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Tetris Attack (SNES)

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Title Screen

Tetris Attack

Also known as: Panel de Pon (JP), Yoshi no Panepon (Satellaview)
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo
Platforms: SNES, Satellaview
Released internationally: May 20, 2020 (Panel de Pon, Nintendo Switch Online)
Released in JP: October 27, 1995
Released in US: August 1996
Released in EU: November 28, 1996


CodeIcon.png This game has unused code.
CopyrightIcon.png This game has hidden developer credits.
GraphicsIcon.png This game has unused graphics.
SoundtestIcon.png This game has a hidden sound test.
RegionIcon.png This game has regional differences.
Carts.png This game has revisional differences.
PiracyIcon.png This game has anti-piracy features.


Yoshi takes the center stage in Tetris Attack, 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 when most western gamers were male and/or believed girls had cooties. It was rebranded as a Tetris spinoff (which Henk Rogers of The Tetris Company would later regret allowing Nintendo to do), receiving additional changes and new features. Funny enough, Nintendo ended up pulling a Super Mario USA and brought this version of the game back to Japan, albeit under the Satellaview service.

Despite an increasing amount of cameos and references in other Nintendo games, most prominently the Super Smash Bros. series, the original Panel de Pon stayed in Japan until getting an international, albeit untranslated release via the Nintendo Switch Online service (notably in lieu of Tetris Attack itself, probably due to licensing issues over the Tetris name).

Developer Credit

The following string, used for initializing RAM, is present in both Tetris Attack and Panel de Pon:

パネル デ ポン BY B-CRASH
(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Graphics

Found Only in Tetris Attack

TAgrayblocks.png 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.

TA Yoshi Title.png This graphic reading "Yoshi" is loaded in VRAM alongside the graphics used for the title screen. Perhaps it would've been used had a different title been decided for the game.

Found Only in Panel de Pon

PdP SpeechBubble1.png A speech bubble reading "LET'S GO!" (in English) gets loaded in VRAM alongside the sprites for Lip in VS. Mode's overworld.

PdP SpeechBubble2.png It also contains an extra tile that can be used to arrange it in a way that lacks the "tip" that would point towards Lip.

In Tetris Attack, the majority of the tiles that would've composed this speech bubble have been overwritten by Yoshi's head.

Extra Music Test Songs

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
Panel de Pon Hidden Sound Test Songs.png Tetris Attack Hidden Sound Test Songs.png

All special ending themes can be accessed in the sound test with Game Genie code 4C27-C70A (Tetris Attack) / 4C20-3F62 (Panel de Pon) or PAR code 83D23D2A (Tetris Attack) / 83D7462a (Panel de Pon). Just press Left on song 00 or Right on song 23 to gain access to the six additional tunes in Tetris Attack or seven additional tunes in Panel de Pon.

(Source: nensondubois)

Regional Differences

Hmmm...
To do:
Complete this section, rip voice sample comparisons, etc.

As mentioned above, the conversion from Panel de Pon to Tetris Attack resulted in a fairy large number of differences.

Character Changes

For the sake of marketability, Tetris Attack replaces the original cast with various characters from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
Lip Yoshi
Windy Lakitu and Goonie
Sharbet Bumpty and Dr. Freezegood
Thiana Poochy and Grinder
Ruby Flying Wiggler and Eggo-Dil
Elias Froggy and Clawdaddy
Flare Gargantua Blargg and Flamer Guy
Neris Lunge Fish and Flopsy Fish
Seren Raphael the Raven and Shy Guy
Phoenix Hookbill the Koopa
Dragon Naval Piranha
Thanatos Kamek and Kamek's Toadies
Corderia Bowser

Voice samples and character sprites were altered accordingly.

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
3/10 gender ratio. 12/1 gender ratio (Naval Piranha is female). Hmmm.

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.

