The complete insanity of tetris is that every time I start a new round of it, there are entirely new questions i have to ask myself, new problems to solve. As you play it more and more, and the skill ceiling gets higher and higher, your playstyle transforms over and over again, changing the rules and even entire challenge of tetris.

Most versions of tetris may seem quite similar, but the truth is they are all ENTIRELY different from one another. The version which in my opinion has the most infectious complexity is NES tetris, for a number of reasons often not even intended by its developers. The game becomes less about predicting where to best put pieces, and more so about which placement of pieces can give you the most freedom of movement, within the limits of how fast you can move a piece relative to how fast they fall down, which are imbalanced in this game.

High level NES tetris play involves compulsory use of at least one of two mechanics: hypertapping and DAS. Hypertapping is self descriptive; it is how you button mash your controller, and literally every single player i've seen has a different method for it, different ways of holding the controller, different hand positions. DAS, or Delayed Auto Shift, is a brief window of time after you've dropped a piece where you can 'charge up' the next piece, by holding down the directional key you want that piece to go in before it drops. In NES tetris the timing for DAS is very difficult and requires a lot of practise, but is incredibly satisfying if you can pull it off effectively.

Tetris is a game that is impossibly infinite, it is infinitely entertaining and challenging in ways more complex than even any scripted puzzle game i've played. The puzzles in Tetris function less as riddles, and more as exhilarating debates, fumbling to find the perfect word as questions are hailed onto you.