Tetris 2(NES) FAQ by Andrew Schultz [email protected]
Version 1.0.0 copyright 2006

Please do not reproduce for profit without my consent. You won't be getting
much profit anyway, but that's not the point. This took time and effort, and
I just wanted to save a memory of a great game and the odd solutions any way
I could. Please send me an email referring to me and this guide by name if
you'd like to post it on your site.

================================

           OUTLINE

 1. INTRODUCTION

 2. GENERAL

   2-1. CONTROLS

   2-2. POINTS

   2-3. INTERLUDES

 3. CHEATS AND STRATEGIES

 4. VERSIONS

 5. CREDITS

================================

 1. INTRODUCTION

Tetris 2 features falling 4-blocks like the original Tetris only with a few
differences. First, no boxes! (Yay.) Second, you have Y- and extended L-
shaped pieces you can break off to sneak smaller sub-pieces in. And matches
are decided not by filling a whole row but by getting a column/row of 3 of
the same color. You have solid blocks to start out with, much like Dr Mario,
but instead of clearing everything out you only need to clear out the bottom
three solid blocks--one of each color, green, yellow and red, to get to the
next level. After which a whole new bunch of solid bricks appears.

You also can make all non-solid blocks of one color vanish with a 6-pair, or
if you clear the bottom solid block, all the other solids go. You can also
break up a piece that's landed. Gravity works but as pieces fall, they are
attached until a sub-square of the piece becomes part of a row/column.

Most of the fun of Tetris 2 is when you can drill down to let a single block
move around the bottom to facilitate a match. Or figuring how to do this
elegantly.

This game doesn't have much of a walkthrough--you can start at level 30 and
work your way up to level 90--but it has plenty of nuances and even some cut
scenes. Given that the emphasis is more on intricate solutions than survival,
the game is a bit less mechanical. But the last few levels are similar and
will probably kick your butt the first ten times.

In this FAQ solids refer to what's there at the start and softs refer to what
you drop.

 2. GENERAL

   2-1. CONTROLS

A = clockwise rotate
B = counterclockwise rotate

Rotation works as follows: you will rotate around a center piece unless there
is no clear obvious one. If in doubt quickly rotate and un-rotate to see
where the center is. This means different things for

b
yy
r

Which y does it rotate around?

OR with a 4-long, where does it fall? For broken-up pieces it is pretty
obvious where they need to rotate around.

There are noncontiguous pieces where if part of one lands, you can move the
other part(s) around. These noncontiguous pieces are helpful for filling in
gaps.

Down speeds things up and you can go left/right too.
Select=pause

Low speed=3
Medium=6
High=9
Speed increases for each minute you cannot solve around. I've been able to
navigate on 14 speed, but that was at a lower level. Usually, you want to get
going quickly and make a hole far down.

   2-2. POINTS

You can get a bonus of up to 1000*(level #) if you get things finished
quickly. I used 4 pieces on level 3 and got 3000 and managed 11000 on 9 with
some good luck. Still you get more points on average for just grinding it out
and you need a little luck to get the bonus.

As for single matches: 10 for each non-star, 20 for each star. Sum up the
total of all rows and columns formed. So if you have a row of 2 stars and 2
building pieces, that means you get 60 points.

Then you get more for each column/row in a chain. In fact the point total
doubles. Let's look at 2 ways to do things.

G
GRY
vvv
GR
GR

The above would net 70 points for squares, but you would get a multiplier of
2. So it would be 140 total. Any chain reactions after would get the
multiplier doubled again.
 G
 GYY
 v
R
R
GG
RR

Here you would get 40 points for the first fall(green) + 30*2 for the red.

You do not get any points after you knock out the last solid block to solve a
level.

   2-3. INTERLUDES

Level 10: distant star goes DL down the screen. Crashes and explodes.

Level 20: glowing ball drops in the noon desert. Person takes ball and
carries it off the screen.

Level 30: person carries ball from right of center to center. Then it
levitates and vanishes off the top of the screen.

Level 40: ball spins to center of galaxy, squares latch on to it and it glows
and bursts. The screen says "TETRIS 2".

Level 50: dark view of mountains. Flash in the night sky. Meteor shower
eventually fades away.

Level 60: glowing ball drops in the noon desert. Dinosaur notes it and head-
butts it left off the screen.

Level 70: dinosaur continues to head-butt it. It levitates. Dinosaur gawks
and tries to babble.

Level 80: same as 40.

Level 90: You see the crash, then the game ends.

   2-4. LEVEL SPECIFICATIONS

Each level has 3 solid blocks on the bottom and only 3 for you to zap to go
to the next level. Each row on the level can have no more than 5 solids.

From level 1 to level 10, you have (2x+4) pieces up to row (x+2). This means
two solid blocks per row on average--in fact, one row will have fewer than
two. But from then on it gets trickier.

From level 11 to level 30, you still have (2x+4) pieces. The # of rows
increases every 5 levels, up to 18 at level 70. However, after 30 the # of
pieces increases by 2 at 5x/5x+2, until 40. Then it increasesat 5x, up to a
maximum of 80 at 80.

What this means is that levels start out sparse enough to be able to drop
stuff to the bottom and you should be able to drop 2 of 1 color down pretty
regularly until level 11, when you don't get any more rows, but you start
getting more solids.

   2-5. SHAPE BREAKDOWNS

Shapes appear based first randomly based on shape than on all possible
shape/color combos. It seems they are mostly tri-colored, with the exception
being occasional L's and 4-longs. The color with 2 squares has them linked.

First, let's go with the discontinuous ones.

.
.
.

There are 12 different such pieces...you can have

r y r r
b   y
b   b

Or any other color permutation.

This can be very handy indeed if you need to slip something into a corner
somewhere. If you need to drop 2 blocks down a chute, place the stem on its
side so one can follow another. A trick you can play is to move one square
left while the other doesn't i.e.

rgr
y y
g

Above, you can move the bottom guy left/right but not the top. Even at high
speeds you can also ush a 1-square left and right pretty far, so you could
move a green down the chute here. Mqaybe even a red to follow. Remember to
take your time moving it down, and you can pitch the other bits. It's that
valuable-though sometimes you can find a nice purpose for a single square in
any case. Sometimes you can use both of them to make separate matches.

 ggrryy
    G R Y

..

You are viewing proxied material from gopher.endangeredsoft.org. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.