Nintendo Color TV Game Block Kuzushi

Color TV Game Block Kuzushi was released on April 23, 1979 at ¥13,500. The system was produced in-house by Nintendo, allowing their name to be prominently displayed. Block Kuzushi includes six variations of Breakout, an arcade game released in America by Atari. Nintendo themselves released a clone of Breakout titled Block Fever for Japanese arcades in 1978. Rival company Epoch released the TV Block console in Japan, which was successful and gave way to steady competition by other companies, including Nintendo. The system's casing was designed by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto. It is one of his first video game projects after joining Nintendo in 1977. The built-in games for Racing 112 and Block Kuzushi were designed by Takehiro Izushi. Nintendo held competitions in department stores to promote the Block Kuzushi, where winners received a congratulatory note and a medal.