![]() ![]() I worry the rush to sell familiar games to risk-averse players will deepen an already present rut. And with an increasing interest in game history and archiving, many have called for a rapid influx in porting, remaking, and collecting even more old games onto current hardware. Nintendo, long the king of repackaging fan favorites, sold “Donkey Kong Classics,” a two-pack of “Donkey Kong” and “Donkey Kong Jr.” for NES, in 1988, just two years after each had been released separately. Publishers attempting to sell you old games is not a new thing. All of these games have been covered and feverishly anticipated by press and fans alike. Microsoft will hold public testing of “Halo: The Master Chief Collection” on Steam sometime later this summer. Square Enix and Sony recently showed the first playable footage of the long-awaited “Final Fantasy VII” remake coming to PlayStation 4. This week Capcom launched “Resident Evil 0,” “Resident Evil Remake,” and “Resident Evil 4” on Nintendo Switch. Last week Konami released “Castlevania Anniversary Collection,” the latest in a series that honors their 50th year in existence. Look at this month alone and see the remakes and compilations coming in fast and thick. And though many laud the efforts of studios like M2 or Digital Eclipse who painstakingly recreate old games for new systems, players’ collective enthusiasm for remakes and ROM collections is misplaced, sending a message that the way forward is to move toward the past. The path of least resistance? Keep selling the same, old game. Making “Tetris 99” was not the obvious or easy choice. But this, a reimagining of a classic in a surprising place using novel rules, re-established a love I had forgotten ever existed.īut the skin is just a carrot to lure me back into what was already a bold proposition: this thing you once loved, disassembled and put back together in a new shape. ![]() Those pixelated patterns! The digital swish of each rotation! Had I simply replayed the original, my reaction would have been muted or non-existent. When I hopped online in “Tetris 99” and started vying for the unlockable theme, and every sound effect and graphical embellishment from the Game Boy game started blasting from my Switch, I was surprised at my utter delight. But the tetrominoes never held me in the kind of thrall other favored intellectual property has. The game has always hummed around me: I played as a kid on the Game Boy (when my mom wasn’t hoarding the system) I enjoyed the Nintendo-published “Tetris DS” for its cheeky use of familiar characters my wife bought “Tetris Party Deluxe” and we battled across handhelds. I didn’t even realize I was nostalgic for “Tetris” at all. I did not realize how smitten I would be at this blatant nostalgic ploy. Those who logged in found themselves in the middle of a very crowded intersection of industry trends–Battle Royale meets timed event meets classic puzzler meets subscription service meets platform nostalgia. All games during the event took place on this reskinned version. In a nod to its past, “Tetris 99” held a timed event over the past weekend for players of the Nintendo Switch Online exclusive: Players who accumulated 100 points unlocked a new theme that reskins the game in homage to the beloved Game Boy version. This past year has seen two versions of the Russian block-dropper emerge from its dressing room wearing the trendy threads of the day: VR in “Tetris Effect” and Battle Royale in “ Tetris 99.” And here’s the crazy part: each elevates the classic perfection of the original into something else, something modern… something better. Indeed, the move pushes back against decades-long habits that have become so ingrained as to be dogma, rules that may one day threaten to stagnate our fastest growing entertainment industry. Such decisions will become increasingly necessary for any classic IP that wishes to remain relevant in our quickly shifting industry. But with two key releases in the past six months, they have. The developers know they don’t have to change what works so well. Over the decades, the game’s core competency–spin blocks, destroy lines, stay alive–has barely wavered. Jumping on the flagpole is not the “Mario ” sniping an alien headshot is not the “Halo ” completing your block house before dark is not a “Minecraft.” And yet as I drop the slender slab into its waiting valley, the word “TETRIS” flashes on screen accompanied by that tell-tale bell ring diphthong and I feel like I’m home again. That this action is called a TETRIS is a clue to the game’s self-confidence: No other game would be so boastful as to name its finest moment after itself. Even now, thirty-five years after the first time, it still feels good to drop a long block into a narrow shaft and erase four lines at once. “ Tetris” might be the perfect video game. ![]()
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