Tetris was and is a global phenomenon that remains pick-up-and-play perfection to this day, and its history is lovingly chronicled in Digital Eclipse’s latest: Tetris Forever. It charts the franchise’s entire history, from the brainchild of Alexey Pajitnov to its popularity explosion as a Game Boy pack-in and beyond. A far cry from the dramatic sensationalism of the 2023 Tetris movie, this is a fascinating journey through a transformative period in the industry we all love.
Tetris Forever follows The Making of Karateka and Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story as the third entry in the developer’s Gold Master series. This aesthetically pleasing virtual museum spreads the evolution of the series over interactive timelines, each stop along an era revealing high-resolution images of documents, software, and hardware. New interviews and archival footage are presented as well, with fascinating insights into the development and licensing of the game.
The history of Tetris parallels other innovations in the gaming world of the 1980s, not least the labyrinthine struggle to find and license the next big success. In the game’s profile of co-founder Henk Rogers, we learn about the birth of Japanese RPGs. Rogers also used his proficiency at the board game Go (a Famicom version of the game features in this collection) to ingratiate himself with Nintendo’s top brass and help secure the handheld rights to Tetris in Moscow. All these facts and much more await in the frankly exhaustive materials in this collection.
It’s easy to forget the Gold Master series also features games, presented in pristine and configurable emulation. There are some obvious titles missing here, most notably the Game Boy version, which features only briefly as a time warp later in the collection. Many publisher-license crossovers are also omitted, for obvious and not-so-obvious reasons. NES and Game Boy Colour games, as well as many other PC and console variants, are represented, and it’s great to see some of the more obscure attempts, like the addictive Hatris or the Japanese-developed sequel, Bombliss.
Two titles in particular shine above the rest. The first is a gorgeous recreation of Pajitnov’s original Electronika 60 prototype, a game that represents the true simplicity of the idea. Its wireframe look and minimalist beeps are strangely calming.
Second is Tetris Time Warp, a new title that sends players through each era of the franchise via special warp blocks. This 2024 version should be played after absorbing all this collection has to offer; only then can you fully appreciate where the Time Warp Tetriminos will take you.