Tetris Attack (SNES)

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Tetris Attack
Also known as: Panel de Pon (JP) Developer: Intelligent Systems Publisher: Nintendo Platform: SNES Released in JP: October 27, 1995 Released in US: August 1996 Released in EU: November 28, 1996 This game has regional differences. This game has anti-piracy features.

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.

Extra Music Test Songs

All special ending themes can be accessed in the sound test using by the Game Genie code 4C27-C70A or PAR code 83D23D2A; just press left on song 00 or right on song 23 to gain access to the six additional tunes.

(Source: nensondubois)

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.

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

Character Changes

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

Panel de Pon	Tetris Attack
Lip	Yoshi
Windy	Lakitu
Sharbet/Sherbet	Bumpty
Thiana	Poochy
Ruby	Flying Wiggler
Elias	Froggy
Flare	Gargantua Blargg
Neris	Lunge Fish
Seren/Selene	Raphael the Raven
Phoenix	Hookbill the Koopa
Dragon	Naval Piranha
Sanatos/Thanatos	Kamek
Corderia/Cordelia	Bowser

Voice samples and character sprites were altered accordingly.

To do: Rip "Yatta!"/"Yeah" and "Tomare!"/"Stop!" voices, translate PDP voice clips

Panel de Pon - Lip	Tetris Attack - Yoshi

Panel de Pon - Windy	Tetris Attack - Lakitu

Panel de Pon - Sharbet/Sherbet	Tetris Attack - Bumpty

Panel de Pon - Thiana	Tetris Attack - Poochy

Panel de Pon - Ruby	Tetris Attack - Flying Wiggler

Panel de Pon - Elias	Tetris Attack - Froggy

Panel de Pon - Flare	Tetris Attack - Gargantua Blargg

Panel de Pon - Neris	Tetris Attack - Lunge Fish

Panel de Pon - Seren/Selene	Tetris Attack - Raphael the Raven

Panel de Pon - Phoenix	Tetris Attack - Hookbill the Koopa

Panel de Pon - Dragon	Tetris Attack - Naval Piranha

Panel de Pon - Sanatos/Thanatos	Tetris Attack - Kamek

Panel de Pon - Corderia/Cordelia	Tetris Attack - Bowser

Panel de Pon	Tetris Attack

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, TA uses a completely different sample for the "Nintendo!" voice.

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

Title Screen

Panel de Pon	Tetris Attack

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.

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

Panel de Pon	Tetris Attack
Lip apparently lives in a communist regime.	Yoshi lets you dip into the steamy underbelly of customization.

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, 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.

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 Thanatos'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

Panel de Pon	Tetris Attack

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

Panel de Pon	Tetris Attack

The cloud the "sidekick" bird (a Very Goonie in TA) was sleeping on was redrawn.

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

Thiana's/Poochy's Stage

Panel de Pon	Tetris Attack

The leaf on the branch in the background was shifted over slightly for TA.

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

Panel de Pon	Tetris Attack

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

Panel de Pon	Tetris Attack

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 TA screenshot) animate in sync in PdP, but at their own rates in TA. 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 TA.

Flare's/Gargantua Blargg's Stage

Panel de Pon	Tetris Attack

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/Selene's/Raphael the Raven's Stage

Panel de Pon	Tetris Attack

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 TA. The coloring on the border itself is very slightly duller.

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

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

Vs. Mode

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

Panel de Pon	Tetris Attack

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 starting world was redrawn to be egg-themed.

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

Game Over Screen

Panel de Pon	Tetris Attack

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 TA'S Vs. mode has passwords, one was added beneath the "Try again?" prompt.

Tetris Attack ditches Panel de Pon'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'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.