Of all the puzzles that have kept people glued to their computers for hours on end, few have been as addictive and popular as Tetris. Since its invention in 1985 by Alexey Pajitnov, a Russian computer engineer, Tetris has been wildly popular and widely copied. Several parties battled over the rights to the game as it became a hit PC game, a hit Nintendo game, and most significantly, a massive seller on the handheld Game Boy console. The game\’s appeal is maintained wherever it goes.

Tetris is brilliantly simple, but also amazingly complex. There are falling game pieces, Tetriminoes, composed of seven different-shaped clusters of four square blocks, and you must shift them side to side and rotate them as they fall towards the bottom of the well, which fills up with the fallen pieces. Your goal is to keep the fallen pieces from reaching the top of the well, which ends the game. You get rid of them by making the pieces fit together into full rows, which clears away the row. If you cover up an open space, you won\’t be able to clear the row away, and if it keeps happening, the well fills up.

You are able to preview the next piece, and armed with this information, you have until the piece sinks to the bottom to strategize its resting place. You score points with every piece that falls, and more for each row you clear. You advance a level for reaching landmarks of rows cleared, and with each new level, the speed of the falling pieces picks up.

Once you become enraptured, you\’ll find yourself continually pushing to improve your skills, reach higher levels than before, and beat your top scores. The challenges are continuous, and each game is a unique experience as the pieces drop randomly. As you zone in and start your journey towards carpal tunnel syndrome, you experience a series of highs and lows. Landing an I-piece that clears away four rows in one fell swoop. The frustration of over-flipping a piece, or missing a landing, and watching the pieces pile up. Rising like a phoenix to clear away a huge backlog and empty the well again.

Every game ends with a mad scramble as you feel your ability to land a piece well slip beyond your grasp. The deep focus required to continually strategize and make split-second judgments can lead to a mental obsession with the falling shapes. People can get fixated to the point of having Tetris dreams and hallucinations. The popularity and addictiveness of Tetris led to the effect of mental burn-in from repeated mental activities being called \”the Tetris effect\”. Its the same phenomenon as when software programmers dream in code, or when you have dreams where you do your job in your sleep.

There have been too many versions of Tetris created to count them all. As such, its easy to find a free Tetris game to play out there among all the free flash games for kids you can play online. Playing any of the free online kids games where you challenge yourself at simple, repetitive tasks can lead to your brain staying absorbed in a game. Just make sure you\’re having fun while you do it!

For awesome games for kids based on your favourite YTV shows, check out the latest and greatest at YTV Games!

For awesome games for kids based on your favourite YTV shows, check out the latest and greatest at YTV Games!
http://www.ytv.com/games/

Author Bio: For awesome games for kids based on your favourite YTV shows, check out the latest and greatest at YTV Games!

Category: Advice
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