Tetris is an awesome game, let’s not split hairs. It’s also one of Nick15’s most favorite games, not in the least because he’s really really good at it. In fact, in his entire life, only one person has been able to consistently best him in it.
This page covers Nick15’s various thoughts and ideas on Tetris, both overall as a game idea, as well as thoughts on the various games.
- Tips & Techniques
- Reviews of various Tetris games
- ….?
More to come soon!
I play too much Tetris. Well, not that that’s a bad thing, per se. That said, I’ve been playing four different Tetris games:
- Tetris DX
- Tetris (NES)
- Tetris 99
- Tetris Primetime
The latter has daily contests at 7:30pm, with different formats each day. Those formats are:
| DAY OF WEEK | FORMAT NAME | ROUNDS | SPEED | GARBAGE | IDEAL SCORE |
| Sunday | Endurance Mode | 7 | Moderate | Unclearable | 244000 |
| Monday | Interval Training | 6 | Low | Well | 107000 |
| Tuesday | Danger Zone | 8 | Moderate | Unclearable | 215000 |
| Wednesday | Feeding Frenzy | 6 | Moderate | Random | 231000 |
| Thursday | Don’t Blink | 5 | High | Random | 204000 |
| Friday | Champion Mode | 6 | High | Unclearable | 422000 |
| Saturday | Fast Fingers | 6 | High | Well | 160000 |
The columns should be self-explanatory; the “Rounds”, “Speed” and “Garbage” values were all given by the game itself. The “Ideal Score” column is based on the total “Points” required to remove Garbage lines for all rounds. Note that “Champion Mode” has, by far, the highest score needed to stay Garbage free.
As for what the actual “Speed” and “Garbage” values mean, here’s the list:
- SPEED: Tetris Primetime has speed levels between 1 and 15, with 15 being the highest. However, 15 is NOTHING like the “20G” mode from stuff like Akira’s Tetris series, so even if it’s the fastest, it’s still managable to play. Furthermore, the levels listed below is only seen in the final round of the format, meaning that Round 1 starts off at Lv 1 or 2, and the remaining rounds work up to the highest speed level of that rating.
- Low = highest speed level is 6
- Moderate = highest speed level is between 8 and 10
- High = highest speed level is 15
- GARBAGE: if you don’t meet the threshold for points in each round, a certain amount of garbage blocks will appear at the bottom of the play area, pushing what you’ve already placed upwards. What kind of garbage you’ll get may be one of the following:
- Unclearable = pretty obvious; you can’t clear these blocks, period.
- Well = when garbage blocks are added, there is a hole of emptiness where you might be able to slip in an I-piece to clear it easily.
- Random = the garbage blocks are randomly placed, with randomly placed empty spaces as well
The names of each Formats give you a sort of clue as to the kind of gameplay you’ll see for the day. Sorta. I still don’t get “Feeding Frenzy”. Either way, here’s what to expect:
| DAY OF WEEK | FORMAT NAME | WHAT TO EXPECT |
| Sunday | Endurance Mode | Each round gets harder and faster: more points in order to pass, more garbage coming your way, faster drops, and more time to try to deal with it all. |
| Monday | Interval Training | Each pair of rounds (1&2, 3&4 and 5&6) have similar formats, with the first of the pair being a quicker version of the second of the pair. |
| Tuesday | Danger Zone | Danger Zone is basically a somewhat easier version of Endurance Mode. |
| Wednesday | Feeding Frenzy | Feeding Frenzy is basically a reversed version of Interval Training. However, each pair is set up such that the first is the harder round (perhaps “the main course”), while the second of the two is easier (say, “a light desert”). |
| Thursday | Don’t Blink | Rounds get insanely quick, with the last round being the fastest. I guess “Don’t Blink” means that you’ll lose before you know it if you blink. |
| Friday | Champion Mode | This is an insane mode. Only the best of the best can dare survive this. |
| Saturday | Fast Fingers | This is another “pair” format, like Interval Training and Feeding Frenzy. But in this case the second round of the pair is an insanely quicker version of the first of the pair… so you’d better have some “fast fingers” if you expect to survive until the end. |
As for what exactly happens in each round for each format… here’s a handy list. You can see exactly how each format is set up, thus earning its name.
