The man behind Tetris Henk Rogers It has a deep connection with Nintendo. In his early years, he made a name for himself with “Black Onyx”. Later, he cooperated with Nintendo to release works on the red and white consoles, and finally successfully obtained the global distribution rights for the home console version of “Tetris” – which also made Game Boy a phenomenon-level console with millions of sales worldwide.
Rogers and then-Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi The relationship is close, but that doesn’t mean there’s no friction between the two. In his new book “The Perfect Game─Tetris: From Russia With Love”, he disclosed a past event that made him brood.
In an interview with “PC Gamer”, Rogers talked about the game “Dr. Mario” launched in 1990, saying that the game was Nintendo’sBlatantly trying to copy the success of “Tetris”。
“I met Gunpei Yokoi (the father of the Game Boy) many times at the time, and we later became good friends. Because I helped him promote the Game Boy, and he also helped me promote the Tetris, it was a reciprocal relationship,” Rogers recalled. “But when Nintendo wanted to make a game that could surpass Tetris, I was a little unhappy.”
“Dr. Mario” was released on Game Boy and Famicom in 1990, a year later than “Tetris”. Although the gameplay is not exactly the same, it also uses a similar block elimination mechanism. Rogers thinks there’s something else going on behind the scenes.
“Mr. Yamauchi once tried to buy “Tetris” from me, but I refused. I even half-jokingly said: ‘Why don’t you trade Mario for it.’ In other words──No need to talk unless I die。」
“As a result, he turned around and gave instructions to the development team, saying: ‘Make me a game as good as Tetris.’ And then there was “Dr. Mario”. To be honest, this game was an attempt to copy Tetris─And it’s not that fun at all。」
Although “Dr. Mario” received good reviews when it was released that year, and has since launched many sequels, this game has always been a thorn in Rogers’ heart.
“I was pissed off,” he said bluntly. “But I can’t completely blame Yokoi. Maybe he wasn’t the leader at all, maybe it was other teams who did it… But in the final analysis,This is business war。」