Collection essentials #281: Tetris Battle Gaiden (SNES)

And now we have another Tetris game that somehow didn’t get released outside Japan despite being super good. It’s the multiplayer-focused Tetris Battle Gaiden!

The concept here is that certain colored blocks will grant a power-up when part of a cleared line. Clearing one of these blocks will give you the ability to use a first-level attack. You can use it at will, or wait until you clear more colored blocks. When you clear another one, you’ll be able to use your second-level attack. The highest level is fourth, at which point you won’t have any further incentive to clear colored blocks until you use the attack and start from square one. There are a variety of playable characters in the game, each of which have their own unique set of attacks. There’s quite a variety of moves that do all sorts of different things. They can be offensive, such as messing with the opponent’s controls, or defensive, such as eliminating some of your own blocks. It makes for some really interesting multiplayer gameplay! Another interesting thing is that both opponents share the same stock of incoming blocks, so you can execute your moves with a certain speed according to which blocks you want to have or prevent your opponent from having.

That’s kind of all you need to know about why Tetris Battle Gaiden is awesome. There are flaws, though. For one thing, single player isn’t too good. It takes way too long for the computer to actually die, unless you play as a character with a power that has the ability to aggressively finish them off. Another issue is that the game is not really well-balanced, and the character Shaman in particular is pretty blatantly overpowered with a first-level attack that can make him nearly impossible to kill.

One pretty cool piece of news is that a new release called “Tetris Forever” was just announced which will include a series of old Tetris games, including this one! It will be TSB’s first international release. But it appears they may be keeping the game in Japanese, which is unfortunate. There is a fan-translated English patch available, so that is the best way to play the game in my opinion. If you like Tetris and have at least one friend who does, this game ought to be an essential for you just like it is for me!