Tetris
part of why I thought it would be interesting to do this is because I wanted to talk a little bit about how 'games as art' discussion in the mainstream is almost always centred around characters and story, because gamers and gaming publications and so on want games to be associated with more high-class art forms like film, novels and prestige TV. I have always thought this is really stupid because (a) almost all video game stories suck complete ass, and (b) the art of video games is not about storytelling, it's about design.
Tetris is the best example of what a video game is and why they are fun. It's literally perfect – there have been about 40 different official Tetris games since the original Tetris, and none of them are as good because it's unimprovable. It has no enemies, no bosses, no characters, basically no graphics, and no goal, except to keep playing the game. It has a perfect balance of strategy, speed, luck and skill to burrow into your brain and smash your dopamine receptors so hard you can't quit and see tetris blocks in your dreams, while somehow making that experience still enjoyable. It can make you smarter, and helps with quitting drugs and
managing PTSD flashbacks – presumably because now all your flashbacks are about Tetris and you can't stop playing for long enough to shoot up. Moms can play it, kids can play it, amazon tribespeople untouched by modernity could pick up and play it and they'd love it. Aliens could play it. It works on a fundamental level. Nothing is as simple as Tetris while also being as deep. It's exactly as great now as it was when it was released 34 years ago – which isn't going to be true of some of the nostalgia-fuelled picks I assume people (including me) will be making in this draft. Folks, Tetris is good as hell.
Certain types of games are always considered for these types of 'best games ever' discussions – single player shooters, platformers, RPGs – but many never get a look in or are undervalued – simulation games, sports games, competitive online FPS's, strategy games, and puzzle games like tetris. But if you're a long time game player, think about the games you've sunk the most hours into in your life – it's more likely to be these latter type of games than something like [example], that has a 95 on metacritic, gorgeous graphics and contains 5 hours of generic shooting and 5 hours of daytime TV level ****ty cut scenes. A game you play once and then forget about because once you've seen the 'content' there's very little actual game worth going back to. That is not a good game.
Tetris is a good game. It's a perfect game. So it's my #1 pick