There are several ways to play the game in 2023

Apple TV+ Movies starring Taron Egerton (Stealth and Ollie) as a Cold War Espionage thriller

The film plays like a Cold War espionage thriller because it underscores the crazy amount of globetrotting intrigue that surrounded the introduction of this very popular game. This Apple TV+ movie, starring Taron Egerton, is colorful and engaging enough that it’s difficult to stay off the screen.

The road to that hoped-for paycheck leads to Moscow, where the inventor of the game made it in his spare time and passed it on to the soviets.

Rogers leaves his skeptical wife and family behind to embark on a perilous quest, which includes corrupt Russian officials, as well as the equally shady British mogul Robert Maxwell who later died under mysterious circumstances.

Rogers is oblivious to the danger to which he is exposing himself or the fact that his eyes could be used to cause trouble. The plot does become a bit convoluted in places dealing with the wonky question of who owns what, from hand-held games to the arcade and computer versions.

Director Jon S. Baird (“Stan and Ollie”) and writer Noah Pink wisely don’t overplay their hand or make Rogers ridiculously heroic, though he is so determined to land the rights as to ignore the collateral damage he might unleash. Egerton helps hold it all together as a believable everyman, straddling the line between nerve and pigheaded foolishness.

Top 10 Ways to Play Tetris: An Overview of the ’80s and 90s Phenomenology for Populated Gameboys

The realization that the drama deals with a game that many people have nostalgic associations with is also adding to this. The business aspect and the framing of the ’80s are very similar to the upcoming Nike film, Air, which is about an association with basketball legend Michael Jordan.

In both films, the protagonist has a kind of epiphany, whether that’s watching Jordan play or Rogers playing Tetris, which he quickly dubs “a perfect game.”

If you want to put the original on a Game Boy, then grabbing the original and slotting it into a Game Boy is the best way. But many of the other options are terrible, like the main mobile app, which is riddled with lengthy ads and a Candy Crush-like structure that sucks the joy out of the game.

Luckily for you, I have multiple versions of Tetris installed on basically every device I own, so I’ve pulled together a few options of the best ways to play the game on modern hardware.

If you don’t want to pay a subscription, Tetris the Grand Master is a good bet. Arcade Archives is a huge collection of classic arcade games ported to both the Switch and PS4 — seriously, just look at this giant list — and this is a port of an arcade version of Tetris from 1998. It’s… let’s say, interesting, with a pulsing electronic soundtrack and very ’90s backdrops. There is no unnecessary frills in the game.

If this sounds like the kind of thing you could watch a two-hour YouTube video essay about and not pause once, it is. If you want to get a sleek dramatized version of that story, Tetris is where you need to go. But the film is also somewhat undercut by its struggle to portray certain nuances. At times, it falls into a rather shallow worldview of “capitalism good, communism bad.” This isn’t necessarily due to a failure of character development—there are plenty of capitalist villains running around too. Tim Curry escaping to the place that has been untouched by capitalism is more elaborate than some of the Soviet characters.

This dynamic is only made more odd by the inclusion of multiple Soviet officials who seem to be true patriots. What aspect of the communist Soviet Union they believe in or why they do what they do is boiled down to “I want what’s best for my country.” And while there’s a sound moral argument that Pajitnov should be able to profit from his creation—or even simply live safely—there’s little to counter this idea. Who would disagree?

This is probably owed more to the nature of history than any failure of writing. As the film makes clear, the final years of the Soviet Union saw greedy opportunists carving up territory during a governmental collapse. If you are interested in a robust look at opposing economic systems, this is not the era to look at. The effect is that the Soviet characters are either corrupt or naive to the dying ideology.

The film’s real tensions are undermined by this simplistic view. It’s rarely ambiguous who the good guys or the bad guys are. Heroes like Henk and Alexey are earnest and noble, the greedy executives are framed less like Jordan Belfort and more like Thanos. It’s not bad storytelling per se, but for a film full of complex legal and political nuances, these often flat characterizations are a little less than satisfying.