Panel de Pon - "Hooray!" Tetris Attack - "Yeah!"
Panel de Pon - "Halt!" Tetris Attack - "Stop!"
Panel de Pon - Lip: "Here we go!" Tetris Attack - Yoshi: (Yoshi noise)
Panel de Pon - Windy: "Fwoosh!" Tetris Attack - Lakitu: "Hey!"
Panel de Pon - Sharbet: "Freezer!" Tetris Attack - Bumpty: (giggles)
Panel de Pon - Thiana: "Go!" Tetris Attack - Poochy: (barks)
Panel de Pon - Ruby: "How about that?!" Tetris Attack - Flying Wiggler: "Attack!"
Panel de Pon - Elias: "Yeah!" Tetris Attack - Froggy: (croaks)
Panel de Pon - Flare: "Go!" (in English) Tetris Attack - Gargantua Blargg: (roars)
Panel de Pon - Neris: "All right!" Tetris Attack - Lunge Fish: (grunts)
Panel de Pon - Seren: (laughs) Tetris Attack - Raphael the Raven: (caws)
Panel de Pon - Phoenix: (screeches) Tetris Attack - Hookbill the Koopa: (growls)
Panel de Pon - Dragon: (roars) Tetris Attack - Naval Piranha: "Baby!"
Panel de Pon - Thanatos: (laughs) Tetris Attack - Kamek: "Hocus - Pocus!"
Panel de Pon - Corderia: (laughs) Tetris Attack - Bowser: (roars)

Interestingly, Thanatos' laugh did survive the localization, but was pitched down and reused for Bowser in the Stage Clear mode.

2P Mode

Tetris Attack locks two additional characters in the 2P modes.

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
Panel de Pon 2P.png Tetris Attack 2P.png

Nintendo Screen

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

Panel de Pon - "Nintendo!" Tetris Attack - "Nintendo!"

Title Screen

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack Yoshi no Panepon
Hope you're not allergic to pollen! Four babies and a Yoshi. And an eggful of panels. Yoshi just wants you to buy the Game Boy version

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's title theme is reprised from Yoshi's Island, while Panel de Pon has a calmer original theme instead:

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack

Button Graphics

The controller buttons in the menus are red and yellow in the Japanese and European versions and purple in the US release.

Options Menu

Where Tetris Attack lets you access game options from the main menu, Panel de Pon normally doesn't, featuring only four items on the menu. However, a slot for the options menu does exist in Panel de Pon, complete with corresponding dialogue:

Japanese English
Pdp unused menu desc1.png
いろんな せっていを
するところ
This is where you adjust various settings.
Pdp unused menu desc2.png
くわしくは せつめい
しょを みてね!
Please refer to the manual for more information!

Pro Action Replay codes 83C7DC04 83C80028 83C80104 will allow you to access the Panel de Pon options menu by scrolling to the (invisible) fifth menu item and pressing A. (Normally, because of the way the game's menus work, trying to select the fifth menu item without using both codes would simply send you back to the title screen. For similar reasons, trying to go from the main menu back to the title screen with the second code enabled without the third code makes the game hang, so be careful.)

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
PDPoptions.png TAoptions.png

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). In place of a language select, Panel de Pon has the option to adjust the time limit for Time Trial (called "Score Attack" in this version).

In addition, where Tetris Attack has the option to turn combo/chain markers on and off, Panel de Pon has a secondary "Etc." menu containing this option as well as three settings which determine the game level (not the CPU skill level) of each difficulty (except Super Hard) for a one-player Vs. game.

Interestingly, enabling the CPU switch for Player 1 has no effect on 1P Vs. mode in Panel de Pon, whereas enabling it in Tetris Attack allows you to watch a completely CPU-controlled version of the 1P Vs. mode (only without the ending).

Pro Action Replay code 83CFB42F will restore this menu to Tetris Attack (albeit with some minor visual anomalies). After enabling the code, select the "mark on/off" setting and press A.

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
PDP-etc-menu.png TA-1P-vs-menu.png

The character bios accessible from the options menu are used in Panel de Pon too, but (normally) can only be seen by waiting on the title screen long enough - except for the two bios for Thanatos and Corderia, which can be seen after accessing the options menu but are otherwise unused.

Japanese English
PDP-thanatos-bio.png
      まおう
       サナトス
Demon King
Thanatos
   モンスターのおうさま
   あの
 ドラゴン
フェニックスも したがう
おそろしさ!!

