Tetris Battle Gaiden

テトリス武闘外伝

This tetris game has the following unique features.

1) both players draw from the same 3 piece preview. whoever places the next peice gets the one at the top.

2) some tetrominos have orbs in them. clearing lines with them collects them. This brings a lot of strategy for the timing of your piece drops becaue you want to get the ones with orbs, and leave the ones without orbs for the opponent.  However you also want to let the opponent have the pieces you don't have a spot for, and get the ones you do want.

3) when you have 1 orb, you can usually use a small attack or a defensive move, 2 orbs usually messes with the other person's screen or controls, 4 is a powerful attack, and 3 is something unique and different for each character. The pumkin guy's 3 orb move, for example, is to steal the opponent's collected orbs.

Basic strategy follows, for use against computers and humans.

1) try not to let the opponent get any pieces with orbs. Because the pieces with orbs come every N pieces (settable in options) it's pretty easy to get in to a rhythm that lets you grab all of the orbs, unless your opponent is also aware of this trick.  If you manage to starve the opponent of orbs, you are pretty much guaranteed a win.  Note that while the CPU is smart enough to attempt to snag Is sometimes, it does not know to go for the pieces with orbs. This is just as well, because you'd never get a single orb if it did.

2) If it look like your opponent is going to place their piece first, and you want the orb, use an attack if you have one to snag it, even if it is level 1. This is a strategic attack.  This is also a good way to snag Is, and provided you've starved your opponent of orbs to this point, there's NOTHING they can do about it.

3) if an opponent does get a piece with an orb, immediately use an attack to make it pop off of his screen uncollected. Yet another form of strategic attack, and easier to do to boot.  Also useful when the opponet's current piece is an I.  Again, your opponent is completely helpless against this move.

4) if the opponent does manage to place it and you have the character that can steal gems from the opponent's field, do it before he can collect them. This move really annoys them.

5) if the opponent does collect them, steal if you have the pumpkin before he decides to use them. This one annoys them even more. :)

6) if all this fails, keep your stack low and wait for your opponent to use the orbs, and try to keep more of them away from him. As every line cleared is sent to the opponent, even singles, it is sometimes possible to outrace your opponent and force him to keep using level 1s, and eventually win.

As soon as you've got a full set of orbs, use your level 4 when it looks like your opponent is not gonna be able to recover and snag some of their own. Many opponents have level 1 recovery "attacks" that tend to make mincemeat of level 4 attacks, so depriving the opponent of orbs is very important.

Level 2 attacks are useless against the cpu. DO not bother, unless you are trying to steal or destroy an orb piece or an I. Some of them are very effective against humans, though.