While playing a video game on my mobile device, I saw an ad for a game called Block Blast. The premise of Block Blast is that there is an 8×8 square, and you are given three blocks to fit within the 8×8 space. The game ends once you run out of space to continue placing new blocks. After downloading the game, I was addicted, playing it the entire drive home from school.
Walking into the kitchen after my day at school, my parents were shocked to see what game I was playing. They asked me, “Son, are you playing Tetris?” I was confused by their question, as I had only heard of the game but did not know how to play it.
After researching online, I was astounded by the noticeable similarities between the two games, leading me to question how Block Blast rose to popularity so quickly.
Tetris was developed by Russian Software Developer Alexey Pajitnov in 1985. The game was originally meant for computers, but Nintendo acquired the licensing rights, and thus, Tetris saw an international release on the Game Boy. Today, more than 520 million copies of Tetris have been sold, a long way from the game’s initial development in Soviet Russia.
The benefits of gaming
Although very simple, Tetris is not a boring game, and its interface allows you to play forever. Tetris develops players’ hand-eye coordination and reaction time, building tangible skills for users without feeling like work. Furthermore, research shows that players who play Tetris consistently see greater grey matter growth in their parietal and temporal lobes of the brain. These specific lobes of the Brain are crucial in the planning and execution of complex coordinated movements, as well as critical thinking, further cementing the fact that Tetris players see benefits from extended usage.
While Block Blast does not have the same dropping blocks that train your hand-eye coordination like Tetris does, there is more of a cognitive struggle to overcome. Being at the whim of the game’s block, you must think one, two, or even three steps ahead to ensure that you don’t run out of space within the grid. You must strike a delicate balance of eliminating rows of blocks from the grid while setting yourself up in the future to clear the entire board. Personally, I enjoy this very cerebral challenge, as it forces me to think of not only my actions but also consider any potential curveballs the game may throw at me.
The bridge between generations through nostalgia
I continued playing Block Blast for a few months, and my parents did not enjoy me playing the game. They claimed that Block Blast was a “carbon copy” of Tetris and that it was a poorly constructed game with bad mechanics. However, I never took this to heart, as I wanted to share my love of video games with my parents. After many no’s, I finally got a reluctant yes from my parents that they would play the game.
They downloaded the game onto their phones, and after 15 minutes, they were hooked. They sat on the couch for hours playing Block Blast, with the TV in the background. I eventually got tired that night and went to sleep, but while eating breakfast that next morning, my dad told me that playing Block Blast reminded him of the late nights he would spend playing Tetris with his friends in the arcade. My mom responded with similar thoughts, saying she felt she was teleported back to “a time when Back to the Future was the hottest movie out.”
Hearing my parents have these positive comments about Block Blast warmed my heart, not only because I proved them right, but I feel like I was able to bridge a generational gap between myself and my parents. There is a forty-year gap between the development of Tetris and Block Blast, and yet we can still share and relate through a similar experience.
A mental break
As a high school junior, there have been plenty of times throughout this year when I felt an unbearable burden on my shoulders because of school work and extracurriculars, and I know those reading this can most likely relate. Afterschool sports practices, club activities, and late-night studying sessions seem synonymous with the high school experience. Because of these stressful activities, high schoolers need an outlet for stress.
Block Blast allowed me an outlet to release my stress while balancing these activities. Taking short thirty-minute breaks to play the game when I’m feeling overwhelmed allows me to have a short escape from reality, with the only goal of making sure I don’t run out of space in that 8 x 8 grid. With the additional mental component of the game, I could take a break from my work while still giving my Brain a chance to grow. Although the game is addictive and may be hard to put down, I can personally attest to the benefits it has provided me.
Block Blast and Tetris are not carbon copies; rather, Block Blast took inspiration from Tetris and modified the gameplay enough to create a new gaming experience. Through my experiences playing the game, I could train my critical thinking skills, bridge an intergenerational gap between myself and my parents, and have an outlet when I’m overwhelmed. Ultimately, both Tetris and Block Blast highlight the timeless appeal of games that challenge our minds, proving that no matter the era, the joy of strategic thinking will always have a place in our lives.
