The Year of the Video Game Shoe continues, this time courtesy of Puma who have inflicted two additional Tetris themed kicks on the footwear buying public. While these two are certainly not as horrendous as the Disc Blaze re-issues already released—if only for the fact that that particular shoe is an eyesore by design—the RS100 and First Round EX entries in the Tetris pack are going to more than likely attract the wrong kind of attention.

I'll stick my Nike SB 720s thank you very much, Mr. Puma! In fact, I'm off to Brooklyn Projects to acquire! Have a good weekend.

Puma S/S '08 Tetris Pack [High Snobiety]

Hey! You got your Pong in my Breakout! You got your arm rasslin' in my Tetris! I swear, the only way to make boring classic video games playable and entertaining in modern times is to rig them to insane controls or pair them with another classic. Here are two.

Earlier this week I found Pongout — which actually has some replay value as you can't accept losing to such a ridiculous concept. And then TechEBlog discovered "Tresling," (left) a version of Tetris played by slamming an arm-wrestling opponent's arm into a controller. I like the video, complete with "Eye of the Tiger," but that was the theme to Stallone's "Rocky III" not his arm-wrestling vehicle "Over the Top" of 1987.

Here's the combo game I want to see: NCAA Hitman 08. As Agent 47, you begin as a top defensive back prospect in high school. Before the big rivalry game, you garrote the other team's star receiver, steal his uniform, line up at his position and nab 6 interceptions for TDs, winning the Heisman in the process.

Pongout [All Games All Free]
Tresling - Tetris and Arm Wrestling [Hacked Gadgets via TechEBlog]

Tetris: The Movie

The tagline: "A brother dies. A hero is born. Get in line for adventure. Tetris is here."

Absurd premise. Tortured rendering of gameplay into live action. Wretched over-acting and every cliche known to man. I'm surprised this isn't a real game-to-movie adaptation, and is instead just a pretty slick Black20 sendup.

Tetris - The Movie [Black20, thanks to Piotr]

The Horror: Puma Tetris Shoes

We mentioned one form of Tetris shelves from New York's Brave Space Design a few years ago; but there are several options you may have missed if you saw these beauties way back when. While the regular open work shelves don't have a price listed ('Contact us for a quote!' is rarely a good sign for your wallet), you can get the colorful "flat" set for a mere $1500 per 10 blocks or the lovely bamboo version for $2000 per 10 blocks. Despite the expense and the fact that Tetris-inspired bookshelves would clash horribly with my decor, I think my books would look fabulous nestled in these creative, if pricey, shelving units.

Tetrad Shelving [Brave Space Design]

Tetroid 2012: The Tetris Mash Up That Thinks It's An Experimental Soundtrack

Their are no lack of options when it comes to Tetris freeware clones, but this one, well it has a pair of worthwhile twists, its psychedelic presentation notwithstanding. Tetroid 2012 plays with the formula by adding other familiar block-busting elements, including an inverted play field that turns the mechanic on its head, switching to Arkanoid/Breakout style play. A fantastic concept. Add to that the soundtrack which features a collection of 21 electronic artists and you'd be a fool to pass up the download. More details and download links at Simon's blog.

Tetroid 2012 - DemoNetLabelArkaTetris Weirdness Alert! [GameSetWatch]

Tetris Skirt Makes Me Resent My Penis

Needless to say, men have it pretty good as far as general anatomical conveniences are concerned. But the trade-off of social stigmas regarding dress-wearing are starting to chafe now that we've found this Tetris skirt that goes for a mere $45 on Etsy. We recommend you find a girlfriend, relocate to Scotland, crush our post-Puritan social norms or, in the rare case that you are a actually a female who hasn't felt too ostracized by this post to stop reading by now, buy the skirt for yourself.

Tetris skirt, size medium or large [Etsy via SpriteStitch]

Quake II on a DS? Eh, it's OK. I guess. It'd be better on an oscilloscope. Tetris sure is. Best part is that, because you can't exactly port stuff over onto the machine, the blocks are all hand-drawn, and as a bonus the whole thing even refreshes at 100hz.
[thanks Kdawg!]

Gamasutra has a great article up right now in which they pay a call on gaming pioneer Alexey Pajitnov. For the uninformed, Pajitnov is the creator of a a little game called Tetris. They caught up with him at the GameCity conference in Nottingham, England before a viewing of the documentary Tetris: From Russia With Love to discuss his views on such subjects as the casual gaming scene (including Katamari Damacy), his new projects and the history of Tetris. It's some terrific weekend reading if you have some free time if only to hear the perspective of a true old school gamer on the modern gaming scene. Also, if you have never seen one of the several documentaries that follow the long arduous history of one of the most addicting games ever made, do yourself a favor and check one out. It's an amazing story filled with more drama and intrigue than most soap operas.

Catching Up Casually: A Chat With Alexey Pajitnov [Gamasutra]

Hey, Look, It's Another Threadless Video Game Shirt

The design community at Threadless has approved yet another video game themed design, this one based on classic block dropper Tetris. Actually, it could very well be based on Technos' Block Out, a three dimensional take on the genre that was a personal favorite during my arcade employment duties. Anyway, back on topic, the design "I Hate Packing" is ready for your buying pleasure with Threadless listing all sizes as having "plenty in stock." It's cute, as are all things Threadless.

I Hate Packing [Threadless - thanks, Greg!]

Human Tetris With Bikini Girls

Bikini Girl [Zaeega via Japan Probe]

The good news about this watch, with Tetris built-in, is that it looks just as playable as its Pong-playing counterpart. The bad news? They don't exist. These Nixon branded concept watches were knocked up by French product designer Lysandre Follet and are shown animated form at the link below. Music is included for maximum authenticity.

Tetris Forever [via Gizmodo]

UC Berkeley Band Subjects Sports Fans To Game Music

The best part about opting for a video game themed halftime show is that it's going to be performed by band nerds. These kids probably know "Yoshi's Theme" better than any other cross section on campus. The above performance, from the recent UC Berkeley versus Washington State football contest features tunes and bitmap band formations from Tetris, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World, Mortal Kombat and more. They seem to get a little winded at parts, understandably, but it's a solid performance nonetheless.

Thanks to Christopher at the official Capcom blog for the link.

Tetris "L-Block" Trounces The Competition

Tetris Creator IS Getting Paid

...first of all, it's not true, because originally I granted my rights to Tetris to my Computer Center, to my organization, for 10 years. And when those 10 years expired, I got my rights back. And since 1996, I've been receiving some royalties for it. And I'm pretty happy with what I'm getting now. And I never complain about those 10 years, either... In order to fight for my rights for the rest of my life, I decided to give it up for a while and make it happen. This decision should be done before people realize what we've given them.

Play Tetris With... Your Car

We're running out of new creative ways to play Tetris, thanks to the Park To Play project from Thijs Eerens, Michiel Waaijer and Joey van Dijk. It couldn't be more straightforward. You use your little European car as a joystick, aligning a never ending torrent of shapes with the steering wheel, or growing tired of the ages old game and moving on to other car-controlled titles like Space Invaders, Pong or Flatout. Clip via Make.