Tetris facts for kids

A Tetris playfield.

Tetris is a super popular video game that was first made in the Soviet Union in 1984. The main idea of the game is to drop different shaped blocks, called tetrominoes, down into a playing area. Your goal is to make full, unbroken lines of squares across the screen.

Each tetromino is made of four connected squares, and there are seven different shapes. When you make a complete line, it disappears! Any blocks above that line will then fall down. As you play more, the blocks start falling faster and faster, making the game more challenging and exciting. Over 100 million copies of Tetris have been sold, making it one of the best-selling games ever!

How to Play Tetris

The seven types of tetrominoes

In Tetris, your main goal is to drop the falling blocks, called tetrominoes, to create full lines of squares. There are seven unique shapes of these blocks. Each game level has a specific number of lines you need to clear. When you reach that goal, you move on to the next level! As you go up in levels, the blocks fall much faster, testing your quick thinking.

You get extra points for clearing more than one line at once. Clearing four lines with a single block is called a "tetris" – that's where the game gets its name! Clearing three lines is a "triple," and two lines is a "double." If you clear two "tetrises" right after each other, it's called a "back-to-back tetris." There's also a special move called a "T-spin," where you can cleverly rotate a T-shaped block into a tight spot to earn more points. The game ends if your stacked blocks reach the very top of the playing field.

Cool Music in Tetris

The Game Boy version of Tetris is famous for its awesome music! The main song for Level 1 is often called the "Tetris Theme." But did you know it's actually an old Russian folk dance tune called Korobeiniki? It means "the Peddlers." Other music in the game includes classical pieces by famous composers like Johann Sebastian Bach and even a tune from the ballet Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Images for kids

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  Extract of a game of an open-source Tetris clone

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  Original algorithm

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  Algorithm with chain reactions

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  The very first version of Tetris, released in 1984, run on an emulator of the Soviet DVK-2 computer

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  Screenshot of the 1986 IBM PC version released by Andromeda

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  The version designed by Spectrum Holobyte contained Russia related images (Amiga version screenshot, 1988)

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  A-Type game screenshot of the official NES version of Tetris

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  A 5th generation iPod featuring Tetris (2006)

See also

In Spanish: Tetris para niños