Earlier this week, the White House launched Arcade.gov, a browser-based portal featuring retro-style arcade games designed to promote President Donald Trump's administration policies. The website features clones of classic games adapted with political themes.
One of the games, "Build the Wall," is a Tetris knockoff that tasks players with building a wall to protect the southern border from "the coming horde." The game portrays incoming immigrants as zombie-like creatures invading.
I took a few minutes to play the game and, well, it doesn't really follow the rules of Tetris. There's no line clearing. You just stack the blocks as high as they go, and then it ends. But that's not really the point. It's designed to promote Trump's agenda while tapping into gamer culture.
The website features other knockoffs, including "Rio Run," a clone of the mobile game Snake that challenges players to patrol a line along the river, pick up "every cross in the lot" and deport them. "Flappy Bill" is a knockoff of the viral game Flappy Bird and follows an eagle as it carries a bill across the National Mall, perhaps the least controversial game on the website. There's also "Supply Line," inspired by the arcade game Tapper, where players must sort through school lunch food items to "Make America Healthy Again."
To promote the website, the official White House social channels have also spoofed iconic gaming brands and console intros, including SEGA and Xbox.
While most of the video game companies whose games or branding have been mimicked have largely ignored the White House's posts, The Tetris Company has now issued a response.
"At Tetris, we believe in the power of connection and bringing people together, not dividing them," the company said. "To our fans everywhere: we love you, we see you, and we're grateful to have you in our community."
The Tetris Company also confirmed it was not involved in the creation of "Build the Wall," adding: "We take copyright infringement very seriously."
Funnily enough, as multiple people have pointed out, the ultimate goal of Tetris is to break the walls. You make the walls disappear by bringing all sorts of different pieces together.
The Arcade.gov website says more games are coming soon, so it doesn't sound like this is the end of it.