A 13-year-old from Oklahoma appears to be the first person to win at the popular classic game Tetris.
Young Willis Gibson is believed to be the first gamer to reach level 157 of the game, which was released almost 40 years ago.
“ I’m going to pass out, I can’t feel my fingers ,” Gibson said after his game- crashing feat . It got to the point where the blocks were falling so fast that the game itself couldn’t continue. The 13-year-old uploaded a video to YouTube of the moment he ended the game.
"When I started playing this game, I never expected it to crash or that I would beat it," Gibson wrote in the video.
See also: WoW Seeds of Renewal 10.2.5 patch: What you need to know
Tetris was created by an engineer in 1984 and released on the Nintendo Entertainment System. To date, over 200 official versions of the classic game have been released on at least 70 systems. The handheld version developed by Electronic Arts and released in 2006 has sold 100 million copies, making Tetris the third best-selling video game of all time, according to a recent report.
After its creation, Tetris spread quickly and maintains its power to this day.
The gameplay is simple: it challenges players to manipulate and adjust falling blocks of various shapes to create solid rows. As the level increases, the blocks fall faster. Despite so many new games, with stunning graphics and interesting stories, Tetris remains popular, thanks to simplicity , as some experts say.
Although Tetris has remained the same over the decades, the way it's played has evolved. Until 2011, players believed that level 29 was the highest possible because that level had the fastest speed in the game.
See also: Fortnite Update 28.10: Release Date and more
" It's so well-designed and so captivating for so many generations of players that people are literally discovering new feats to achieve and scores to beat and challenges to overcome ," video game expert and consultant Scott Steinberg told CNN . " It constantly presents a series of new challenges that even teachers have a hard time dealing with ."
After breaking the level 29 barrier, players began reaching higher and higher levels, in tournaments like the Classic Tetris World Championship.
Gibson finished third in the 2023 world championship. Gibson is the first human gamer to break the record for Tetris. Until now, he has only been surpassed by an AI that reached level 236 in 2021 by manipulating the game's parameters.
Even in an age when some video games “cost as much to make and look as good as many Hollywood movies, there’s still something to be said for a game that’s simple, elegant, incredibly accessible, and enjoyable for players of any age or background,” Scott Steinberg told CNN. “Sometimes simpler is better, and the best games really stand the test of time.”
See also: The Most Anticipated Video Games of 2024
The Oklahoman's victory has multiple implications for the Tetris community. First, it proves that the game is not invincible , overturning a widespread belief that influences how players approach it .
This success also encourages other players to keep trying and improving their skills, since victory is possible. This can lead to increased participation and competition in the community.
Finally, this victory may affect the public's perception of Tetris. Instead of considering it simply a puzzle game, they may begin to see it as a challenge that requires strategy, skill, and determination.
Source: edition.cnn.com
