It certainly doesn't make for a good name, but Tuper Tario Tros.—seriously!—at least makes for an interesting concept. The Flash-based game recreates most of Super Mario Bros. World 1-1, letting the player fill in the blanks and reach new heights by dropping tetriminoes from a Lakitu to build new platforms and drop mushrooms.

Tuper Tario Tros. is a fun experiment, but after years of being conditioned to press the space bar to jump, it's not the easiest thing in the world to play. But play it anyway.

Tuper Tario Tros. [Newgrounds via Waxy]

Playing Tetris will never, ever be the same. Now we have a focus for our frustration and anger. I hope that actor is prepared to be punched in the face on a regular basis.

Thanks David!

Reader Kyle, an entrant in the exhibit, sent us in these two videos of his creations. One, above, is a game of Mario, hacked so that your actions on-screen determine the kind of drink the robot will pour you. The other, below, is the same deal, only this time, it's Tetris.

So, yes, to recap: robot bartenders that play video games. We've never wanted to live somewhere closer to Vienna in our lives.

[Nonpolynomial Labs Roboexotica Projects]

Tetris Giant, which features giant tetrominoes and giant joysticks, was just one of many brilliant innovations on hand at the IAAPA 2009 show in Las Vegas last week, a show expertly covered by arcade coverage experts Arcade Heroes. Trust us, you've never seen a Tetris like this before, because it's bigger than previous versions.

Also on hand at the show are highlights like the Excite Truck-like Hummer arcade game (also from Sega), the remade Daytona USA known generically as Sega Racing Classic and the brilliantly named Tank! Tank! Tank! That last one is apparently Namco's spiritual successor to competitive arcade classic Tokyo Wars.

For more coverage of the IAAPA show, which features even more deluxe arcade cabinets upon which to sit, hit up Arcade Heroes.

More IAAPA 2009 videos – Tetris Giant, Hummer, Twisted (+ NASCAR 2 news) & more [Arcade Heroes]

"Mainly I've used an x-acto knife and three tiny screwdrivers to do most of the carving," ceemdee said in an email. "I used some wood carving tools to scrap out the bigger areas on a few of the pumpkins and a needle is used to trace the image. They were all carved in the last four weeks. It's actually only four pumpkins (one a week) with three carvings on each. :)"

You can check out unlit views of the pumpkins here.

Got any more? Send pictures of 'em my way!

[via Neatorama]

But, I'm going to take a stab at it anyway with the upcoming downloadable installment of Tetris on the PSP Go.

What Is It?
Tetris on the PSP Go is a downloadable game that includes all the classic gameplay modes plus 12 common variations.

What We Saw
I saw the game I fell in love with 20 years ago. The colors were different and so was the music – but it felt pretty much the same for the 15 minutes I spent with it.

How Far Along Is It?
Tetris will be available when the PSP Go launches October 1.

What Needs Improvement?
That's… It? You can find Tetris almost everywhere these days – cell phones, flash game websites, the Wii, maybe even your dishwasher. You might even have a copy of it for Gameboy lying around you could still play. So to justify spending more money on a game I've 1) already paid for and 2) could probably program in Java for free, I'm going to need more incentive than just new music, some variations to gameplay and a different color scheme to the interface.

No Korobeiniki: Boo!

What Should Stay The Same?
Potential DLC Stuff: The 12 variations included at launch are good ones to have – clear 40 lines, treadmill mode where the playing field moves horizontally one space at a time as you play – but there are so many variations in the history of Tetris that the developer would have their pick for downloadable content in the future. Hey, they could even come up with something new if such a thing is possible.

Master Replays: For each mode, there's a video you can watch of a developer completing the mode in record time or with a maximum score. It's amazing to watch and can inspire you to develop new approaches to an old favorite.

Final Thoughts
I take Tetris for granted because it's been in my life so long. I expect the Korobeiniki song or some remix thereof and I don't expect to pay to play the game. You could say that I'm spoiled – or maybe that I've become a crotchety old person – and I'd have to say you're right. But it doesn't change the fact what makes Tetris special is nostalgia. And at the very least, the PSP Go version has that.

