Wall kick

A wall kick happens when a player rotates a piece when no space exists in the squares where that tetromino would normally occupy after the rotation. To compensate, the game sets a certain number of alternative spaces for the tetromino to look. Wall kicks started appearing in games because after a piece would be backed up against the wall, it would awkwardly be unable to rotate until first moving back.

Here T can rotate

Here T cannot rotate without a wall kick

The simplest wall kick algorithm, used (with variations) by TGM rotation and many fan games in the same tradition, is to try moving the tetromino one space to the right, and then one space to the left, and fail if neither can be done. Wall kicks increase the number of possible twists.

Other notable rotation systems that include wall kick and/or floor kick include the following:

• The rotation system of the Atari version of Tetris, which only tries one space to the left, due to its rotation system making checking a kick to the right unnecessary;
• The rotation system of Puzzled';
• The rotation systems of the domino based games Dr. Mario, Puyo Pop, and Super Puzzle Fighter II;
• The rotation system of Tetris X, which would attempt to kick only in a direction that was being held down;
• The rotation system of Tetris Plus 2, which was the first to combine wall kicks with Sega rotation;
• The rotation system of Tetris DX, which allows wall climbing;
• The rotation system of The New Tetris, considered a predecessor to SRS;
• The rotation system of Sega Tetris, which allows kicks off playfield walls but not blocks;
• SRS, the flexible Super Rotation System used by games that follow the Tetris Guideline;
• The rotation system of DTET, a fan game with a complex but unarbitrary wall/floor kick algorithm

and so on.

Data tables describing systems for a number of Tetris games exist in the source code of several fan games, such as Heboris Unofficial Expansion, NullpoMino or Lockjaw.

External links

• Koryan's analysis of various rotation systems including their wall kicks (Japanese)