Collection essentials #164: Tetris (Game Boy)

Here’s the big game that really put the Game Boy on the map. Nintendo made the very wise decision to include Tetris as a pack-in game with Game Boy systems, so buyers would have one of its very best games to play right off the bat. 


I already talked about a couple versions of Tetris previously, so I’m not going to talk too much about how the game works or the history behind it. See those previous posts for more such info.


Tetris on the Game Boy is a really solid version of the game. It’s similar to the NES version, but arguably better since it has an actual two-player mode. The Game Boy had an accessory called a “link cable” which connected two systems together for multiplayer modes. (I had mentioned multiplayer in Pokémon already but didn’t mention how it was done, whoops!) The iconic Tetris theme that most people remember debuted in this version of the game.


I don’t have a ton else to say about Game Boy Tetris. It was one of my early Game Boy acquisitions, so I have plenty of experience with it. It’s the other game aside from Dr. Mario that my non-gamer uncle would play on his Game Boy all the time. Even a good number of people who normally play video games fancied them a Game Boy so they could play Tetris on it. For what it is, it’s a practically perfect game that almost any human being can enjoy, and it’s a perfect fit for the portable Game Boy, so perfect that it helped kick off Nintendo’s incredible long reign of absolute dominance in the realm of portable systems. Historically significant and timelessly fun, Tetris on the Game Boy is a no-brainer essential.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Intro

Image
  I'm about to start a long-term personal project relating to my video game collection. It's actually something I'm doing mostly for myself, but sharing it with others is certainly a nice little side perk. As you probably already know, I have a large video game collection that would make many nerds jealous! I did the bulk of my collecting from roughly 2012-2018. Now I don't buy nearly as many games as I used to. In fact, in 2021 my collection actually had a net shrinkage because I sold more than I bought. Does that mean I've just been a hoarder all this time and I'm slowly growing to regret my life decisions? HECK no. I feel quite satisfied and vindicated with the legion of games into which I've invested time, energy and resources to assemble and I've merely reached a point of satiation. I scratched all the most important stuff from my bucket list. I purposefully was liberal in my choice of buying stuff because I knew how to find deals and I knew that th
Read more

Collection essentials #89: Ninja Gaiden (NES)

Image
Originally, Ninja Gaiden was an arcade game, but rather than simply bring that game to the NES, Tecmo decided to build an entirely new game from the ground-up, tailored for the console, and it paid off.  Ninja Gaiden is a side-scrolling action platformer that takes place across a series of linear levels. You play as Ryu Hayabusa, a ninja armed with a sword, the ability to cling to walls, and to use power-ups that you find throughout the levels which grant strong and important attacks with a limited number of uses. The controls are tight and the game just feels good to play. And what is perhaps most notable about this game are the cutscenes in between areas. Previously, the stories in most NES action games were pretty simplistic, and sometimes not even mentioned in the game itself, only the instruction manual. But Ninja Gaiden takes things to the next level in making the story an integral part of the experience, as you guide Ryu to get revenge against those responsible for his father’s
Read more

Collection essentials #106: Tecmo Super Bowl (NES)

Image
Tecmo had previously released “Tecmo Bowl” nearly three years before this game, and while I don’t own it and don’t consider it essential, it was a very good football game for its time. But fans of that game had seen nothing yet. Tecmo Super Bowl provided a major upgrade, and is widely considered the best sports game on the NES, and some would even say one of the best sports video games of all time in general. The first noticeable difference is that Tecmo Super Bowl, unlike the original, got the license to use real NFL teams with their logos, and all the real players, which maybe sounds frivolous to a non-sports fan, but believe me when I say people who like sports enjoy controlling fantasy versions of their favorite teams and athletes much more than generic made-up counterparts! When making a sports video game, there are different ways a developer can go about it. The most obvious path, perhaps, would be to try and make it as realistic and true to the real thing as possible. That’s oft
Read more