Tetris Attack (SNES)

Yoshi takes center stage in a puzzle game that really doesn't have a whole lot to do with Tetris at all. That's because it was originally Panel de Pon, which had the misfortune of being a game about precious little fairies coming out at a time where most gamers were male and/or believed girls had cooties. It was re-branded, receiving additional changes and new features, for its US and European release, and this version was later released in Japan on the BS-X Satellaview service.

Extra Music Test Songs
All special ending themes can be accessed in the sound test using by the Game Genie code or PAR code ; just press left on song  or right on song  to gain access to the six additional tunes.

Larger Gray Garbage Blocks
In Tetris Attack, there are tiles for thicker gray garbage blocks. These are never used because, like in Panel de Pon, the gray garbage blocks in Tetris Attack are only ever one block thick. These tiles indicate that these larger blocks would have used a mixture of bumps and craters rather than just bumps. Most intriguing of all, the blocks would have also had Shy Guy faces! The tiles are loaded in the spot where the second player's garbage block graphics were located in Panel de Pon.

Regional Differences
As mentioned above, Tetris Attack originally had much higher estrogen levels.

Character Changes
For the sake of marketability, Tetris Attack replaces the original cast with various characters from Yoshi's Island.

Voice samples and character sprites were altered accordingly.

Panel de Pon also has captions beneath its select-screen character mugshots, which were cut for Tetris Attack due to some of the names being too long to fit.

Nintendo Screen
Besides the usual replacement of Lip with Yoshi, Tetris Attack uses a completely different sample for the "Nintendo!" voice.

Title Screen
Both games have completely different title screens and intro sequences. In Panel de Pon, Lip and... that flying dandelion thing appear in a circle of stars before the logo "wavers" in. In Tetris Attack, Yoshi rises from the bottom of the screen and flashes the peace sign before a circle of (more colorful) stars reveal the background behind him.

Tetris Attack updates the copyright text, adds developer copyrights, and notes that the use of "Tetris" is licensed from The Tetris Company. "Push any key!" was also redrawn for some reason, and flashes pink and blue instead of bobbing up and down.

Yoshi no Panepon has comparatively few differences from the Tetris Attack title screen, besides the altered logo. Since the Tetris licensing text is no longer applicable, it has been replaced with a message advertising the Game Boy version

Tetris Attack has a different title screen theme, remixed from Yoshi's Island. While Panel de Pon's title screen music is unused, it remains in the ROM and can be accessed through the options menu sound test.

Main Menu
Tetris Attack adds an options menu that Panel de Pon was lacking.



The options menu includes Sound Test features, options for adding CPU control for multiplayer (this can be enabled for Player 1 as well, although you can't view the endings this way), and a gallery of character bios. Character bios are used in Panel de Pon, too, but can only be seen by waiting on the title screen long enough.

Both Tetris Attack and Yoshi no Panepon feature the option to switch the text between English and Japanese, but this does not affect graphical text (such as menu options).

Garbage Blocks
In Tetris Attack, all garbage blocks use the same design only varying in color based on whose block it is (player one's blocks are blue, player two's are red), whereas Panel de Pon uses a unique graphic and color set for each character.

Tetris Attack's garbage blocks are based on Sanatos's garbage blocks from Panel de Pon.

Character Stages
Naturally, these received varying levels of graphic edits.

General
The characters' mouths move upon clearing a Combo or Chain in Panel de Pon. The cast of Tetris Attack is apparently made up of ventriloquists.

Lip's/Yoshi's Stage
This stage has the greatest amount of redrawn graphics. The only thing that escaped unscathed is the tree serving as the playing field, and even that received a palette change and had the flowers blooming on it removed.

Yoshi's stage received a change in background music, based off of the story theme from Yoshi's Island. Lip's theme song is still used during the various tutorial sequences.

Windy's/Lakitu's Stage
The cloud the "sidekick" bird (a Very Goonie in Tetris Attack) was sleeping on was redrawn.

The shading on the clouds in the foreground is slightly different.

Thiana's/Poochy's Stage
The leaf on the branch in the background was shifted over slightly for Tetris Attack.

