Tetris has been part of our lives for almost 29 years, but most of the time on a screen. Hasbro intends to make the Tetris bricks tangible by combining this game with two other popular games: Bop It! and Jenga.
Personally, I’ve played Tetris on computers, phones (nothing fancy, just an Ericsson A2618 and the likes) and handheld gaming consoles (under the Brick Game alias). Another interesting fact is that Tetris was released in USSR on June 6, 1984. That’s one day before I was born, in case any of my readers is curious.
Back to Hasbro’s creations, though, it’s really nice to see real Tetris bricks being used in such great games as Jenga and Bop It! I’ve only played Jenga with normal bricks (in comparison, the giant Jenga featured on The Big Bang Theory was ridiculous), so the Tetris bricks should give it an interesting twist. As advertised on the box, this is Jenga from a completely new angle. I couldn’t agree more! It’s one thing to pull regular bricks out, and a totally different thing to try removing Tetris bricks and placing them on top without the whole thing crashing.
While bringing Tetris and Jenga together makes perfect sense, it might be difficult to imagine reaction games such as Bop It! and Tetris in the same sentence. As The Tetris Company explains, the players will have to match the colored Tetris bricks, as the challenges become faster and more difficult. I’m not a big fan of Bop It!, but this sounds interesting, to say the least.
Jenga Tetris and Bop It! Tetris are officially licensed by The Tetris Company, but the license offers Hasbro the freedom of developing many other Tetris-themed games, if it wishes so. Knowing Hasbro, the company will most likely not lose the chance of expanding its Tetris range.
The ones wanting to get their mitts on these two Tetris games will have to be patient. The Tetris Company claims that these will be launched in August 2013, or around that date. As far as the prices go, Jenga Tetris will cost $15, while the Bop It! Tetris will be $25. In my opinion, these are very decent prices, so let’s hope that Hasbro doesn’t decide to do any last-minute changes. Fortunately, the two companies are preparing a global launch, so not only the North Americans will enjoy playing these terribly entertaining games.
If you liked this post, please check these 14 killer Tetris remakes and the Tetris blanket.
