28/10/2018

Tetris: How I learnt to stop worrying and love the game (somewhat)


Although I firmly consider Super Mario Land to be my first ever Game Boy game, it's actually not the first Game Boy game I played: just like probably 99% of Game Boy owners, I first cut my teeth on packed-in Russian cult classic Tetris. However, this is a fact that I'm usually very prompt to forget, and with good reason: I've always hated that most famous of puzzle games.

Okay, maybe "hated" is a bit too strong a term. Let's just say that I never saw the appeal of Tetris: whilst my sister and my neighbour could rack up lines for what seemed like hours and got to feast their eyes on the fabled space shuttles on multiple occasions, I was bored stiff after ten minutes of play. That is, when I actually lasted that long: on top of not liking Tetris, I sucked hard at it, and it usually took but a couple of minutes before my screen became cluttered beyond repair. The fact that seemingly everyone but me loved that game and excelled at it only added fuel to the fire of my aggravation: what was I missing there, and why couldn't I enjoy that darn game when it was the only one I owned? To top it all off, the sound effects grated on my nerves especially that stupid squeaky whimper after clearing the Holy Four Lines, which always made me feel like my Game Boy was in pain. Like, as much in pain as me when playing that game. The only thing I truly liked in Tetris was the B theme; and even that awesome piece of music was not enough to convince me to suffer through the game. As soon as I got my paws on other games, I dropped Tetris and never touched it again. That is, until now.

I purchased a Tetris cartridge recently for two reasons: I had one unused cartridge case and wanted a game to fill it up, and I was curious to see if I still hated Tetris after nearly twenty years of not touching it. (Very stupid reasons indeed, which probably wouldn't have cut it hadn't my cartridge been dirt cheap.) The answer to the latter is, surprisingly enough, not quite. I found myself not only playing Tetris with surprising ease, but also enjoying it; and that most unexpected state of affairs is due to the fact that I managed to alleviate most of the things that irritated me as a kid. Namely:

The open-endedness: I never liked games with no definitive goal and no ending, and I don't think I ever will; however, that issue was neatly solved when I discovered the B mode, a gameplay style that I cannot remember playing as a kid. Having to clear a puny 25 lines instead of a potential infinity of them suddenly makes the whole thing seem much more manageable not to mention that you can ramp up the challenge by cranking up the speed and block height, confident that you'll manage to survive those 25 lines most of the time. 

The messiness: Unlike fellow packed-in Game Gear game Columns, which looks crystalline and pristine, Tetris looks rough and messy. The pieces are so weirdly shaped that you always end up with bits sticking out here and there, no matter how hard you try to keep things compact; this is worsened by the fact that after wiping out a line, pieces above said line don't gracefully fall into the holes below, but rather float awkwardly in the air. I'll admit it: I simply couldn't stand this as a kid, and Tetris routinely sent me into the pits of OCD hell. Now, how do I keep all that unruliness at bay as an adult, you may ask? Well, on top of being (fortunately) more desensitized when it comes to OCD triggers, I simply manage to stack up pieces in a more efficient way nowadays, avoiding ugly holes and protuberances. Ah, the joys of getting older and wiser.

The unforgiveness: Tetris is a much more unforgiving brand of puzzle game than, say, Puyo-Puyo or Columns. The latter are colour-based and usually give you a lot of leeway to improvise; Tetris, on the other hand, is exclusively shape-based, with shapes so specific that things can easily go haywire in a matter of seconds if you don't get the right pieces or fail to arrange your pieces properly. Every Tetris player has felt that pang of regret when placing a piece in a certain spot, only to realise one second later that it would have worked better in a different spot and/or that the next piece in line would have fitted even better. Nowadays, my answer to Tetris' stern brand of gameplay is simply to relax and let go of perfectionism. A bit of strategizing goes a long way in Tetris: little tricks I couldn't figure out as a kid, such as pondering your next move while letting the current piece fall after positioning it properly, or stacking long pieces on the sides to free some room in the middle and avoid protrusions, can really work miracles and change one's fortunes. Also, mistakes won't necessarily doom a run: a poorly placed piece can always be recycled and used in a different setup later! And if you lose still, no sweat: you'll just do better in the next run, which is a mere couple of seconds away.  

Now, as the title of this post implies, I'm still not that fond of Tetris. Granted, I like it much more than when I was a kid; but there are still plenty of things that annoy me to no end in that game, such as the impossibility of twisting tetraminos when they're in contact with the walls, the overeliance on luck in the harder levels of the B mode, or the unavoidable acceleration that occurs in A mode and prevents the player from simply enjoying the game at their own pace. Last but not least, playing too much Tetris simply irritates me: after a couple of runs, I invariably become tense and angry, and I must fight strong urges to throw my GBA at the nearest wall. That's when I know I've had enough Tetris for the day. Still, the fact that I can now play that game and enjoy it to some extent is nearly a miracle, given how much and how long I've despised it. Oh, and I really, really dig the A Theme now! Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime! 

2 comments:

  1. Congrats for trying to play again, even if you had bad memories abour the game! I wouldn't do that with balloon kid ;)

    As for me, it was my favorite game as a child!! Just the opposite of you because I enjoyed the fact that it was a non-story telling game, that you could just enjoy for a few minutes or hours, instead of being obliged to forecast 3 hours alone with no interruption! Really not easy, especially when you are a child, and must eat or sleep when your parents told you to ;)

    I have excellent memories with Tetris, the music, the gameplay.... Probably my favorite Game Boy game ever !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Right, Tetris was the perfect casual game, easy to pick up and put down. Compared to other games of the time such as, say, Ducktales or Super Mario Land, it was mercifully uninvolving and could be rewarding even if you played a mere two minutes. When you think of it, Tetris was pretty much the ancestor and precursor of today's mobile gaming, only much more expensive and requiring its own dedicated handheld.

      Delete