Tetris (Sega)
Not to be confused with Sega Tetris
Developer: Sega
Platforms: Arcade / Mega Drive
First Release Date: December 1988
Sega, having made a deal with Tengen for the Japanese arcade rights to Tetris, developed their own iteration of the game in late 1988. It’s one of the most influential Tetris games, with most after it building on its mechanics. In terms of Tetris Firsts: it introduced the soft drop (holding down to lower the piece, but not instantly like the hard drop), and I believe it was the first Tetris with significant lock delay (pieces don’t stick the moment they hit the ground, and can still be briefly moved). Both features are taken for granted as part of Tetris now. And three of the blocks have their later Tetris Company approved colors! That's important!
The game has an eclectic set of backgrounds that cycle as you clear lines. I think they’re supposed to imply the history of Earth, with rocky shores making way for a scene of dinosaurs, followed by an ice age and eventually reaching a futuristic city. My favorite is probably the photo of the lizard, but the Stonehenge one is good too. The how to play sequence features a monkey, with quite a bit of its own legacy- this monkey, or at least a similar monkey, has appeared in many other Sega-developed games, such as Tetris S, Sega Tetris, and Puyo Puyo Tetris. Similarly, the theme during gameplay, “Tetremix”, composed by Yasuhiro Kawakami, has made its way into other games as well.
The success of the game led Sega to hurry to make versions for existing hardware. A simpler System E version with a mechanical blue background was made, as well as a version for the Mega Drive / Genesis planned for April 1989. However, the Mega Drive version was suddenly cancelled close to release. A chain of licensing deals had allowed Sega rights to Tetris, and a few links upwards, the rights had been redefined overnight. Sega’s Japanese arcade rights remained valid, but console rights were now strictly with Nintendo and Bullet-Proof Software. This had left several sub-licensors out of luck, and presumably, whatever deal Sega had to release the Mega Drive version was no longer valid. An extremely small number of copies exist, but it still managed to be widely circulated through knockoffs.
This version has some unique features- it has a cooperative mode much like the also ill-fated Tengen Tetris, and it also has an option to turn on item blocks. These blocks are flashing versions of the usual tetrominos, and each one has a different effect if you can clear a line with them. Some simply award more points, while the J and L blocks add or remove a level, changing the game speed, and T clears any lines that the block is in. None are too drastic, but it’s a cute addition. Mega Drive Tetris did see a release in 2006, included in the Sega Ages 2500 Tetris Collection, alongside Flash Point, Bloxeed, and Tetris New Century, a modernized version of Sega’s Tetris that I’d like to cover in depth eventually. Interestingly, Mega Drive Tetris was not included in 2019’s Mega Drive Mini- instead, a completely different version was made, one that aimed to be functionally identical to the original arcade release. I have no idea why they went to all that trouble to include a Mega Drive game that never actually existed, but it’s certainly interesting.
There are some quirks that made this game hard to adjust to at first- I thought I was dealing with an emulation issue for a while because I couldn’t rotate pieces right away, but that was because the game treats the ceiling of the board as solid, keeping you from rotating right away. Small adjustments aside, it’s a lovely Tetris to return to. Please keep The Grand Master's grandpa in your thoughts and prayers.
Thank you for reading!
