Tetris, the addictive, geometric video game created in Russia and licensed to Hawaii-based Blue Planet Software Inc., has racked up more than 100 million paid downloads since 2005—more than any other, the company says.

Blue Planet Chief Executive Officer Henk Rogers was to make that announcement this morning at a news conference in Montreal. It has been home to EA Mobile, exclusive publisher of mobile editions of Tetris, including for the Apple Inc. App Store, since 2006

Tetris features plummeting shapes, called Tetriminos, that players align and fit together to form and then clear solid rows from the game screen. While addictive, research published in BMC Research Notes in September found that study participants who played the game showed increased brain efficiency and, in some cases, an increase in brain tissue.

“;The fact that Tetris is the only game that has surpassed the 100 million paid mobile phone downloads mark is huge,”; Rogers said in an exclusive advance statement released to TheBuzz yesterday.

“;This is not only an amazing achievement for Tetris—on the level of (the movie) “;Titanic”; making over $1 billion—it is a new benchmark for the entire computer game industry.”;

That the milestone was achieved by a Hawaii-based company “;says great things about the future of Hawaii as a center for development and management of intellectual property,”; he said.

“;Hawaii can and will become one of the centers of intellectual property creation in the future. Mark my words.”;

Since its rise to global popularity beginning with the 1989 distribution for the Game Boy hand-held video game device, Tetris has been sold for nearly every gaming platform.

“;Tetris is the biggest franchise in mobile gaming, which speaks to the evergreen nature of the brand and the fact that it translates to any platform,”; said Adam Sussman, vice president of Worldwide Publishing for EA Mobile, in a statement. “;Our strong relationship with Blue Planet Software has enabled us to optimally adapt Tetris to the ever-evolving handset market while keeping the true spirit of the game alive.”;

Cheap car rentals

Car rental rates in Honolulu are the fourth-cheapest in the U.S., according to online travel site Hotwire.com.

The lowest-priced rentals were in Orlando, Fla., San Diego; and Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., according to the site, which also reported that January car rental rates are down as much as 20 percent from last month in some of the most popular markets. (Think Las Vegas.)

The economic downturn and resulting dip in travel saw car rental companies maintaining smaller fleets, but some are increasing fleets in certain markets, leading to greater choice and better prices for consumers, Hotwire reported.