13-year-old streamer Blue Scuti became the first person to beat the classic game Tetris on the NES. Blue Scuti broke a total of three world records in a semifinal match at the 2023 Classic Tetris World Championship (CTWC) – including this monumental achievement. On Tuesday he has posted the full video on his YouTube channel.
It might be funny to think that a 34-year-old game has never been beaten before – but that’s exactly the case. Since Tetris (or Classic Tetris) was released on the NES, it was truly considered unbeatable. Players played as long as they could until they reached level 29, where pieces fell so quickly that it seemed impossible to keep up. Only one AI had ever done it – until Blue Scuti came along.
Blue Scuti’s winning strategy was a culmination of the technique that younger players have developed in recent years. These newer strategies, such as “hypertapping” and later “rolling”, emerged in 2016 and 2020 respectively, allowing players to operate the NES controller even faster than the buttons by tapping on the bottom of the controller. By 2022, most players placing in the CTWC were using some version of these strategies.
In the 38-minute video, you can see Scuti becoming more and more tense as he approaches higher and higher levels. Immediately after a great save, he reaches the game’s frozen screen – signaling victory – and ecstatically says “Oh my God” as he takes off his gloves. “My hands are tingling, I can’t feel my hands,” he says, his face buried in his hands.
In one Post-game interview with streamer ITZsharky, Blue Scuti describes being nervous after 30 minutes of play, but that he “still managed to hit the 5 taps.” He added: “You miss a 5 tap and the run can end.”
That never made it and made Tetris history.
