ТЕТРИС
Hi. I'm WWWWolf. I'm not an addict, but I like the game anyway. =)
Of all versions of Tetris I have played, the Game Boy version that came with my Game Boy in ~1991 has to be the one that I have played the most. This game completely enthralled me back in the day; I had played the game before, but this new portability, dazzling graphics, and familiar Russian folk melodies made me convince that this game console was something I had to get.
And when I got my Game Boy Advance in 2001, what was the first game I played? No, I had not even bought any GBA games - I played my old GB games at first. The 3 volt electric current rushed through my new 32-bit portable game console, and it booted up first time - to play a decade-old game module that required a fraction of the processor muscle of the console it was released for. What would Marvin think of this? I don't care, I just wanted to see the circle complete.
...
But if you want my opinion of nicest Tetris version ever written, it has to be the Commodore 64 version.
I had problems finding game info for this, but it was made in 1988 (or 1987, the sources conflict here...) and released by Mirrorsoft (when I saw this first time, you know what company I thought of, but I quickly learned that they were different companies).
Why this version rules? I don't care of game mechanics this time - indeed, GB version easily beats this version gameplay-wise, due to the fact that there's just "instant drops" and blocks can be rotated in one direction only - but the aural and visual candies are exceptional and make the whole game experience entirely hypnotic.
It starts from the title screen: In this version, "TETRIS" isn't misspelled "TETЯIS" (which is incorrect in Russian anyway, the letter is pronounced "ya", nothing to do with R). The game doesn't even try to look "Russian". No sign of landmarks from Moscow. Nothing.
Instead, everything except the blocks are in grayscale. The title screen has two figures on starry background, one getting struck by some sort of force (lightning?), another with magic-sort of stuff in hands. The game screen itself has similar minimalism, with gray-scale surroundings and star background.
The game music, by Wally Beben, can be fit into a 13 kilobyte .sid file. Yet, it's approximately 30 minutes long before it loops! The music has some dark, primitive, I dare to say magical feelings - under a modernish electric guitar background. All in all, very powerful music for a very powerful and intuitive game. I can easily rank this game music among the greatest C64 sidtunes ever made. It is one of the game tunes of which a remix would be an extremely sacrilegious idea, unless done perfectly with proper instruments.