Tetris is beaten: 13-year-old gambles to level 157 and crashes the game

In 1989, Tetris was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and became a huge success. For most people, however, Tetris level 29 is game over because the blocks fall too quickly. That's why the game was considered unbeatable. However, 34 years after the game was released, a teenager managed to beat the game on 21 December 2023: "BlueScuti" (13) played for around 40 minutes until the game crashed.

It was already known that Tetris can crash at level 155 due to a code error, but no one has yet been able to reach this "kill screen". BlueScuti overcame all difficulties and did not make any fatal mistakes. As a result, he was the first person ever to "play through" Tetris on level 157. You can see how happy he is in the video from minute 38:52 onwards.

Most people fail at level 29

Every ten resolved lines, the player moves up a level and the blocks fall a little faster. As a result, the level of difficulty increases steadily. At least until level 29, when the blocks have reached their maximum speed. This is where the game ends for most people, as it is no longer possible to push the blocks aside quickly enough by pressing the directional pad as usual. The blocks pile up to the top of the screen and lead to game over.

Tournaments such as the Classic Tetris World Championship, which has been taking place since 2010, show that Tetris still motivates players. Here, participants play the original Tetris on original hardware to score as many points as possible. BlueScuti took part in 2023 and achieved third place.

Special techniques make you faster on the controller

In 2011, player Thor Aackerlund managed to beat the "darn level 29" and reach level 30 for the first time. Instead of pressing firmly on the directional arrows on the directional pad, he used "hypertapping": This involves pressing the button very quickly - at least ten times per second - which allows you to move the blocks faster than intended. This spurred the players on further, but it took seven years before the new record was broken and level 31 was reached.

Although the built-in difficulty level no longer increases, Tetris hardly allows for mistakes on these levels and players also have to rely on luck with the block order. In 2021, the player Cheez discovered how to move the blocks even faster using a technique called "rolling" with multiple fingers and was the first to reach level 40.

Causing Tetris to crash: Strange colours are the harbinger

Enthusiastic players broke more and more records and reached another limit from level 138: from then on, the blocks have new colours, some of which are barely visible on the dark background. This is not a programmed difficulty, but shows that the game generates errors because it has too much information to process.

In 2021, an AI managed to play until the game crashed at level 237. This is much more difficult for a human, as small mistakes can lead to game over. However, the game crash is not a must - in theory, it should be possible to play until level 255 before the game resets to 0. How long will Tetris enthusiasts have to wait for this?