It's ancient news to everyone now, but Tetris The Grand Master 4 has been in development hell for well over 10 years. The general consensus is that Arika's style and general presentation does not sit well with the Tetris Company, and thus will not grant them a license for it. They can still make a good Tetris, though, and proved it with Tetris 99. TTC will always favour their standardized SRS at the end of the day, but it's not TGM without Arika's own rotation system. Unfortunately, TGM games are hard to find legitimate copies of, and even then, can be extremely difficult to play and maintain. A few forum users here have previously posted about the deterioration of your Terror-Instinct USBs going bad, which can turn your Taito Type X into a large paperweight. A new installment would allow further expansion of this niche playerbase and thrust TGM back into the competitive spotlight, where Tetris Effect and NES Tetris currently are. Let's think of ways Arika can make the Tetris they truly want to make. While I was humdrumming through my day at work I put together a few points Arika could consider implementing at the very least to make TTC happy: Ghost piece for the entire game, instead of just up to level 100: This is a small indulgence, especially since it won't matter at 20G. Visible gridlines for the playing field. Again, another small indulgence. It doesn't have to be too pronounced and would be beneficial for new players. Full implementation of SRS aside from ARS. Instead of the modified ARS that was "World", Arika should have no problem implementing SRS. Torikans should be tighter for people playing with it though, just like TI! Spawning new pieces above the playing field. Another one from the pages of standard Tetris, this is more of a quality of life change and should allow people to play more dangerously. TTC loves T-spins, and I think we should too. Allow T-spins to advance the level counter for double their lines cleared, it seems only fair. T-spins do take a bit of skill to master, but I don't know (haven't tried) if T-spin triples work in ARS. So... Updating ARS to allow better T-spins. I feel weird saying this because suggesting changes to ARS feels like heresy. I'm not going to apologize for the next one though. Updating ARS so that every piece has four orientations. What do I mean by this? Currently, only the L, J and T pieces have possible orientations. However, the I, S and Z pieces have only two, and O has only one. See below: This oversight in Sega Rotation and ARS locks players out of making left-side Tetris wells unless they know what they are doing. In TI, Arika changed ARS to give the I piece specialized kicks to allow left-side wells as well as general quality of life. I think this change will give further quality of life to Classic mode and boost the friendliness of Classic, which will appease TTC. I won't blame them if they don't make extra rotations for the O piece, but I don't put much stock in O-spins (sorry Oshisaure!) Adding a Marathon mode. Another crowd-pleaser for TTC. This can also have a separate time attack alongside Kamui and Konoha. Making the score counter visible again. Whether Arika makes score matter is up in the air, but it's generally a good indicator for players if they're doing well or not. Perhaps reworking the existing score system to be more in line with grade might be cool. Honourable mention: Home computer and console release. This is the most obvious choice for expanding the playerbase, and can also implement netplay for competitive versus play, and online accounts with leaderboards. The part holding me back is that legitimate versions of TGM4 would be subject to tinkerers who will probably modify and hack the piss out of it, which Arika definitely wouldn't want. This would allow people to figure out how all the modes work almost immediately, and it will be harder to tell on an online leaderboard who truly earned their GM. (Yes, people have done this with TAP and TI, but it took a very long time to get to that point.) Also, how do you convince people the "proper" way to play is with an arcade stick? Another notion in my mind is that TGM's true home is on a sitdown candy cabinet, no matter where it is. I can't comment much on Versus or Doubles because I haven't had a chance to play them myself. I also can't comment on how they could possibly make the game harder than TI to compensate for all of the changes I've proposed. I know Doubles is popular enough that Arika might also consider introducing it again. Arika might also consider expanding next piece to 5 pieces instead of 3, which has become standard. I'd love to see your suggestions for the game we may likely never see.
"but I don't know (haven't tried) if T-spin triples work in ARS." None of the rotations of ARS allow getting T into a triple. The previous state of T would have to be either below (which is itself unreachable) or above (ARS has no down kicks). "Updating ARS to allow better T-spins. " Does that mean not only can rotating to the up pointing state kick up, but also rotating from the up pointing state could kick down? "Spawning new pieces above the playing field." How far above? To make partial lock out instead of block out the rule for Tetris Death? To make lock out or block out the rule, like in modern Tetris? Above 23 to make lock out the only rule? "Updating ARS so that every piece has four orientations." So the ISZ would be like SRS basic rotations but spawning upside down and with ARS kicks?
i don't know if this is a good idea honestly. like, it is a TGM game, not a guideline one. also, it would be closer to SRS than ARS wich i find really good , especially in TGM 3. this is just my opinion, but if you think it would make the game better, i dont't mind. thank you for reading.
So sorry guys. I got caught up with having a Real Job (TM) that I haven't given myself the time to form a response. I did a quick test and I guess T-spin triples really wouldn't work unless it were SRS. Still, World mode would be able to do it without a problem, and this is where standard and Arika have diverged to becoming two totally different beasts. I think the only way for me to reach the T-piece rotation changes I described in my initial post would simply be to use SRS but not locking on hard drops. As far as where new pieces spawn, row 21 or 22 would be good enough. Tetris Effect spawns with the lowest part of a tetromino at row 21 so that would be fine. Finally regarding piece orientation, I think it's only logical that every piece has four orientations. ARS can still occur as long as the piece would fit in its respective orientation and if anything may allow for more diverse play within ARS. I thought some more about home releases of TGM. I take back what I said; a home release is probably the only realistic way to release the game now, but it should also be in arcades. It would be the easiest way for people to enjoy Arika's iteration of the great puzzle game we all love so much.