わらうと おおきなこえが
せかいじゅう ひびく!
King of the monsters.
His terror is such that even
Dragon and Phoenix are among those who obey him.

When he laughs, his booming voice resounds throughout the entire world!
PDP-corderia-bio.png
      めがみ
       コーデリア
Goddess
Corderia
   サナトスでさえ
   あしもとにも およば
   ない つよさをほこる
さいきょうの てき!

でも かのじょには
じゅうだいな
 ひみつが……
She boasts of having strength to which not even Thanatos can compare.
She's the strongest one!

However, she carries a profound
secret with her...
(Source: Original TCRF research)
(Translations: Bast)

Garbage Blocks

In Tetris Attack, all garbage blocks use the same design only varying in color based on whose block it is (Player 1's blocks are blue, Player 2'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 Thanatos' garbage blocks from Panel de Pon.

Vs. Sprites

In both Story mode and 2P Vs. mode, the little character sprites in the middle of the screen lost some animations during localization - in Panel de Pon, every character has a "small attack" animation for combos and a pair of "charging" and "large attack" animations for chains. In Tetris Attack, the sprites just use the same "attack" animation for both.

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

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
Trees count as flowers now? Little Yoshi didn't want your egg anyway.

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 on the story theme from Yoshi's Island. Lip's theme song is still used during the various tutorial sequences.

Windy's/Lakitu's Stage

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
Tally-ho! At the very least you can't accuse him of having his HEAD in the clouds.

The cloud that the "sidekick" bird (a Very Goonie in Tetris Attack) was sleeping on was redrawn, along with the area around the bird (a Shy Guy in Tetris Attack) above the score.

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

Thiana's/Poochy's Stage

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
Ponytails are horte cuisine amongst certain species of bird. Poochy ain't stupid!

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

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
That's a, uh, pretty house you got there. Flowers, yo.
Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
Guess her favorite color. Guess her favorite... flower?

Ruby's stage received an even more drastic makeover than Lip's, changing from a crystal-themed 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'/Froggy's Stage

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
Elias finds colorful shapes captivating. Lazy day at the pond?

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 in Panel de Pon.

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

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
You won't find a "hot" joke here. Not here either.

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

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
Sailor Moon? Cowabunga! (Wait, wrong Raphael.)

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!

Vs. Mode

Passwords

It's not "swordfish".

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

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
The Mushroom Kingdom? Lip's home world? Who knows?

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

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack
A mystic blue aura surrounds Lip's body as she wallows in defeat. You touched Fuzzy again, didn't you?!

Another screen that's completely different between versions! Tetris Attack‍ '​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 '​s Vs. mode has passwords, one was added beneath the "Try again?" prompt.

Panel de Pon's game over screen cycles between three different music box renditions of Lip, Windy, and Elias' themes. Tetris Attack ditches these for, naturally, a music box rendition of Yoshi's theme.

Panel de Pon Tetris Attack

BALL Code

Tetris Attack contains a secret button code: when Yoshi says "Nintendo!" upon starting the game, pressing B, A, L, L will play a confirmation sound and make the following changes to increase the game's difficulty:

  • Time Stop is disabled in single-player mode.
  • The speed at which the stack rises no longer stops increasing after Level 50.
  • The grace period when the stack is full in the VS modes is disabled.

Panel de Pon has the same button code, but it only disables the Level 50 speed cap. It doesn't affect either Time Stop or the grace period in VS.

Revisional Differences

Satebo icon.gif
Satellaview Event Versions
Three contests are known to have been held.
Blank.png
Rev. 1
An updated version used in the Virtual Console and Switch Online releases.

Anti-Piracy Features

Tetrisattackantipiracy.png

Like many later SNES games, the game runs an SRAM check upon boot-up. If the cartridge contains any RAM (highly likely if one has used a cartridge copier), it will display the above screen and freeze. Notice that "information" is misspelled as "infomation" here.

Tetris Attack additionally checks for several signs of a "dirty" system state on boot that would also indicate that the game was being run from a copier.