25 years ago, Russia introduced the world to its greatest cultural achievement, Tetris. The original falling-block puzzle game Tetris has “inspired” thousands of knock-offs and has appeared on nearly every device ever created. If it has buttons, it can play Tetris. If it can play Tetris, is has Tetris.

Created by Alexy Pajitnov, a humble and modest computor programmer, Tetris has taken the world and culture into its grasp and has held on to it longer than anything I can think of. For 25 years people have fallen into the clutches of of Tetris’ simple and addictive gameplay, never to escape. It’s a magic that has yet to be matched by any game.

Heck, even Google is celebrating Tetris’ birthday with an awesome Tetris themed logo for today.

So happy birthday Tetris, thanks for the good times without all those nasty needle-tracks caused by some other addictions.