1. Home
2. ›
3. Classic
4. ›
5. Tetris

Tetris game info

Tetris is a single player puzzle game with a simple but addictive game design, originally invented by Alexey Pajitnov in 1984.

Goal

Arguably one of the United States’ favorite puzzle games, the goal of Tetris is to complete horizontal lines of blocks to clear them.

In theory, the game can go on for an infinite amount of time, providing endless hours of fun! Try to last as long as you can without the blocks reaching the top of the playing field - once they do, the game is over!

Gameplay

Tetris primarily involves a variety of geometric shapes, called tetriminos. These are made up of four units and will fall one by one from the top of the playing field. The fall of these tetriminos cannot be stopped or slowed.

The player’s role is to move and rotate these to form horizontal lines, in order to clear them from the field. A piece can be moved and adjusted until the point it reaches the bottom of the field or touches another piece already set on the field.

Clearing lines is the primary objective as the game is over if the lines reach the top of the field. Players also score points from clearing lines.

In this version of the Tetris video game, players can work through ten levels of gameplay. Players can advance to the next level by clearing ten lines. As the level increases, the tetriminos will fall down at a faster and faster rate, giving the player less time to think and calculate their moves. However, clearing one line will give you a higher score than lower levels.  

Controls

Controls for the Tetris game are straightforward - use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the descending tetrimino. As these are the only controls required, many find it easier to play with just one hand.

• Press the 'up' arrow to rotate the piece
• Press the 'down' arrow to accelerate the fall. 
• You can also press and hold the keys, for example, the 'left' arrow key to push the piece all the way to the left.

Tips and Tricks 

• Try not to leave any gaps. 
• Plan your moves. If you’ve got a particularly tricky section to clear, try to figure out what piece is necessary for you to clear these lines. This way when the game-changing piece comes along you can react quickly. This is also where it’s useful to pay attention to what the next piece will be (shown in the upper right corner of the game board).
• Keep the field as empty as possible. The key is to clear the blocks faster than the field fills up, therefore allowing space for new blocks to arrive. 
• Use the strategy "playing flat". The name of this strategy is as it suggests - keep the top row as flat as possible. This means a maximum of two blocks height from the lowest and highest points. The advantage of using this strategy is that in keeping a flat top row you are giving yourself more choices for where to place blocks down.
• Become familiar with the rotation sequence - knowing how many rotations will give which shape.
• Become familiar with the color of each tetrimino - again this will help you make faster decisions. 

The original Tetris game was developed by Neave, and the original theme song and tetriminos are trademarks of Tetris Holding, owned by The Tetris Company.