Tetris Attack (Game Boy)

The Game Boy Tetris Attack is a low-effort port of the SNES version, featuring slower gameplay, remixed music, bland palettes, and a suspicious dearth of the upside-down triangle panels.

Unlike the SNES version, this one was always a Yoshi game (though many of the Panel de Pon leftovers were kept regardless).

Hidden Super Game Boy Borders#

There are six Super Game Boy versions that can be selected via button codes at the title screen, when selecting "1P" to play the game. They are:

Returning to the title screen at any time allows you to choose another border. Pressing just Start on the title screen will make the border the default star border again, while pressing the A button will keep the current border.

Seventh Panel#

A seventh panel was programmed into the game, although it loads placeholder graphics. The shading changes depending on the stage, and will appear as the current stage's garbage block when under pressure.

The panel will not change at all when in the dark row at the bottom or when being cleared. Setting a RAM address in the range C200-C24D to 07 will turn a panel into the unfinished seventh panel. The panel behaves as it should. It's possible this was meant for the upside-down triangle panel, which is otherwise absent from the game.

Unused VS. COM Yoshi Stage#

A fully programmed Yoshi stage for the VS. COM mode exists. Game Genie code 11F-A09-4C1 will load the unused stage for every VS. COM character, though you will still progress. This was likely intended as an introduction stage.

Unfinished Endless and Time Stages#

Flying Wiggler, Lunge Fish, and the boss characters (Hookbill the Koopa, Naval Piranha, Kamek, and Bowser) have Endless and Time Trial stages. They work as they should, but they suffer from incomplete graphics; Lunge Fish's stage has the least amount of graphical issues. Game Genie code 3E6-A5B-4CA + ??6-A6B-A26, 3E6-A5B-4CA + ??6-A6B-A26 (Rev 1) will allow you to select any stage in Endless mode. Code 3E9-5EB-4CA + ??9-5FB-D5E, 3E9-89B-4CA + ??9-8AB-D5E (Rev 1) will allow you to select these stages in Time Trial mode.

Unused Graphics#

There's a lot. Unless noted otherwise, these graphics appear in all versions of the game.

International Title Screen#

A mostly-finished sprite set of Yoshi. These sprites are only in the international versions.

Endless Time Trial Garbage#

There are three garbage block sets for the Endless and Time Trial game modes. The tiles are the same for all characters. This may hint at a stand-alone garbage mode, which later appeared in Pokémon Puzzle Challenge.

Unused Character Animations#

Setting RAM address C152 to 04 will display this unused animation for all characters. Possibly an early "hit" animation?

Game Over#

The third star appears circling over Yoshi's head in the Game Over screen.

VS#

An unused heart tile.

An icon that likely would have been displayed when you attacked the other player in Vs. Mode. The standard combo icon is used to fill up the metre instead.

A tile of unknown purpose.

Invisible Super Game Boy PAL_SET ATTR_TRN Overlay#

Tetris Attack has an ATTR_TRN file that will display an overlay which can only be seen by setting the PAL_TRN register file to value 04 or higher; Game Game code 044-C7C-E6A will load the unused attribute file. Due to the palette used in Tetris Attack, the attribute overlay will be hard to see. The image can be partially seen during the VS COM ending screen upon transitioning to special cheat message screens, though only for less than a second. This attribute file overlay can be found in a few other Super Game Boy games featuring different palettes.

Regional Differences#

Title Screen#

International	Japan

Aside from title logo change, the Tetris licensing text info is removed in the Japanese version along with upper shadow above the logo, the copyright text also moved down to fill the space with Yoshi head icon tiles.

Revisional Differences#

To do: Are there additional revision changes?

The International version received a revision. The only known difference is that the screens fades out into the next, as opposed to screens blank transitioning to the next in the earlier revision.