I seriously can't stop playing Tetris.
I remember going to my grandparents' house when I was a wee little thing and "playing" Tetris on my grandpa's ancient NES. By "playing" I mean stacking all the blocks into a single skinny tower every single round. I never got very far.
Eventually someone must have taught me how to play the game, how to stack a tower so that when you got a straight block you could clear four lines at once, because I at some point started paying Tetris religiously.
Very religiously.
We bought Tetris for the Gameboy Color at some other point. My whole family, save ol' pop, played. We would leave the Gameboy out on the coffee table and in our spare time would battle against each other's high scores.
My mom was the unbeatable one; my belief is that she's so good at Tetris because of her OCD. I mean ... the whole game is organization.
My brother was next highest, also with OCD.
Then my sister.
Then little ol' me.
Regardless of how hard I tried, I could never beat my family's scores. I could never get that giant rocket to blast off! So in times of frustration I would stop playing. Maybe for a few months, maybe for a few years, but I could never seem to kick the habit entirely.
Two years ago or so I played Tetris DS for the first time, and realized that all the pitting myself against my family actually made me good at Tetris (my family, however, was always better). Turns out I could beat all of my friends easily.
So I played Tetris again on the same old Gameboy Color. I was too cheap to buy Tetris DS for myself.
And then I stopped playing again for a while. I played a little bit during the last two years, finally getting that giant rocket to blast off consistently every time I played, finally beating some of my family's old high scores.
And then ub3rslug linked me just a few days ago to tetrisfriends.com.
And my ego has been completely crushed.
I started out having a really grand old time, beating the crap out of all the other Tetris players, leveling up, kicking ass and taking names in general. And then I got to level 11, "professional."
I lost games.
Turns out I get pretty angry when I lose at Tetris. I thought it was my one special talent! But alas, I lost multiple times. Got angry. Said I hated Tetris. Swore off Tetris!
And yet back I go.
I won't let those Tetris Fiends keep beating me ..!
I won't stop playing Tetris!
(I can't stop playing Tetris, someone for the love of anything, help me.)

(Also: Retro? Sure, why not.)