Story time. I wasn’t introduced to the original gameboy until later on in my life, around 2010. Included with the gameboy were a bunch of games ranging from Rocky and Bullwinkle, Super Mario land 1 and 2, Alleyway to name a few. There was this one game that everyone would instantly know and love. The basic premise, easy to learn mechanics and style of play makes it a people pleaser for hours on end. I’ve been exposed to it multiple times before but this was the one eluded me for so long. This is Tetris for the original Gameboy. 

Story : N/A 

There is no story in the game. It was just a mindless game of pixelated blocks going down the floor. I mean you can make up a story or be imaginative but overall….

Story is blank. 

Graphics : 8

Hear me out, when you go to the main menu you see the background and that’s pretty cool for a pack in title for the gameboy. The blocks are pretty good for the gameboy launch and rotation is smooth. The speed of the game is where it shows. The blocks go down quite quickly down to the floor but you do have a faint shadow effect, probably due to how old my gameboy is… I mean I tried fixing the contrast but it’s no biggie. What makes the game a lot more interesting is the variety of colors. You get shaded green, dotted green, green, dark green with a white green outline around the square, a green with another green that looks sunken in with the L shape, and more with the color green! Green everywhere I tell you! 

It’s an 8. Pleasing to the eyes and not much for an early title. 

Depth: 3

The game is just filling a horizontal line with parts of the tetrominoes. You have the option of two games and up to 9 levels to choose. Each level determines the speed of the falling tetrominoes and such. There’s no ending or anything it’s just a good pasttime to waste the day over and such. The more you remove lines simultaneously (Up to four) the higher your score. Its basically a high risk high reward, especially later levels. 


Game A is the original Tetris where you keep stacking and every ten lines grants a new level and faster speed. 

Game B is more so about hitting 25 lines and game over. Nothing else. 

It’s a 3 out of 10. Basic game with a basic premise. 

Difficulty : 5

The game is easy to pick up and play without much issue. The only difficulty that you’ll encounter is the higher levels with the speed of the game and your reaction time. Not much else to say but to make sure you have a fast reaction and puzzle solving skills. 

It’s a 5 out of 10

Sound : 9

The game has the iconic song, well Russia it’s called “Korobeiniki”. This is a song that’ll be engraved in your mind for long play times and such. I mean it’s a banger and I can’t blame this song for being so popular. So popular I forgot that Tetris offer two other songs which are also good. They’re good but not as iconic as the first song. Game over gives a farting noise, best I could describe and game over song is pretty chill.

It’s a 9 out of 10. Iconic song plagues the rest of the songs but it’s deserving. 

Addictive : 10

This game you can play for hours on end once hooked. The higher you go on the levels, the higher the score, the more you want to be glued in the game. Once you hit the game over sometimes I either be done for the day or try one more time if I feel like I can best myself from the score. This game is one of the most addicting games that you’ll ever play. 

It’s a 10 out of 10. Basic fun causes mindless hours passed away. Warning 

Overall I’ve played this game on multiple devices before. From a handheld device to a phone, even on a home brew 101 games device  and PlayStation. The gameboy and nes versions always eluded me but now that I have my taste of gameboy back in 2010 and review it today from playing, I can safely say it’s still one of the most addicting games I played. It’s simple concept yet fast paced gameplay made me lose 4 hours of my day and sleep but it was worth it if it meant to write this review. I highly recommend playing this game on any device if not on the gameboy. 

My rating : 9.5 out of 10

Review rating : 7 out of 10 but I’ll give it a 9.5 also. Review rating doesn’t give it justice. I’ll mend it just this once.

I remember when this game came out on the original game boy. Sears, Walmart, Hills, Kmart, and Roses's had a gameboy along with other systems out. You could play the games. One of the games that was common was this game. I remember playing it while my parents usually my mom as my dad was working was shopping in the area. I was not really good at this game, but it was a fun game to play. After reading your review I cannot stop thinking about the tune Tetris is known for.