Tetris (NES video game)

This article is about the NES version of Tetris developed by Nintendo. For Tengen's unlicensed version of Tetris, see Tetris (Atari Games).
"Classic Tetris" redirects here. For the DOS game, see Tetris Classic.

Tetris
North American box art
Developer(s)Nintendo R&D1
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Composer(s)Hirokazu Tanaka
SeriesTetris
Platform(s)Nintendo Entertainment System
Release
  • NA: November 1989
  • EU: February 23, 1990
Genre(s)Puzzle
Mode(s)Single-player

Tetris, also known as classic Tetris, is a puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Based on Tetris (1985) by Alexey Pajitnov, it was released after a legal battle between Nintendo and Atari Games, who had previously released a Tetris port under an invalid license. Bullet-Proof Software had previously released Tetris for the Family Computer in December 1988,[1] while Nintendo had released Tetris for the Game Boy earlier in 1989. The game will be re-released for the first time on Nintendo Switch Online in winter 2024.[2]

This Tetris port is infamous for being designed to end by becoming too fast to play, after a certain number of lines are cleared. Score must be accumulated through efficient play, rather than pure endurance, before the game ends. These circumstances have led to its use as an esports game. Although the highest game speed was intended to be unplayably difficult, it was shown to be manageable with novel controller grips developed in the 2020s.

  1. ^ "Products: Family Computer". Bullet-Proof Software. Archived from the original on August 23, 2000.
  2. ^ Life, Nintendo (August 28, 2024). "Nintendo Is Expanding Switch Online's NES Library With Another Classic". Nintendo Life. Retrieved August 28, 2024.