- Infinite Play:Tetrisallows players to keep playing until, through their own bad
decisions, the blocks reach the top of the box. Every game ends in defeat, and no
one can truly say they have “beaten” the game. Players can always find ways to
improve theirTetrisplaying ability. This is a crucial difference betweenTetrisand a
traditional puzzle. Once players have solved a puzzle, if they remember how they
did it the first time, the puzzle will no longer present any challenge to them. People
usually do not enjoy doing puzzles multiple times, whereas a well-designed game
can be replayed forever.Tetrisis just such a game. - Multiple Lives: Unlike most classic arcade games, the originalTetrisimplementa-
tion only offers players one life. Once the blocks reach the top of the box, the play-
ers’ game is over. The design of the game, however, allows players to see that they
are doing poorly while not defeating them instantly. As the blocks stack up at the
bottom of the rectangle, players see the mistakes they are making and have time to
figure out how to better line up the blocks before their game is over. So, whileTetris
does not offer players multiple lives, it does give them a chance to learn the game
well enough to achieve some minor successes before forcing them to start over. - Scoring/High Scores:Tetrisuses a model for giving players a score and recording it
in a high-score table, which is directly taken from the system used in games like
AsteroidsorGalaga. Indeed, since the game cannot be defeated, it is the possibility
of achieving a higher score that can become the players’ true impetus to play the
game again. - Easy-to-Learn, Simple Gameplay:Tetristruly excels in how simple and obvious its
game mechanics are. Players really only need three buttons in order to play the
game successfully, and these all translate into obvious results on the screen. This
means that virtually anyone, regardless of how familiar they are with computer
games, can walk up to the game and start playing it immediately. However, players
will never be able to fully master the game due to the game’s ramping-up difficulty
and the potential for infinitely long games. - No Story:Tetrishas even less story than most classic arcade games, and is the case
most often cited by people who want to point out that games do not need stories to
be compelling for players. The only sort of settingTetrishas is its origins in Russia,
which has been used for various aesthetic effects in the different incarnations of
the game. The first PC version of the game, as published by Spectrum Holobyte,
included backdrops behind the gameplay that involved different scenes from
Russian life, and the music sounded vaguely Slavic in origin. But once people
learned what a great gameTetriswas, subsequent implementations of the game,
such as the one for the Nintendo GameBoy, had no Russian theme to them and had
no setting or story at all. The game did not suffer one bit for this lack of story.
Indeed,Tetris’s total lack of setting may actually be something that separates it
from the classic arcade games, which all made an attempt to be grounded in a
fantasy world of some sort, whether it was outer space inGalaga, insects in a
garden inCentipede, or funky ghosts chasing a little yellow man around inPac-Man.
Tetrishas no such pretensions, and thus stands out.
Chapter 8: Game Analysis:Tetris 145