Tetris - the gold standard in puzzle games
Playing the old school puzzle games is always enjoyable. I think everyone who’s ever owned the original Nintendo has spent hours playing the basics like Tetris but there are even more exciting and complicated puzzled games out there! Do you remember Dig Dug? I sure do… I loved that game! Kinda tricky though but that’s why it was fun, when you moved up at that game you earned it, believe me! Most of the retro puzzle games we’re familiar with can be classified into a couple basic categories.
First, the “Tetris like” games. These would include all the iterations of the categorical namesake as well as variants. Why do I mean by variants? Do you remember Dr. Mario? In that game one didn’t complete rows as in Tetris instead you had a color matching job to do. Instead of shaped blocks different colored pills would be popped into the vial shaped play field. You would twist these pills to line the colors up to he colored virus that were randomly placed on the field. Four in a row and the virus goes boom! Clear the field to save the patient, simple as that! If the pills pile up to the brim, blocking the dispensary, you (and the patient) lose. I spent HOURS playing that game! It really is brilliant.
What other kinds of puzzle games are there? Well, there are some off ones like Haunted House; this game involved solving a mystery while dodging ghosts and goblins. You also had to combine items into new objects to overcome the challenges and ultimately solve the mystery. This game was fun, but challenging and definitely not for younger players as it deals with some adult themes. There’s also a very strong puzzle element in many of the role-playing games on this system. If you liked Tetris you might very well like the Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy series. They both involve a lot of clever puzzle solving which ends up being hours of fun.
Puzzle games are appealing to all age of player and as such they’re bound to be included with just about every new generation of gaming console. The classics though, the original home gaming versions of these venerable puzzle games will always hold a special place in the gamer’s heart. Most of us started with these games and it’s hard to imagine becoming a hardcore gamer without crushing your friends at Tetris and the other classics.