Just a few months after Nintendo rolled out its popular Game Boy version of Tetris, another key edition quietly made its debut—NES Tetris. While the Game Boy version received some updates like a color makeover in Tetris DX and was offered on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console, NES Tetris didn’t see an official re-release until much later.
Nevertheless, NES Tetris has carved out a significant niche and has even found a surprising fanbase in the esports world. Over the years, this version has become the go-to for competitive Tetris, with a new wave of players recently flooding in, breaking records and reshaping how the 35-year-old game is played.
Nintendo’s journey to secure the rights to Tetris back in the late 1980s is a tale full of intrigue, involving complex negotiations with Soviet bureaucrats and dodgy British media figures. The ultimate goal was clear: obtain the handheld publishing rights so Tetris could be bundled with the Game Boy at launch. But Nintendo didn’t stop there—they also snapped up the console rights, ensuring the game had a home across various platforms outside Japan, where Henk Rogers had already launched it on the Famicom.
True to its nature, Nintendo has zealously protected these rights over the years. When Tetris Forever was released as a compilation title, both the NES and Game Boy editions were noticeably missing. Yet, if Game Boy Tetris is often hailed as the most crucial to the lineage of this legendary puzzle game, NES Tetris certainly stands proud as a close contender.
