Game Boy Game Recommendations | mariteaux

[#] Tetris (Nintendo, Game Boy, 1989)

Sure is Tetris!

Surely I don't have to explain to you what Tetris is, right? If I do—Grandma, how did you get on my site? And can you please stop telling me about your constipation issue? I know "it's a part of life", but there's a time and a place—maybe not ever for that, but y'know, you get my point. Anyway. Groupings of four blocks fall from the sky. Align them in rows. You get more points for the more simultaneous rows you knock out. Survive as long as you can.

I do love me a bit or even a lot of Tetris. This Game Boy one is certainly iconic, and time has been nothing but glowing to it, but I find it pretty hard to get excited about. The big thing for me: your tetrominoes are "dead" the moment they hit the bottom of the playfield—you can't move them, even briefly. This is okay at the start of the game, where it's easy to correct mistakes while in the air, but as things speed up, a single mistake can cost you a game very quickly. Maybe people are of the mindset that this makes for quicker and more unpredictable games, but I want to settle into a groove here!

It's also just not a particularly featureful version. It doesn't save scores, you can't hold blocks like some more recent versions of the game, there's no other modes. There is a two-player option, if you happen to have two consoles, a link cable, and a buddy with shit else to do. None of this is to say Game Boy Tetris is bad—if you like Tetris, this is fun at least for a little bit—it's just that it's 2026, and we have far better options for portable polyform placement games, don't we?