Tetris Review

Tetris is the closest games have come to a law of nature. Seven tetrominoes fall into a well; you rotate, slot, and clear; the speed rises until entropy wins. From that single rule emerges a psychological engine so strong that researchers named an effect after seeing its shapes in their sleep, and a design so complete that four decades of ports have changed almost nothing that matters. The grades here need explaining.

There is no story, an honest F. The visuals on Alexey Pajitnov's Electronika 60 were literal punctuation brackets, and even polished versions need nothing more than colored blocks, so C is generous. Difficulty-to-make reflects a small program, though the elegance of the randomizer and scoring balance is its own quiet achievement. But gameplay is the entire point, and it is the most flawless loop ever designed, one that carried the Game Boy to world domination and still settles the question of what a game irreducibly is.