Tong is the result of mixing the two, capitalizing on the essential qualities of each classic and adding new twists of its own to make an explosive chemical reaction out of it all.

Why? Why play Tetris and Pong in the same place at the same time? It is weird, that's for sure.

Tetris and Pong work different parts of your brain, parts that like to have your full attention to themselves. So right at first, Tong can seem a bit overwhelming.

As it turns out, though, for all the zillions of variations and clones we've had of Pong and Tetris over the years, putting the two together actually makes the "twists" and "extras" make sense.

In Arkanoid, Break-out, Brick-out, etc, what are these blocks doing in the middle of a Pong game? In various Tetris clones, where do the new, non-four-block shapes come from and what's with the explosives and other bonuses?

Well, when Pong and Tetris are going on simultaneously and in the same space, all that stuff and many more clever ideas suddenly aren't little novelties, they're sensible parts of a frantic game.