Is Drop It Tetris The Board Game?

When Drop It came out, it instantly became a hit. Is that because Drop It is Tetris the board game? Let’s find out!

Drop It and Tetris do have many similarities, but they also have many differences. Due to those differences, Drop It is technically not Tetris the board game, but it is in spirit. They both provide simple, fun, colorful experiences that appeal to a wide audience of people, which makes the same in spirit if not in technicality.

What’s Tetris?

Okay, maybe you ended up here by mistake, but you’re still interested in this topic. Great! To start, we need to establish a clear definition of Tetris.

Tetris was created in 1984, and since then, it’s been one of the most enduring video games of all time. I haven’t done any specific research on how popular Tetris is still today, but as I was looking around for Tetris on Amazon for some ideas, I saw the following items based on Tetris:

• Video games for many different systems
• Lights
• Pop-its
• Brain teasers
• Cups
• 3D versions
• Puzzles
• Socks
• And board games

Tetris sees you fitting tetrominoes together as they fall from the top of the screen to the bottom. You can rotate them, move them side to side, and even make them go faster.

If you fit the shapes together such that one horizontal line of blocks is entirely full, that line disappears and you score points. If even one block can’t fit somewhere on the screen, it’s game over.

Of course, since then, tons of versions of Tetris have come out that have tweaked this formula. There have also been other games that have used the Tetris foundation as a basis for their own games, then take it further. One example is Lumines.

So, the question is, did Drop It do the same thing?

What Is Drop It?

Okay, let’s start off by establishing some basic rules for Drop It. Drop It is a game where two to four players compete to score the most points.

In it, players will have one or more colors of shapes. The colors are yellow, red, blue, and green. The shapes are made of wood, and they are triangles, diamonds, squares, and circles.

On a player’s turn, they drop one of those shapes between two sheets of plastic. They will score between zero and ten points. The same shapes can’t touch each other and the same colors can’t touch each other, otherwise, you score that dreaded zero. Also, if your shape or color touches an edge it’s not allowed to, you also score that dreaded zero.

Similarities Between Drop It And Tetris

To make this easy, I put all these in a list (gotta love lists). Both Drop It and Tetris have:

1. Colored shapes
2. Multiple different shapes
3. Shapes moving from the top of something to the bottom
4. Scoring points is their main goal
5. The potential to compete against other players
6. Strategy in terms of trying to move those shapes into certain positions

Differences Between Drop It And Tetris

And now for the differences. Drop It is different from Tetris because:

1. Tetris uses tetrominoes and Drop It doesn’t
2. Drop It isn’t about completing rows of blocks while Tetris is
3. Drop It scores points based on level while Tetris doesn’t
4. Tetris has multiple ways to play while Drop It (even with different edge possibilities) doesn’t
5. Players can manipulate shapes in Tetris after they’re dropped but not in Drop It
6. Drop It has more luck than Tetris since shapes can bounce and push each other around
7. Shapes in Tetris stay put after being placed while they may not in Drop It
8. Drop It has a limited number of shapes, all of which you know beforehand, while in Tetris you can only see one shape into the future

So, Is Drop It Tetris The Board Game?

Funny story, while writing this article, I came across this, a Tetris board game. When I saw there already was a Tetris board game, I thought, “Should I even write this article?” Who knows, maybe I’m one of the few people even thinking about this question anyway.

But even if there already is a Tetris board game, even if there are only a few people thinking about this question, I still want to answer it. I want to do that for no other reason than because I want to help whoever is out there looking for answers like these.

So, with that in mind, is Drop It Tetris the board game? Not fundamentally, but in spirit they are. Let’s talk about what that means.

Not Fundamentally

Fundamentally, even though Drop It and Tetris do have a lot in common, they’re just not the same game.

They use the same mechanics of dropping shapes down a rectangular space but Drop It has far more luck involved than Tetris. Actually, as I write this, I think of Drop It like the Checkers’ version to Tetris’ Chess.

