We've all played a version of Tetris at sometime in our life. The first version of Tetris I played was a clone, Polytris, on the Mac LC console. As you have all probably read through various sources, Tengen released a copy of Tetris on Nintendo in the year 1989. A few months later Nintendo release another version of Tetris for Nintendo, an inferior version I must add. Most people are quite aware of the Tengen and Nintendo versions of Tetris for Nintendo...but did you know that there was actually a third Tetris game for the NES?

In the year of 1988, one year before Tengen and Nintendo's Tetris games come to life, a company named Bullet Proof Software plans and releases a Tetris game for the Famicom, Japanese Nintendo. The game is released for Famicom but a NES version never made it. The funny thing about this game is the credits screen as the game loads up. Tetris is licensed to Andromeda Software LTD and sublicensed to Mirrorsoft LTD Sphere Inc Tengen Inc and Bullet Proof Software Inc. Weird that they say Tengen has the rights to the game yet Tengen didn't have the rights in 1989...

When the title screen for Tetris loads up, you are greeted by a now-aged looking St. Basils Cathedral. The colors make the title screen look aged, yet I seem to like this title screen better than both Tengen's and Nintendos. The main game then starts. The screen layout is really cool on Bullet Proof Software's Tetris too. Overall Bullet Proof released a nice Tetris port for the Famicom, planned for NES, yet unreleased over here. Nintendo's Tetris port is the poorest of the three, Tengen and Bullet Proof both have games worth checking into.

This concludes the tale of the NES Tetris games. Two good games, one lousy version. A big lawsuit. The lesser known Tetris, the original release. I actually own this game, the controls are weird compared to the other Tetris games. You rotate the blocks using the d-pad and place the blocks with the a (or maybe b) button. Hard to adjust to, really, though the graphics are nice.