The retro collection Tetris has always deserved is finally coming, complete with the incredible SNES battle Tetris variant that’s been lost in Japan for 31 years
Digital Eclipse is continuing its incredible Gold Master Series – a line of retro game collections that effectively serve as interactive documentaries – with Tetris Forever, landing just in time for the legendary puzzle game’s 40th anniversary.
Tetris Forever collects 15 versions of the game in one place, and features 90 minutes of documentary footage telling the story of the series. Developer Digital Eclipse has previously explored this format with titles like The Making of Karateka, Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story, and Atari 50, all of which do an incredible job of telling the story of how these games got made. That makes them stand out well beyond your typical retro collections, and there are few titles more deserving of the treatment than Tetris.
We don’t yet have a full list of included games, but there will be a recreation of the true original version of Tetris – the one creator Alexey Pajitnov developed for the Soviet Elektronika 60 computer. Digital Eclipse is also developing a brand-new variant in Tetris Time Warp, which has up to four players warping between Tetris games of all eras, going through loads of visual and gameplay styles along the way.
Maybe the most interesting part of the collection are the formerly Japan-only games, like the explosive Super Tetris 2 + Bombliss. I’m most eager to get my hands on Tetris Battle Gaiden, a Super NES title focused on multiplayer battles. You choose a character to play, each of which has their own set of unique abilities, like reorganizing your board or reversing an opponent’s controls. It’s an incredible concept for a party game, and it’s a shame it’s taken this long to see a worldwide release.
Tetris Forever is set to launch sometime in 2024 across PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X | S, Switch, and PC.
There’s a reason Tetris ranks so highly in our list of the 50 best games of all time.