News game Tetris: A world record pulverized… by typing behind the joystick!
Published on 26/11/2022 at 12:55
You know the pro video game players! They come up with insane techniques to improve their accuracy and score. But in the case of Tetris, it’s even more incredible, because it’s a “simple” position of the hand on the NES controller that changed everything… So here is the story of an exploded record on the famous puzzle video game, just by tapping behind the controller.
A new generation of gamers
More than a colorful “puzzle-game” with catchy music, Tetris is a cult game. It is even by far THE best-selling video game to date (520 million units) thanks to its many iterations. Normal after all, since its launch in 1984 on Elektronika 60, even before its arrival on Nintendo machines, everyone is addicted to its simple but furiously addictive concept, infinitely replayable! Today, whether in battle royale on Switch, with Tetris 99, in duo with the Puyo Puyo series and even on mobile, we always hear a lot about Alekseï Pajitnov’s software.
From left to right: Tetris 99, Tetris (NES), Puyo Puyo Tetris 2
What if we told you that people haven’t yet dropped out of the 1989 version of Tetris, on the NES? Yes, more than thirty years after its release at Nintendo (and its very first console release), it is the “classic” version that serves as the official setting for records on Tetris. Yes, in 2022, we find players who are bent on large cathode-ray televisions, more on a console that often dates from before their birth! It may be hard to believe, but today it’s the “Gen Z” pushing the limits of Tetris – to use the words of Engadget. Why is that ? It was they who originated a new technique, which crushed all previous records.
“Do you do DAS? Me, I hypertype”
How do you think Tetris is played at a high level on the NES? Well, first there’s the standard, most natural way to hold a controller – like on a game of Super Mario Bros for example. In the professional world, this is called “DAS” or “Delayed Auto Shift” (literally Delayed Automatic Shift) in reference to the stoppage and then the continuous movement of a Tetris block, when a player presses the directional cross. Okay, yes, it’s the technique of every man and lady, but that’s how champions – like Jonas Neubauer – have exceeded the coveted 999,999 points and the famous level 29, considered in the past nigh-impossible due to its speed. It is, in fact, the speed (and therefore the difficulty) maximum on Tetris Classic.
But that was before ! Before Jonas Neubauer, seven times Tetris Classic world champion, was beaten by a certain Joseph Saelee in 2018… The young outsider, then 16 years old, did not use the DAS but another technique, “hypertapping”. The idea is simple: poke the directional cross with fingers other than your thumb (as you would do during a big QTE on God of War Ragnarok) so that the blocks move faster! A rather obvious method, already widespread before the 2018 tournament, but which will only be popularized from then on. As we can see on this document shared by Engadget, the number of players having crossed the 999,999 points increases significantly after this date. Before Joseph Saelee, they were 40. July 2021, they are 400.
“In 2018, it was just Joseph Saelee who was tapping (on Tetris Nes, editor’s note). 2020 was the year that really changed. After which, there were 100 children who were doing the same” — Adam Cornelius, co-founder of the Tetris Classic World Championship (via Engadget)
From left to right: DAS, hypertapping, rolling on Tetris (Credits: aGameScout)
The revolution of Tetris and “rolling”
At the time, hypertapping looked like a small revolution in the industry and made it possible to break records hitherto deemed impossible, such as 1.3 million points and reaching level 38. But, as we said, you can’t stop progress. While it took thirty years for tapping to be adopted, a third powerful technique will arrive… three years later. Her name ? The rolling. Here, the idea is to keep the thumb on the right or the left of the directional pad, without really pressing, and tap with the other fingers on the back of the controller, in a circular motion. With a lot of practice, each back press can become a command in its own right, which can improve twenty to thirty times the speed of tapping. We owe its invention to “Cheez_Fish”.
Like a steamroller, rolling, in the hands of expert players, crushes absolutely everything in its path. As the OkCobalt video reports, forget level 38-1.3 million points, say hello to level 95 and scores over 3.7 million! Even today, on channels like Cheez_Fish and EricICX (another very big player in the pro Tetris scene) the limits are pushed a little more every day, according to several categories. There is also one that starts at level 29. Yes, the difficulty deemed impossible not so long ago! In a recent video, EricICX claims to have reached its “best pace” with these conditions… It looks promising.
