A video showcasing gameplay from a prototype version of Game & Watch Tetris has appeared online for the first time.
The video of the device comes courtesy of French YouTubers, Ici Japon Corp. The ici Japon Corp. YouTube channel specialises in producing videos that showcase ‘Japan in real life’ and features almost two hundred videos covering everything from GameCubes to supercars.
It’s their latest video however, that’s caught the attention of the retro gaming audience as it prominently features the Game & Watch prototype.
A host from Ici Japon Corp. mused about the discover, saying that “in 2024 we can still find little treasures of things that were just rumours”.
The French team discovered the Game & Watch Tetris prototype in the collection of Maeda Hasan, a collector of video game memorabila and author of several books on the history of video games.
It’s Tetris Time
The new Ici Japon Corp. of the Game & Watch prototype is unlike any other version of Tetris we’ve seen before.
What separates this unreleased sample from the Tetris that we know and love today is the gameplay. Unlike familiar Tetris, the handheld version’s top screen displays the incoming tetrominos falling down a narrow chute with the player able to shift the entire landing zone left and right on the bottom of the screen.
It’s a unique take on the classic formula but not entirely unexpected. At the time the Game & Watch Tetris prototype was produced in the late 1980s, Tetris was still in its infancy and the core mechanics were not set in stone.
Our Video Producer, Rob took a deep dive into the history of the Nintendo’s Game & Watch last year and explored the origins of the gaming time pieces, examined the games and ideas that fell short of the Nintendo Seal of Quality and analysed its eventual replacement, the Game Boy.
It’s hard to say at this moment in time where Game & Watch Tetris would have landed on our list of the best Game & Watch Games.
You can see Ici Japon Corp.’s video of the their discovery in the video below.
