Tetris Forever Review | 40 Years of Clearing Lines

Tetris Forever is the latest title in Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master Series that combines an interactive documentary that celebrates the storied franchise of the block-stacking game alongside a compilation of titles that showcase its evolution through the years.

40 Years of Tetris

Like previous Gold Master Series titles, the interactive documentary is presented as a digital museum with five timelines filled with bullet points, ranging from a brief math lesson on pentominoes and bio of Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov to the modern times of chicken nugget Tetris handhelds and Apple TV+ movies.

While the presentation is not necessarily flashy, it is easy to thumb through any of the timelines to view fun facts, print ads, and behind-the-scenes development videos or pictures. It also features interviews with Alexey Pajitnov, Henk Rogers, and others talking about licensing rights and eating sushi broken up into short videos. The early story before the formation of The Tetris Company is comprehensive and fascinating with the added bonus of home videos showing off 1980s Soviet Union Moscow.

17 Tetris Games in One Package

Tetris Forever contains 18 games in total that can be played at any time. Players do not have to interact with the timelines at all, with a separate tab complete with all of the games. There are 17 Tetris or Tetris-like games in the package, as well as Igo: Kyū Roban Taikyoku, a Famicom title of the Japanese board game Go that was instrumental in the Tetris relationship to Nintendo. The games include:

• Tetris – Electronika 60
• Tetris (AcademySoft) – MS-DOS
• Igo: Kyū Roban Taikyoku – Famicom
• Tetris (Spectrum Holobyte) – MS-DOS
• Tetris – Apple II
• Tetris – Famicom
• Hatris – Famicom
• Hatris – Game Boy
• Tetris 2 + Bombliss – Famicom
• Hatris – NES
• Super Tetris 2 + Bombliss – Super Famicom
• Tetris Battle Gaiden – Super Famicom
• Super Tetris 2 + Bombliss Genteiban – Super Famicom
• Super Tetris 3 – Super Famicom
• Super Bombliss – Game Boy
• Super Bombliss – Super Famicom
• Super Bombliss DX – Game Boy Color
• Tetris Time Warp

Each of the titles comes with original instruction manuals, various screen filters, and the ability to manually save and load games. You can also remap controls to suit yourself for most games, which is great for keyboard players as each game can have a different control scheme. The selection of tiles focuses on the early beginnings up to the new millennium, mostly developed by Henk Rogers’ Bullet-Proof Software and the new game of Tetris Time Warp. It is not the most comprehensive list, skipping over the latter 20 years, but perhaps not surprising considering the history of this game and the lengths the creators had to go to secure the publishing rights to Tetris.

The underlying basis for the collection is a more accessible way to finally play Tetris games that have only released in Japan, such as Tetris Battle Gaiden. Anyone interested in the two-player puzzle fighter with special abilities no longer has to import an old Super Famicom and a copy of the game.

It also includes various versions of Hatris, which replaces the block-stacking with hat-stacking. You place five of the same hats on one head or ground to score points. It is a neat spin-off that most people have not played, but is not as engaging as the game you initially came for.

The other major series in the collection includes the Bombliss variant of Tetris, or Tetris Blast, which adds bombs to the pieces and can clear more than the horizontal lines when activated. Most of the games are refined or handheld versions of the original but were only released in Japan as well.

Tetris Time Warp

Tetris Time Warp is the only original title in the package and created by Digital Eclipse. It is the modern version of Tetris as you would know it with a slight twist. Every 10 lines cleared, a Time Warp Tetrimino appears that flashes the various aesthetics of Tetris games from the past. Clearing a line with this Tetrimino sends the board back in time to a previous Tetris era to complete a quick challenge, such as clearing a double line or bombs, for bonus points. It is a neat gimmick that makes sense for the package that it is in, but not enough to make it the most interesting game in the collection.

Tetris Time Warp does include options to turn the Time Warp off for those who want simple, modern Tetris. It also supports up to four players locally to battle with your friends.

40 More Years of Tetris

Tetris Forever does a great job at showcasing the history of the simple puzzle game for new and veteran players through the interactive documentary and variety of games chosen. Honestly, it is a collection worth having just for the Japan-only titles if you have seen them played online, but are not interested enough in securing physical copies and consoles. Tetris Forever is a love letter to the early evolution of the franchise, and we cannot wait to see where Tetris goes next.

8

Tetris Forever

Tetris Forever respects and celebrates the storied 40-year history of the puzzle game that people still cannot get enough of.

Pros

• Interesting documentary of Tetris' origins broken up into bite-sized chunks
• Contains Tetris games previously unreleased in the West
• Translation and accessibility options
• No technical issues

Cons

• Controller or remapping controls is necessary if switching between games
• Not a definitive package after the year 2000

A copy of this game was provided by the publisher for review. Reviewed on PC.