| DAY OF WEEK | FORMAT NAME | ROUND # | TIME | POINTS | PTS TO REMOVE LINE | GARBAGE ROWS | LEVEL |
| Sunday | Endurance Mode | 1 | 0m30s | 1000 | 1000 | 1 | 2 |
| Sunday | Endurance Mode | 2 | 1m00s | 5000 | 2500 | 2 | 3 |
| Sunday | Endurance Mode | 3 | 1m00s | 6000 | 2000 | 3 | 3 |
| Sunday | Endurance Mode | 4 | 1m00s | 13000 | 3250 | 4 | 5 |
| Sunday | Endurance Mode | 5 | 1m30s | 34000 | 6800 | 5 | 7 |
| Sunday | Endurance Mode | 6 | 2m00s | 68000 | 13600 | 5 | 9 |
| Sunday | Endurance Mode | 7 | 3m00s | 117000 | 23400 | 5 | 10 |
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| Monday | Interval Training | 1 | 1m00s | 3000 | 750 | 4 | 2 |
| Monday | Interval Training | 2 | 2m00s | 5000 | 1250 | 4 | 2 |
| Monday | Interval Training | 3 | 1m00s | 7000 | 1167 | 6 | 4 |
| Monday | Interval Training | 4 | 2m00s | 20000 | 3333 | 6 | 4 |
| Monday | Interval Training | 5 | 1m00s | 21000 | 2625 | 8 | 6 |
| Monday | Interval Training | 6 | 2m00s | 51000 | 6375 | 8 | 6 |
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| Tuesday | Danger Zone | 1 | 1m00s | 1000 | 1000 | 1 | 1 |
| Tuesday | Danger Zone | 2 | 1m00s | 4000 | 4000 | 1 | 2 |
| Tuesday | Danger Zone | 3 | 1m00s | 7000 | 3500 | 2 | 3 |
| Tuesday | Danger Zone | 4 | 1m00s | 11000 | 5500 | 2 | 4 |
| Tuesday | Danger Zone | 5 | 1m00s | 16000 | 5333 | 3 | 5 |
| Tuesday | Danger Zone | 6 | 1m00s | 24000 | 8000 | 3 | 6 |
| Tuesday | Danger Zone | 7 | 2m00s | 65000 | 16250 | 4 | 7 |
| Tuesday | Danger Zone | 8 | 2m00s | 87000 | 21750 | 4 | 8 |
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| Wednesday | Feeding Frenzy | 1 | 2m00s | 13000 | 2600 | 5 | 3 |
| Wednesday | Feeding Frenzy | 2 | 1m00s | 2000 | 667 | 3 | 3 |
| Wednesday | Feeding Frenzy | 3 | 2m00s | 14000 | 2800 | 5 | 5 |
| Wednesday | Feeding Frenzy | 4 | 1m00s | 7000 | 2333 | 3 | 5 |
| Wednesday | Feeding Frenzy | 5 | 2m00s | 67000 | 13400 | 5 | 8 |
| Wednesday | Feeding Frenzy | 6 | 2m00s | 128000 | 42667 | 3 | 8 |
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| Thursday | Don’t Blink | 1 | 2m00s | 11000 | 3667 | 3 | 4 |
| Thursday | Don’t Blink | 2 | 2m00s | 20000 | 5000 | 4 | 6 |
| Thursday | Don’t Blink | 3 | 2m00s | 46000 | 9200 | 5 | 8 |
| Thursday | Don’t Blink | 4 | 2m00s | 67000 | 11167 | 6 | 10 |
| Thursday | Don’t Blink | 5 | 1m00s | 60000 | 20000 | 3 | 15 |
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| Friday | Champion Mode | 1 | 2m00s | 10000 | 2500 | 4 | 2 |
| Friday | Champion Mode | 2 | 2m00s | 23000 | 5750 | 4 | 4 |
| Friday | Champion Mode | 3 | 2m00s | 44000 | 7333 | 6 | 6 |
| Friday | Champion Mode | 4 | 2m00s | 66000 | 11000 | 6 | 8 |
| Friday | Champion Mode | 5 | 2m00s | 93000 | 11625 | 8 | 10 |
| Friday | Champion Mode | 6 | 2m00s | 186000 | 23250 | 8 | 15 |
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| Saturday | Fast Fingers | 1 | 2m00s | 6000 | 6000 | 1 | 3 |
| Saturday | Fast Fingers | 2 | 0m20s | 3000 | 3000 | 1 | 8 |
| Saturday | Fast Fingers | 3 | 2m00s | 25000 | 12500 | 2 | 5 |
| Saturday | Fast Fingers | 4 | 0m40s | 17000 | 8500 | 2 | 10 |
| Saturday | Fast Fingers | 5 | 2m00s | 49000 | 16333 | 3 | 7 |
| Saturday | Fast Fingers | 6 | 1m00s | 60000 | 20000 | 3 | 15 |
Any more details? Lemme get back to you.