Tetris for NES is one of my earliest video game memories. I was entranced by the awesome music and changing colors of the pieces and, of course, the addictive and satisfying puzzle gameplay. I'm talking Nintendo's Tetris, not the poopy Tengen Tetris that hipsters like to try to convince everyone is better, by the way. That got your attention, didn't it. Click to read more and watch Tetris gameplay right here.
For a long, long time I held strong that NES Tetris was the pinnacle of the franchise. All of the newer games dumbed it down and made it too easy and NES Tetris was the "real" Tetris. There were no infinite spins and fast drops and holding pieces for later here. I also loved the music and the simple visuals.
These days, though, NES Tetris is kind of hard to play. The pieces are really "sticky" and there is very little wiggle room for positioning them. This version (and I suppose the Game Boy one as well) is also the originator of the "I never get a long piece when I actually need it" trope that haunts every Tetris game to this day but most newer versions aren't nearly as sadistic about it as ol' NES Tetris was. It really feels like the game is intentionally screwing you over here.
I would say that today, in 2019, both Tetris 99 and Tetris Effect have taken the title of best Tetris game away from classic NES Tetris in my mind. It had a good run, but ease of play and presentation are more important to me now than having a "pure" game of Tetris.
