The previous record set in Tetris NES last year was 6.8 million points, but 15-year-old Alex Touch has already scored 16.7 million points.
In total, Alex broke at least six world records in the game during March and April of this year, according to Tom`s Hardware. Twice he exceeded the 10 million point mark with the highest score of 16.7 million points, for which he received several thousand dollars, and also surpassed the previous record of a player with the nickname Blue Scuti, by playing to level 157 (first with one line, and then with six).
Despite his young age, Alex can be considered a Tetris veteran. He became famous when he was recognized as the youngest person in the world to reach the maximum score on the NES Tetris board (with over 999,999 points) when he was just 11 years old.
March 2024 turned out to be the most productive for Alex — probably inspired by the Blue Scuti achievement (the first of its kind in 34 years since the game’s launch), or the $2300 prize pool earned by the previous record holder.
Since Alex set the record in the modified game, there was, of course, some controversy. So the guy quickly repeated the record in the original version, reports Games Radar.
The teenager’s efforts can be seen in the video:
- The original Tetris was developed in 1984, and its most popular classic version was released on the 8-bit NES console in 1989. There is still an active community of players that holds competitions and records achievements.
- In 2011, player Thor Akerlund reached level 30 by vibrating his fingers in a special way – after that, the «hypertapping» technique became common. The player’s record lasted for seven years until Joseph Sali reached level 31 in 2018, and then broke his own record several times, reaching level 35 in 2020.
- A major update to the arsenal of Tetris NES players took place in 2020 when player Cheez introduced the «rolling» technique. The vibration on the bottom of the controller allowed to press the buttons twice as fast as the fastest hypertapper. Gamers gained much more control, which made passing the 29th level much more frequent. Thanks to the new method, player Cheez reached level 40 in 2021, and in 2022, EricICX reached as high as level 95.
- Interestingly, after level 138, the colors of the blocks can get confused and make them invisible against the general background. These visual obstacles slowed down the climb to higher levels in the 2020s, but PixelAndy still reached level 148 in November 2023. And it was this record that was broken by Blue Scuti and later by Alex Touch.