Tetris The Grand Master Ace

Tetris The Grand Master Ace
Developer(s)	Arika
Publisher(s)	AQ INTERACTIVE
Platform(s)	Xbox 360
Release	December 10, 2005 (Japan)
Gameplay info
Next pieces	3
Playfield size	10w x 22h
Hold piece	Yes, with IHS
Hard drop	Yes, with optional sonic drop only with TGM wallkicks (ARS2)

Tetris The Grand Master Ace, sometimes abbreviated TGM Ace or TGMA is Arika's second console Tetris game, and the first (and so far, only) TGM brand console game.

Changes from previous entries in the series

Numerous elements in the gameplay have undergone significant changes, mostly to adhere more closely to The Tetris Company's Tetris Guideline.

Main mode

While the main modes of the TGM series has always been a mode to reach level 999, which increases using Arika's own counting method, as fast as possible, this has been replaced with several modes in which the objective is to clear 150 lines. Each 10-line section has a time limit, in which the game automatically ends if the player fails to get through the section in time.

Rotation

TGM Ace originally featured a selection of two rotation rule options, SRS and ARS. While ARS offered the same initial stances, rotation rules and wallkicks as TGM3, it also featured tetromino colors compliant with SRS instead of the Sega colors used in previous games. ARS also included a locking hard drop and a non-locking soft drop, instead of the non-locking hard drop and locking soft drop in TGM2 and 3. In addition to this, soft drop speeds were reduced to around 0.5G as well. These two changes essentially made Zangi-moves impossible. Finally, the lockdown behavior of the tetrominoes adhered to the Infinity behavior, allowing virtually unlimited lock delay resets. (The game had a limit, though, of 128 rotations or movements per piece before the piece automatically locked down.)

Ichiro Mihara, developer of the TGM series, had connoted closely before the release of the game that another ruleset existed within the game. The hidden rule option, ARS2, was essentially ARS except with the locking roles of the hard and soft drops reversed. This allowed players to play in a similar manner to the previous games, with Zangi-moves reenabled, although the Infinity behavior and the block colors still could not be changed.

According to Mihara, ARS2 was originally intended to be an unlockable element awarded only to players of the highest skill. Later on, however, the feature became unlocked for all players following a software update of the game. The conditions in which ARS2 was to be originally unlocked under remains unknown, although several players are said to have unlocked the feature before the update.

Modes

Offline

Tetris

The main single-player mode. The objective in all modes in this category is to clear 150 lines.

Normal

Starts off slow, eventually reaches 20G around level 14 and stays at a fixed lock time.

High Speed 1

Starts off faster than the beginning of Normal mode, reaches 20G around level 6 and stays at a fixed lock time.

High Speed 2

Fall speed is fixed at 20G, with a fixed lock time. Without an Xbox Live Gold account, this is the fastest mode that can be unlocked.

Big

All pieces are twice their normal sizes. The speed curve is similar or possibly identical to that of Normal mode. This mode cannot be used for online time attacks.

Another

Fall speed starts at 20G, with a decreasing lock time. This mode can be said to be the equivalent of Death or Shirase in TGM2/3, although the difficulty is lower due to the game's lock delay behavior. Clearing this mode will unlock Another 2.

Another 2

The final mode currently known. The fall speed is fixed at 20G, with the lock time also fixed at the top speed of Another mode. Clearing this mode will not unlock any new modes or achievements. This mode also cannot be used for online time attacks, making its existence invisible to players who haven't unlocked them themselves.

Aesthetics

The game reuses several elements from TGM3, the previous entry in the series. Block graphics are identical, with different block surfaces between SRS and ARS, and the backgrounds share a space theme also used in TGM3, although different images than the ones in TGM3 are used. Many musical tracks used in TGM3 also appear in TGM Ace.