Game News This video game had everything to be successful: a legendary creator and a clever concept. It was completely forgotten
When you’re the author of a game so brilliant that it gave its name to an addiction syndrome, you can feel yourself growing wings. Shortly after the release of the irresistible Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov rolls up the sleeves of his white coat and tackles another thinking/puzzle video game with an innovative concept. Unfortunately, he won’t have the same success as his illustrious predecessor.
Tetris effect
When he released the first version of his program based on stacking bricks, Alexey Pajitnov was light years away from imagining the impact his software would have on the world of video games. The name of his creation? Tetris. The principle of the game? Correctly place pieces of different shapes falling from the top of the screen to fill the holes and form complete lines, destroying the latter. Obviously, you won’t understand the power of Tetris by reading this paragraph. You have to play it. However, be careful and pay attention to the effects it could have on your brain if you succumb to the charm of its bricks! The title of the game is absolutely addictive and is used to describe a syndrome – the Tetris effect – which refers to the focusing of thoughts on a particular activitywhich goes so far as to change the perception of the world and put oneself into dreams!
The first victims of Tetris were colleagues of Pajitnov, who in 1984 only played the prototype of the software that circulated on the Elektronika 60 computers in the laboratories of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. So much so that the management decides to ban the program in order to restore productivity. Tetris was most talked about when it appeared on the NES in the late 1980s and then on the Game Boy. The phenomenon spreads worldwide, while the cartridges sell like hotcakes. 40 million games are distributed on the two Nintendo devices. On the Game Boy, it came in ahead of the Mario games and topped the sales charts, while on the NES it was in the top 5. Its success was overwhelming, which put its creator in the spotlight, even if it was the story of concerns related to exploitation rights that would be of interest to journalists.
In 1989 and 1990, Alexey Pajitnov left “Suites” to its flagship title, with a relatively similar concept to Welltris or Faces…tris 3. We had to wait until June 1990 to see the game developer – although it wasn’t called that back then – put aside its tetriminos in favor of the Knight of Chess with Knight Move!
In safe mode?
Knight Move stays in the arcade puzzle game where reflexes are important and sprinkles its mechanics with a few puzzle grains. On a game board made up of 8 horizontal and 4 vertical squares, the player controls the chess knight. His movements are limited to those of the famous game and his goal is to pick up a red heart placed on one of the tiles. Each successful move earns points, but beware of the crash: after three passes on the same square, it explodes, leaving a hole in its place. When the driver jumps in, the game is over. The only way to correct these unusual forgeries is to pick up the famous heart placed in the playing area.
The concept of Knight Move is clever. Based on a movement rule that everyone knows (from chess), the title brings a good dose of originality that can surprise any player. It requires reflexes, with the driver having to jump all the time without stopping, as well as attention to collect hearts. In addition, an intelligent risk-benefit mechanism will be introduced. Every time the pawn jumps onto a square, it darkens and gives points. If a hole appears on the board, you get more points. So you get the idea: if you want to score efficiently, it is better to move from square to square before picking up a heart. The software also includes a variant that requires a certain number of authorized jumps before you have to collect the precious red object. The holes only fill up when a certain number of hearts have been collected. Devilish!
The other very good thing about Knight Move is that it offers a particularly entertaining two-player mode.Here, the two drivers always face each other in an arena divided into destructible squares, but the only goal is to collect the hearts before your competitor. In this mode, holes cannot be repaired and victory occurs after 4 winning rounds.
Can you figure out what songwriter Patrick Hernandez, director duo Daniel Myrick/Eduardo Sánchez, novelist Mary Shelley and computer scientist turned video game designer Alexey Pajitnov have in common? All of these artists created a work that was such a resounding success that it overshadowed all their other creations. A “One-hit wonder“, writes Florent Gorges in his work “Forgotten de la Playhistoire”. Because yes, Despite its uniquely amusing concept, thought up by the mind behind the incredible success of Tetris, Knight Move remains confidential. The main reason lies in the fact that the software was only released in Japan on the Famicom Disk System, a strange accessory that sold less than 5 million copies. After a launch without rhinestones and glitter, the title appears in 1995 in a revised and corrected edition on the PC under the name Knight Moves (with an extra “s”, like Twisters). Although Pajitnov’s head is printed on the box, the title will no longer stand out.
To be honest, none of the other software developed by Alexey Pajitnov will suffer the fate of Tetris. Hatris, Wordtris, El-Fish, Ice and Fire… all will reach general indifference. After having collaborated on the design of the “Yoshi’s Cookie” puzzles on behalf of Nintendo, the Russian creator moved to Microsoft in 1996, something that the Redmond company will not fail to highlight. with major press releases. From this partnership we will remember Hexic, an effective puzzle game from 2003 on MSN Games services, then Hexic HD in 2005, pre-installed on all Xbox 360 Premium hard drives. Tetris is one of the most played video games in the world thanks to its versions released on mobile devices.
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