Tetris Battle Gaiden
An obscure versus game in the Tetris franchise. The game was only released in Japan on Christmas Eve, 1993. This game is similar in structure to Puyo Puyo than Tetris, in that you face named opponents instead of nameless CPU opponents. It also has a power-up system, whereby if you clear a line with a yellow orb in it, it increases your powerup meter. Every character has a different range of powerups. There are three types of powerups activated by 1, 2 or 3 orbs respectively. The game contains seven battles against the main opponents, one against the dragon (the fake final boss) and one final battle against the Queen (the real final boss), totalling nine battles.
- What is the fastest way to win a match?
- Glad you asked!
- 1. Select the character Aladdin
- 2. Begin piling pieces up to the top of the screen
- While doing this, make a platform about halfway down to land your pieces with orbs in them
- 3. Create and destroy a single line with three orbs in it
- 4. Block off either most or all of the paths down the tower you made (depends how smart the CPU is feeling)
- 5. Press Up on the D-Pad to activate your powerup
- This will cause your board to be copied and sent to the opponent's board
- 6. Watch the CPU flail frantically (or just, give up sometimes) as they lose the match!
- My word! What a genius idea! How did you come up with it?
- I didn't. I went on the speedrun.com page for Tetris Battle Gaiden and saw this technique being used in the world record. So, massive credit goes to IndigoGollum, whose video I watched in preparation for this TAS (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifp8UDukj0s)
- Why is your rerecord count so damn low?
- I mainly work through frame advance, which only increases the counter every time I reload and work on the movie, instead of every time I change something in a movie, which is how TASstudio works. It isn't a sign of a rushed TAS, if that's what you're thinking.
- Got any small tidbits of info?
- Of course I do
Obviously, you want the blocks to be as close to the top of the screen as possible, as it means the CPU player has less time to flail, saving many frames. But you also want to activate your powerup as soon as possible to save frames. I think I've struck a balance here, but I think with better RNG my TAS can be beaten.
You preferably want the CPU to end with a line piece, as even if there is a one block hole in the barricade, they will not rotate it. I think it's because in the limits they are given, they simply don't have enough time to rotate it. What fools
Square pieces are the worst one to get, as they are the shortest piece and they can't help make a platform, so really they're terrible at everything. Even if it has an orb, it can be a pain to fit it on the platform.
Before matches, a small cutscene will play of you and your opponent conversing in Japanese, before people run in with fake fire and hype up the match. If you spam A you can skip the individual parts of the cutscene. This is true, except for the final two fights for some inexplicable reason.
You musn't let your opponent get your hands on any orbs, otherwise they may escape the trap. Luckily, if you collect the first three orbs and activate the powerup quickly enough, they can never have the chance to get an orb in the first place.
Sometimes, your opponent will get to a piece with an orb before you. As stated above, you cannot allow this to happen. This means you need to delay placing your previous piece just enough so your opponent gets a different pie
- Have you ever written a good description of a TAS?
- No, and it appears I don't intend to start now
EDIT: I forgot to mention that there is no hard drop, which is a shame because the game would be a lot faster if there was
EDIT 2: Realised that input can end on the last time I move the piece, instead of pressing A to get rid of the smiley face. This saved close to 5 seconds. Hell yeah. The encode would be the same as the current one, except with a longer time spent on the smiley face. Here is the replacement file:
https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638192814393009985
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: Nice job on this. This game has a unique strategy that is risky, but can be devastating to the opponent when pulled off. Kinda reminds me of using the "Frog" attack in Chrono Trigger, where your HP is so low that any use can just about wipe your enemy out.
I like seeing TASes that beat human runs by roughly 25%. In this case, its roughly 5 minutes and 48 seconds faster over IndigoGollum's best. Also, level of difficulty is fine on this one.
Accepting to "Standard" for publication.
