Piece
A piece in Tetris and similar games is a geometric shape consisting of a set of blocks that is moved as a unit. A block is the part of a piece that fills one unit of the playfield. In some games, all blocks that make up a piece are colored the same; in others, especially falling piece games other than Tetris and its fan games, they are colored differently.
Polyominoes
A polyomino is a piece made of one or more square blocks, where all blocks are connected through full coincident edges (as if squares on graph paper).
- A free polyomino is one that may be translated (moved about), rotated, or reflected. These are used in Pokémon Tetris.
- A one-sided polyomino is one that may be translated or rotated. These are the ones used in Tetris.
- A fixed polyomino can only be translated.
Polyominoes come in several sizes:
- 1 block makes a monomino or Mino: seen in Super Tetris 3 (Magicaliss mode) and Puyo Puyo Tetris (Party mode and Fusion mode)
- 2 blocks make a domino or Dimino: featured in Dr. Mario and Puyo Puyo; seen in Tetris Blast, Super Tetris 3 (Magicaliss mode) and Puyo Puyo Tetris (Fusion mode)
- 3 blocks make a tromino or Trimino: featured in Columns (fixed I only), Pac-Attack (L only) and Tetris Effect (I and L) as a signature move of the boss Capricorn and as "Fractured" in Mystery Mode; seen in Tetris Blast (I, L) and Puyo Pop Fever (L).
- 4 blocks make a tetromino (or tetramino or tetrimino): featured in Tetris and its clones. Lumines uses only O tetrominoes.
- 5 blocks make a pentomino: featured in Daedalian Opus; seen in Tetris 2 + Bombliss, Tetris 64, Puyo Puyo Tetris, [Tetris Effect] etc.
Larger sizes of polyominoes appear in Magical Tetris Challenge and some fan games. Combinos can generate arbitrary decominos (10-block polyominos). In addition, octominos can be formed in Sega Tetris by fusing two tetrominoes together, and in Tetris Effect with the Twins attack from the Gemini boss. Technically, "decahexaminoes" (16-block polyminoes) are also found in the same game, but only 7 exist as Giant versions of the 7 tetriminoes.
Polyominoes are often named by a Latin letter that resembles the shape of the polyomino. For instance, an "I" has all its blocks in a straight line, and a "T" consists of an "I" tromino with one or more blocks in a straight line connected to one side of the center of the "I".
Pseudo-polyominoes
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| Pseudo-tetrominoes in Tetris 2 |
A pseudo-polyomino, also known as a hinged polyomino, polyking or polyplet is similar to a polyomino but also allows connections at a corner. In games that use pseudo-polyominoes, a piece may break apart at the diagonal connections when it lands, and the fragments may or may not be controllable afterward.
- 2 blocks: Pseudo-domino
- 3 blocks: Pseudo-tromino (appears in Tetris Effect as a "Trimino" and some fan games)
- 4 blocks: Pseudo-tetromino (featured in Tetris 2 and Tetris Effect as the Broken attack, appear in some fan games). Of note is the pseudo-tetromino with a hole, the smallest possible piece to have a hole, which has appeared in fan games such as The Son of Tetris Project.
Larger pseudo-polyominoes appear in some fan games.
Quasi-polyomino
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| An example of a quasi-tetromino |
A quasi-polyomino is any set of blocks regardless of whether they are connected or not (as long as they are still aligned to the grid). These are featured in some fan games, such as Kowaris.
Other polyforms
Polyhexes are pieces formed from regular hexagons. There are multiple Tetris-like games that use polyhexes, such as Hexion and Bikaka.[1] Bubble Bath Babes uses polyhexes that may be reflected around the X or Y axis but not rotated.
Polyabolos are pieces formed from right isosceles triangles. They are featured in the NES game Pyramid.
Polyiamonds are pieces formed from equilateral triangles.
Polycubes
A polycube is a piece made of cubic blocks, where all blocks are connected through full coincident faces. These are featured in 3D variants such as Blockout and 3D Tetris.