35 years after releasing, Tetris on the NES has been "beaten"

There are too many versions of Tetris to count. From the original PC version all the way up to modern takes like Tetris Effect, countless developers have put their own spin on the world’s most popular puzzle game. Everyone has their favorite entry in the series, and when it comes to 13-year-old competitive Tetris player Blue Scuti, the go-to version is the original Tetris on the NES.

Even though Scuti is just 13-years-old, he’s already proven himself to be one of the best Tetris players in the world. He’s been a major force on the tournament scene throughout 2023, but he’s just added a new accolade to his ledger that makes him pretty much untouchable. He is now the only person in the world to have officially “beaten” Tetris on the NES.

How does one “beat” Tetris, you ask? Well, Scuti has managed to push Tetris so far beyond its limits that he forced a “kill screen.” For those who don’t know, a kill screen happens in games when you take things so far beyond intended play that the game simply crashes, unable to handle what the player has thrown at it. We’ve known that Tetris had a kill screen for awhile now thanks to AI, but Scuti is the first human to bring the game to its knees.

As any good esports athlete would, Scuti made sure to capture his achievement via live-stream for the world to see. You can watch the video above to see how the entire session plays out, or you can watch the very end to see Tetris on the NES brought to a screeching halt.