Thiana has a blinking animation that Poochy does not.

A couple of leaves on the shrubs at the bottom of the screen were moved around a bit and had their shading altered. The shrubs themselves are a bit darker.

Ruby's/Flying Wiggler's Stage
Ruby's stage received an even more drastic makeover than Lip's, changing from a crystal-themed to stage to a flower-themed one. Strangely, instead of just using Lip's flower stage, the new stage is almost completely new, but still has some hints of the original design. The new stage frame is based on the grassy levels in Yoshi's Island, where Eggo-Dil is usually found. Also, Lip's flower icons for impending garbage blocks were reused for Flying Wiggler, to replace the now-unfitting jewel icons.

Elias's/Froggy's Stage
The lily pads on the bottom-left of the screen were redrawn and/or moved to allow Froggy to sit on them, and are a lighter shade of green than they are in PdP.

A lily blossom was removed from the top-right.

The lily flowers in the background (not seen in the Tetris Attack screenshot) animate in sync in Panel de Pon, but at their own rates in Tetris Attack. The lily pads sitting next to them were also redrawn slightly.

One shade of green on the grassy ledges behind the playing field is darker in Tetris Attack.

Flare's/Gargantua Blargg's Stage
The shading on the rocks around the playing field is a bit darker.

Gargantua Blargg has two Flamer Guy sidekicks, while Flare just has the one imp. She must be lonely.

Sparks of fire shoot out from Flare's hand when you score a combo or chain.

Seren's/Raphael The Raven's Stage
The star the alien creature/green Shy Guy is riding on was moved down and to the right and is orange instead of yellow. The same coloration change was made to the one at the bottom-right corner of the screen.

The jewels embedded in the border towards the top of the screen were darkened a bit for Tetris Attack. The coloring on the border itself is very slightly duller.

The star that used to spin around inside Seren's staff was moved closer to the Shy Guy sitting on Raphael's head and animates more slowly.

Interestingly, while Seren appears to be sitting on the edge of the moon, Raphael is standing on thin air!

Passwords


Panel de Pon throws you right into the story mode when Vs. is selected from the menu. Tetris Attack brings you to an additional menu which allows you to enter a password to begin from a certain level.

Map Screen
The background colors are more saturated in Tetris Attack. Strangely, Lip's palace home wasn't removed.

Since Yoshi isn't associated with flowers, the first stage was redrawn to be egg-themed.

Tetris Attack also adds in sound effects for Yoshi walking and jumping.

Another interesting thing to note is that while Panel de Pon shows the name of the next opponent, Tetris Attack also names each character's partner. This is likely because said partner characters already had names, instead of being random animals or magical critters.

Victory Music
Panel de Pon doesn't play a unique music theme after a match in the game's versus modes; the stage's pinch theme rather awkwardly continues to play over the victory announcements. Tetris Attack uses one of two songs for these circumstances. In single-player, this depends on whether the player has won or lost; the "lose" theme is used in both games for Endless and Score Attack mode results and after clearing a stage in Stage Clear and Puzzle modes, while the "win" theme is an arrangement of a public-domain march tune. In two-player mode, the "lose" theme plays regardless of who has won.

This new song also plays upon clearing a set of stages in Stage Clear and Puzzle modes. Panel de Pon reuses the ordinary stage clear theme.

Game Over Screen
Another screen that's completely different between versions! Tetris Attack&apos;s screen doesn't feel the need to show you which opponent you just lost to, and has a larger and much more colorful font. Since Tetris Attack&apos;s Vs. mode has passwords, one was added beneath the "Try again?" prompt.

Tetris Attack ditches Panel de Pon&apos;s music box rendition of Lip's theme for, naturally, a music box rendition of Yoshi's theme. (It's come full circle!) As is the case with the title screen theme, Panel de Pon's game over music remains in Tetris Attack&apos;s code and can still be heard through the sound test.

Anti-Piracy Features


Like most later SNES games (including EarthBound), the game runs an SRAM check upon boot-up. If the cartridge contains more than 8kb of memory - highly likely if one has used a cartridge copier - it will display the above screen and freeze.