Tetris Forever is a great documentary, a lackluster game collection

Tetris Forever is the most uneven Gold Master Series game from Digital Eclipse yet.

This series of games are playable documentaries that recount certain slices of gaming history by placing various interviews and assets on a timeline while also serving as a collection. Atari 50 focused on the massive history of one company. The Making of Karateka homed in on telling the story of one game and its impact. Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story provided an overview of an innovative game developer’s career. Now, Tetris Forever recounts the fascinating history of what Digital Trends deemed the best game of all time.

Tetris Forever succeeds in telling the story of Tetris‘ history. Its interviews with Henk Rogers, Alexey Pajitnov, and more are insightful and give an in-depth history of the Cold War tensions, rights issues, and bold decisions that got Tetris where it is today. It’s a must-play for anyone wanting to learn more about that. Unfortunately, it’s spottier as a game collection. While deep cuts are included, Tetris Forever is missing games that are critical to the series’ story, leaving it feeling a bit incomplete.

A stunning documentary

If you watched Tetris on Apple TV+, you may already be familiar with the story behind the game a little bit. Alexey Pajitnov designed Tetris for the Electronika 60 while working in the USSR, but the popularity of his addictive game eventually breached the Iron Curtain because of the efforts of a man named Robert Stein. Stein didn’t really own complete rights to Tetris, but he acted like he did and made several deals that ultimately made the rights surrounding Tetris a mess.

Henk Rogers got involved in all this when attempting to license Tetris for release in Japan. His efforts ultimately resulted in Tetris becoming a Game Boy pack-in and the strong gaming brand it is today. While the Tetris movie sensationalized aspects of the story to play up the Cold War tension, Tetris Forever offers a much more realistic, if sugarcoated, take on the history of Tetris.

That makes it worth checking out for anyone who has ever gotten addicted to Tetris or experienced the Tetris effect. Tetris is one of my favorite games, and I love that its history is immortalized in gaming form. It certainly has the story to warrant a Gold Master Series game. I love what Digital Eclipse is doing with their Gold Master Series, and hope it doesn’t stop making these kinds of games anytime soon.

A lackluster collection

Although Tetris Forever succeeds as a documentary and playable retelling of the history of Tetris, it’s spottier as a collection in terms of what people can actually play. Right now, Tetris Forever includes the following 18 games:

• Tetris for Electronika 60
• Tetris (AcademySoft) for MS-DOS
• Igo: Kyu Roban Taikyoku for Famicom
• Tetris (Spectrum HoloByte) for MS-DOS
• Tetris for Apple II
• Tetris for Famicom
• Hatris for Famicom
• Hatris for Game Boy
• Tetris 2 + Bombliss for Famicom
• Hatris for NES
• Super Tetris 2 + Bombliss for Super Famicom
• Tetris Battle Gaiden for Super Famicom
• Super Tetris 2 + Bombliss Genteiban for Super Famicom
• Super Tetris 3 for Super Famicom
• Super Bombliss for Game Boy
• Super Bombliss for Super Famicom
• Super Bombliss DX for Game Boy Color
• Tetris Time Warp by Digital Eclipse

Some important deep cuts from the history of Tetris are included here. It’s amazing to see the original version of the game for Electronika 60 represented here. Go game Igo: Kyu Roban Taikyoku is a more random inclusion, but also one necessary to understand the relationship between Henk Rogers and Nintendo. Many Tetris follow-ups, like Hatris and Bombliss, get the spotlight in this connection, while Tetris Time Warp is an entertaining celebration of the franchise’s history.

The problem is that this grouping of games doesn’t quite align with the story Tetris Forever is most interested in telling. Ancillary games like Henk Rogers’ The Black Onyx, as well as actual Tetris games and sequels like Bullet Proof Software’s original versions of Tetris, Nintendo’s Tetris for Game Boy, Sega’s Tetris for arcades, Tengen’s Tetris, and Welltris, are all missing. Tetris Forever is also light on details and history in regard to the Tetris follow-ups that make up most of its game catalog.

That’s what leads to the uneven feeling of Tetris Forever. This collection explains how rights issues around classic versions of Tetris are a mess, and you can see that in the games that Digital Eclipse struggled to include. While I understand companies like Nintendo were probably protective over letting their games be included in a multiplatform collection and that some platforms are harder to emulate than others, these missing games make Tetris Forever feel incomplete as a game collection.

Thankfully, Digital Trends has shown with Atari 50 that it’s willing update its collections to add new titles post-launch, both for free and as DLC. Tetris Forever deserves that same treatment so it can truly become the ultimate Tetris game.

Tetris Forever launches for PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch on November 12.