Recently, NES Tetris, the 1989 puzzle game, made headlines after a human, likely for the first time ever, has “beaten” the game. Blue Scuti accomplished the feat on December 21, 2023.
On January 3, 2024, current Classic Tetris World Champion Fractal (fractal161, real name Justin Yu), has also beaten NES Tetris, live on stream.
Fractal was the first person to initiate the grind to “beat” Tetris, that is to trigger a “true killscreen” whereby the game crashes. Any game of Tetris will see the player eventually topped out, where the game beats the player. Crashing the game, in a way, is how players in the community defines as beating the game.
Fractal beat Tetris by reaching Level 155 and fulfilling specific conditions to crash the game. This is the lowest level where a “True Killscreen” has been found, and actually lower than Blue Scuti’s record. He missed the Level 155 killscreen and so had to beat the game at Level 157.
It was Fractal who inspired Blue Scuti to attempt beating Tetris in the first place. He might have been the second known person to beat NES Tetris live on stream, but props to him for finishing the journey he started.
The NES Tetris community continues to break new records and find new achievements thanks to a flux of new (and younger) fans playing the evergreen puzzler.