Tetris Primetime Formats

The Actual News:

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 is a new version of Tetris which has appeared on mobile platforms, which I’ve talked about just recently. Part of the fun of playing Tetris Primetime one over the others is that it has daily contests at 7:30pm, with different formats each day. However, I can’t seem to find ANYTHING about the contests, in any way, shape or form! I refuse to ask leddit for more info, though I’m not adverse to searching it… but even then no one seems to have any info regardless.

So, I decided to answer my own questions for myself… then post it for everyone else here to see. That’s how things work here on PA!: I do the legwork, and then someone posts all of my work on Bulbapedia. (jk, I keed, I keed…)

Anyways, the Tetris Prime formats are as follows. The following list is the information that is shown on screen just before the start of the match.

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:

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.

….

And that’s about it for the Tetris Primetime formats! Hopefully knowing this gives you a leg-up in the competitions every night… or at least a better chance to earn some delicious $5. Huzzah!