Or at least the brains of adolescent girls, who were the subject of the study, funded by Tetris marketer Blue Planet Software. Adolescent girls' brains are still developing, as any adolescent boy can tell you, so their brains are more susceptible to the sort of change Haier was looking for, and change he indeed found. The girls were given MRI scans before and after three months of Tetris, and after the testing period it was found that certain areas (in blue above) showed greater efficiency, while others (in red) showed thicker cortexes, indicating more brain matter.

Future benefits of this study, says co-investigator Dr. Richard Haier, might be to "demonstrate that a player of Tetris does see lasting effects that generalize to other activity," showing for example that engaging in activities like playing some games might help fight off the mental decline that occurs with aging.

The full study is being published in Thursday's BMC Research Notes, but we get the general gist. Adolescent girls who play Tetris on a regular basis grow up to be completely awesome.

How Tetris Changes Your Brain [Wired]

Geek Cruising with The Woz [Boing Boing Gadgets]

Normally, you don't see Moogle-related fashion items when searching for Final Fantasy apparel. I had a particularly fruitless search for someone's Christmas present a few years back that ended in a lousy key chain and damaged friendship. Depending on how much Reese charges for his custom-made kicks, I can maybe count on repairing it a little with some Moogle shoe love.

That, or I can just keep them for myself. In which case, I may want to consider his Tetris-inspired designs instead. So pretty.

Keep in mind, however, that Reese's designs are sometimes little more than expert Photoshop jobs. "At the moment, the designs I put together are only concepts," he writes on his blog. But he's willing to take commissions to make concept reality.

Customized Kicks To Express Your Inner Moogle (And Other Game Characters) [GameSetWatch]

Behind the scenes: How Tetris blocks are made [Offworld via BoingBoing]

It's not the first gaming to fashion connection we've seen, but with Swedish label Odeur recently being pegged for nods to Silent Hill's Pyramid Head, we only need one more loose relationship before we call it a trend. Then we can be trendy!

Go ahead. Mock high concept fashion if you must, but the next time you find yourself emaciated and wan in a moldy basement with nothing to comfort you but two tubes of fluorescent lighting, you're gonna wish you had that hat. Mark my words.

Timothy James Andrews: A-Block-A-Brick-Toe [Dazed via .tiff]

Alexey Pajitnov developed the puzzle game while working at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1985. In 1991, he and Henk Rogers founded the Tetris Company to prolong the life of the casual classic.

"I expected it to be a good game, not worse than anything else," Pajitnov told Kotaku recently. "I never expected this."

His hand in creating not just Tetris but the casual games market has earned him, of not money, than at least a sort of fame.

"People ask me, 'Are you still alive? I think you are a legend,'" Pajitnov said about his experience wandering the halls of E3 this year.

While Pajitnov remains a lifelong Tetris player, he did once try his hand at creating a game that wasn't a puzzler. Ice and Fire was a first-person shoot released in 1994. It was also, as Pajitnov says, a complete failure.

Pajitinov returned to puzzle creations with games like Pandora's Box and Hexic HD, but his greatest success still remains Tetris.

"We don't look at Tetris as being a retro game," said Rogers. "It did more last year than any year it its history. We don't have to market it. Tetris is ten percent of all games sold on mobile phones."

While the classic remains popular, Rogers and Pajitnov continue to iterate Tetris. Their latest version features six people gaming together online using the familiar pieces and also new attack and defense items. It is currently being tested in Korea.

"That's an interesting evolution of Tetris," Rogers said. "The future is a country that has 48 million people living in it and the biggest casual gaming site in the country has 24 million registered users. That country is Korea. That's what's going to happen in the rest of the world."

The next evolution for the game, Rogers hopes, will be turning it into a competitive sport.

"We are going to turn Tetris into the first real virtual sport," Rogers said. "Sports like baseball and football were created at a time when our future was a lifetime of physical activities and physical fitness. But now that's not as important, it's more about mental fitness today."

"Tetris is a virtual sport that exercises the mind. That is the definition of a virtual sport."

With Tetris available on so many things, from phones to consoles, t-shirts to jewelry, I asked Pajitnov what his favorite Tetris spotting was.

"On a sky scraper," he said. "I heard about it and saw the pictures and thought, 'Wow, that's great, that's something.' I would like to have a real competition on that."

Hardcore Tetris Pornography [Topless Robot]