Some people will see that statement and think I’m saying Drop It is the dumb version of Tetris. My response to that is, “Why to think that?” All of these games require certain levels of strategy. Just because some require more doesn’t mean the games that require less are “dumb” games. No more so than a student who gets a B versus a student who gets an A is a dumb student because they got a grade lower than the A student.

Drop It has a strategy. Of that, there’s no doubt. But once you let go of that piece, it’s in the hands of Fate what happens to it. You can study and prepare all you want. You can be as careful as you think you need to be, but once you let go of that piece, it can bounce, get stuck, slide between other pieces, knock them around, and so on.

And that’s part of the joy of Drop It, by the way. It’s hilarious to watch your or other players’ plans go horribly awry. It’s also amazing to watch miracles happen.

That doesn’t happen in Tetris. When you plan where to put a piece, as long as you move it properly, it’ll end up there each and every time.

And I think it’s great we get these two different expressions of what, to me, is the same game in spirit.

But in Spirit They Are

Ever heard something like, “But you’re not playing the spirit of the game?” I’ve thought about this phrase a lot. It doesn’t come up often, but when it does, usually, it’s a response to someone deciding they don’t care about playing a game the way it’s supposed to be played, and they start doing whatever they feel like doing. This doesn’t always cause an issue, but it can end up completely changing and even ruining the game experience for other players.

This is a whole separate topic, but I want to talk about the “spirit of the game” as it relates to Drop It and Tetris. You see, for my money, both games have the same spirit.

The Spirit Of Drop It And Tetris

What do I mean by that? Well, part of what makes games what they are is how they make you feel, and what they make you do. Both Tetris and Drop It are games you can sit back and just play. Yes, Tetris requires more strategy (although how much strategy you put into Tetris is up to you), but both games are about dropping colored shapes to score points.

Both games allow you to do this with friends and family. Both games play fast (with the exception of Tetris games, which can go on indefinitely if you want them to). And both games are easy to understand.

In short, both games are about providing simple, fun experiences for wide audiences of people. Both of them have this light, fun feel that makes you feel like a kid again. Yes, even Tetris.

Other games in this same vein are Pac-Man (which also has a board game), Uno, and so on.

The Bottom Line (Pun Intended?)

If I were to try to put this another way, they’re games that make you feel like you’re playing with toys, which makes sense considering some of most people’s first toys are blocks. And how satisfying is it as a kid or as a parent getting to put or seeing those toys put together? How awesome is it getting to touch and manipulate those colors and shapes?

Are you actually touching the shapes in Tetris? No, but you are manipulating them. You are fitting them together to form complete lines.

In Drop It, you’re not forming complete lines, but you are trying to stack shapes in such a way as to score the most points (which does require thinking ahead!). And if you don’t think it’s fun just to hold, play with, and drop those shapes and see what happens, then you’re not playing Drop It the right way.

At the end of the day, while Drop It and Tetris are fundamentally different games, they both appeal to the same part of us that just likes to play with colorful shapes and toys, and both give us excellent ways to do that. So, as far as I’m concerned, while Drop It may not technically be Tetris the board game, it is in spirit.

Board Games That Use Polyominos

In case you’re wondering, polyominos just refers to a shape made up of squares. This includes dominoes and tetriminoes. By the way, there are a ton of board games that use tetrominoes. Here’s a quick list of some of them:

• Planet Unknown
• Patchwork
• A Feast For Odin
• Kingdomino
• Queendomino
• My City
• The Isle Of Cats
• New York Zoo
• Bärenpark

There are many more, but these are a good list to get you started.

Did You Know?

(Each time you refresh the page you will get a new “Did You Know” fact!)

Did you know there’s a fun dice-rolling, push-your-luck racing game? If that sounds like an interesting combination to you, then check out my review of Cubitos! Enjoy!

Conclusion: Is Drop It Tetris The Board Game?

So, that’s my take on whether or not Drop It is Tetris the board game. Let me know what you thought about it! And let me know your thoughts on this issue too! Drop (pun intended) them and why you think that in the comments below!

And, as always, keep on gaming, fellow board gamers.