov.<ref>{{cite|author=Nintendo Staff|title="A Link With The Soviet Union" - ''Nintendo Power''|page=54|date=1989}}{{better source}}</ref>

Mario Tetris.jpg|Artwork of Mario leaning on a Tetrimino