Super Nintardbros!

[geotrig]

Agreed PJ started a few games of Tetris 99 last night ,love it, didnt get 1st on any of the 3-4 games I played but made some steady progression but probably made more mistakes than anything getting used to it !!!

[pubjoe]

I think in two nights it’s become my most played Switch game. The one-more-go factor is so strong. I paid little attention to it on the Nintendo Erect and nearly ignored it.

It’s subscription worthy.

[geotrig]

I think in two nights it’s become my most played Switch game. The one-more-go factor is so strong. I paid little attention to it on the Nintendo Erect and nearly ignored it.

It’s subscription worthy.

Aye , I bought a sub to play it , I suppose that was nintendo's intention. it has all the good parts of puyo puyo tetris !

[pubjoe]

I absolutely love it.

One of it’s criticisms is that there is no guide or manual but that’s just fine with me. I’ve had fun figuring it out. It’s so intense that it’s near impossible to look around the screen to work out what happened, so I’m still unsure about a lot of the rules with combos and so on. My son has sometimes told me to get a videoshot in-game but I daren’t divert my focus to find the button, or even find the words to reply. And my six year old son sometimes intentionally distracts me but I’m too busy concentrating to even stab him with a cigarette.

It’s surprisingly strategic, much more so than I thought earlier on. I know that K.Os give you badges, which multiply the garbage you send by a small fraction. K.Oing a badge player gains you their badges. You can target your garbage blocks at Randoms, Attackers, K.Os or Badges and quickly switch this any time in play. If you have badges you are prone to being targetted, if you have a high Tetrimino stack you are prone to being targetted, or if you are attacking players with badges or high tetrimino stacks you are prone to being targetted. You can find yourself ganged up on by several players and die in an instant.

There are a few approaches of which player category to target. At first I was starting defensively, targeting attackers for survival, then switching to KOs or Badges later to strengthen my late position. Seemed logical. But now I’m thinking there’s a good case for the opposite - building up a small amount of badges early, but switching to target attackers before I have a dangerous amount of badges.

But planning all this while playing survival Tetris by the skin of your teeth is just hilarious. The accompanying music is brilliantly comical.

You can also target specific players from the pool of 98. This sounds like it’d need a ridiculous degree of multi focus. You can at least see badges or dangerously high stacks with just a glance, which is still a desperately precious moment to take away from your own Tetris stack.

You should also play Tetris differently depending on the game position and situation. You want to build high and combo when on the attack, which is high-risk (you need to kill off players before they can retaliate). Then other times you need to keep a low stack, or just enough blocks to have a Tetris up your sleeve.

I’ve not yet played Tetris Effect (which looks incredible) but I imagine this is the exact opposite. It’s such a perfect game for Nintendo to bundle with their online service.

[markedkiller78]

What, it’s FTP

[geotrig]

Well I could barely keep an eye on the screen with trying to plan my next few moves without the the added distractions of the other 98 players and attacking or the other options available . I didn't realise from my few goes that you could switch attacking blocking or whatever the options are !!! I just thought it was random at the start but it also explains why once or twice I felt like I wasn't been hit until I was in the last 30 or so.
No manual doesn't bother me, although in my middle old age I'm finding I'm reading the manuals to everything
I liked the online play for puyo tetris but it didn't let you recover from any mistake if you were playing online ,mostly. And the less said about my puyo puyo skills the better.

In this i made one or 2 mistakes early ON and was able to recover until ,That was until i got to the last 30 ish where the level jumped ! I think the best i got was somewhere around 23/24. Im defo going to be glued to this over the next few weeks anyway !

[geotrig]

What, it’s FTP

you need to have a subscription to nintendo online to play it though.

[pubjoe]

You push the right analogue stick U/D/L/R to select between the four attack catagories. I’ve never used the left stick, it selects individually. Or you can tap players with the touchscreen in handheld mode, I’ve never done this either.

[geotrig]

lol if try that i'll die !!! must look at it some more tonight

[pubjoe]

I think just pushing down on the right stick to target attackers at the start of the game then leaving it alone is a pretty good strategy. Changing in-game comes later. Ideally you want to be dipping in and out of aggressive targetting depending on your vulnerability due to other players and the organisation of your stack. I guess the best players will be changing this all the time depending on situation.

[pubjoe]

If you view the stats screen you can see room for other game modes that are still to come. Dataminers have found evidence of team battles and bots. Also there’ll apparently be events with a prize of some kind for the winners. It should be a job as an air traffic controller.

[geotrig]

Also there’ll apparently be events with a prize of some kind for the winners. It should be a job as an air traffic controller.

[cools]

When you're "out" how quickly can you get into another game?

[SuperPang]

When you're "out" how quickly can you get into another game?

Seconds, at the moment. That's the genius of making this a no frills F2P game. They're hoping to get everyone playing in much the same way everyone had Tetris with their Gameboy. Also, choosing Arika to develop it was a masterstroke. TGM players seem to like it because yes, it is the opposite of Tetris Effect.

[pubjoe]

I just got a first and then a second place by leaving it on target attackers.

Arika

I didn’t know this.

I just came.

[SuperPang]

[geotrig]

well there goes my chances of winning any battle !

[pubjoe]

Meh, I’ve had better but I didn’t shout ‘god-like’. Everybody just knew

It’s hard to come first without some crazy scrapes. It allows you to overflow the top of the screen as long as the bottom part of a shape can land somewhere. You can end up rolling shapes over an off-screen peak to find a gap.

I think my favourite thing about the format of this game is that these stressful situations are common.

[cools]

Gave it a quick bash earlier, good fun but I can't help wishing there was a "friends only" play mode too. I never really get on with competitive games with strangers.

[pubjoe]

It’s as faceless as it gets. Think of it like playing online poker. They’re all ****. **** em.