Tetris was originally released for the Gameboy in the summer of 1989. It was later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) near the end of that same year. Around Christmas in 1992, my dad and mom drove me to a Kmart that was located out of town a little ways where I picked out an NES. Super Mario Bros. 3 was the game I wanted for myself, but my dad wanted a game for himself also. This version of Tetris for the NES was the one that he wanted. It was mainly his game, and I didn't play it much as a kid. This was probably mostly because of how in love I was with Super Mario Bros. 3, and the fact that it was his own personal game.

It wasn't really until I started playing this version on Vizzed that I got very familiar with it. I have to say, in most ways it is an improvement over the Gameboy version, but it still has the same problems that version had. Not much other than the graphics and sound have been improved, and that's about all there is to say about this port of Tetris.  

Graphics 7/10: It would make sense that the graphics would be better on the home console than on the handheld one. It does have more color to it this time around, but it still has few parts where these colors really shine and stand out. The cutscenes are the only parts of the game that look very nice, and they are quite an improvement with more detail and thought put into the characters. When you clear some of the stages on level 9 of the B-type game, characters like: Kid Icarus, Link, Bowser, and Samus form a band this time around. This is a touch that gives more life to this version, and the other scenes with the rocketships look better also.

Still, you have the same bland background of the playing field. Although, in this port it doesn't look quite as bland and uninteresting. This time, there has been color added to the shapes, but why wouldn't there be color? After all, this is an NES game not a Gameboy game. Overall, this did make for a better looking game than before, but some of the same problems still existed with the backgrounds. Even still, compared to a lot of other games on the system, this is a fairly decent looking game.  

Music 9/10: This version of Tetris has a pretty impressive sounding soundtrack. However, there is hardly any variety to it. But I have to say, this doesn't bother me too much. These songs are awesome! They really are some great Russian music, and this is another area in which the NES version is better than the Gameboy version. My personal favorite of the whole bunch was the C-type music. Man, I remember hearing that one a lot when I was a kid, and I still like it. I'm not that familiar with this port, but I do remember hearing these songs and thinking about how great they were. The A-type song is a good one too, and at the time I first heard it which was around Christmas in 1992, it really put me in the mood for the holidays.

Even with the lack of variety, Tetris on NES is a great sounding game. These few tracks are catchy and very memorable. I did play this game enough to get that much out of the experience. Before I wrap up this section, I have to also mention how I liked the fact that they added more music for the high scores and how much I liked the rocketship theme. This is another Russian themed tune I really enjoy in this version. The music is the strongest area to this port of Tetris.     

Gameplay 5/10: Nothing has changed at all in this section of the review. Tetris for NES is exactly the same as it is on the Gameboy. Although, it does feel like the buttons don't respond as well to input for this version. I guess it doesn't change the experience too much. You still have the same A-type and B-type games, and in both game types, you manipulate the shapes and move them where you want them to go in order to form lines. These lines increase your score, and this is mainly what the game is still about in the NES version too.

The A-type game is fun to a certain extent, but it really just depends on the shapes the game gives you. Sometimes you can get a high score of over 100,000 points, and other times I struggle to get 30,000. It does feel harder to achieve much of a score in this version. But despite that fact, I still feel the same way about the A-type game this time around like I did with the previous version of Tetris. It all depends on luck, and sometimes I'll be hooked and want to keep playing and other times I could care less.

The B-type game still sucks for this version too! I feel like it is even worse because of how unresponsive the buttons can be. Not only that, but the shapes fall even faster giving you less time to manipulate them. I guess it don't matter too much because I always saw the B-type game as more of an extra someone like my dad always loved to play. I didn't like it much and struggled with it even more for the NES version. I never beat it! Not once and still never have to this day!

I'm not a big fan of Tetris, and I can't say much about this version of the game. I played it very rarely growing up, and this was also true for the Gameboy version as well. The NES version is a game I never played enough to get much of a feel for it. This was my dad's game, and he played it all the time. I mainly played Super Mario Bros. 3 around this time, and these two reasons are why this version never caught on for me. By the end of 1992, I had several other Mario games that I was playing around with, and Tetris on NES didn't amount to much back then. Nor is it all that great for me today either.   

Content 6/10: The NES version is no different in terms of content than what the Gameboy version of Tetris is. The game has nothing new added to it or taken away from it. The A-type and B-type games have the same number of levels, and they are all the same length as before. Neither version of Tetris has much to it.  

Difficulty 10/10: In the NES version of Tetris, you are mainly just playing against yourself in order to top your highest score in the A-type game. This can be hard to do when the game doesn't want to give you the right kind of shapes to work with. Like before, you are mainly at the mercy of the game. Sometimes, it can be very corporative and other times it isn't. The B-type game is just impossible, especially in this version of the game. The controls don't respond well to input, and the blocks also fall faster which makes it harder to place them where you want them. I found both versions to have a random, unpredictable, and at times, downright hard type of difficulty that can make for some frustrating gameplay. 

Overall 6.8/10: Tetris is a game I never played much of growing up. I felt like the game wasn't really mine anyway, but that didn't bother me much. I enjoyed playing the Gameboy version quite a bit when I first got it but quickly lost interest in it. The NES version was my dad's game, and I only played it about once or twice. Looking back on it, I did enjoy listening to the music in this version, and I also thought that it was a lot better looking game also. The gameplay was about the same, but I found this version to be less memorable and less enjoyable for some reason. Technically, it may be a better port, but as far as I'm concerned that's mainly because of the improved graphics and sound. Everything else is about the same if not worse for me.