In my opinion Tengen Tetris is better than the “official” Nintendo release.I like the fact you can play 2 players ,and the music is better ..

Tengen for the two player

Yep 

Nintendo version for the more iconic feel. For those that had a lunch game boy with it, nothing else comes close.

For everything else, including 2P, tengen by a mile.

Besides the fact the licensed version was used in the Tetris portion of the NWC ,for me everything else about the Tengen version is more rememberable..
 

Never played Tengen Tetris, but it's my understanding that the difficulty caps at a much lower speed so that good players can marathon it. The Nintendo version has better difficulty. The Nintendo version is played in classic Tetris tournaments for a reason.

Tengen. My gf and I play two player joint games and it is a lot of fun. When we first started dating we would cuss and blame each other for not setting something up right or blocking something and now we just kill it. The music is also the best. Tengen and Dr. Mario that’s it. 

I agree with this ..

I find myself playing my copy of Tengen Tetris more than the licensed version ..

How many people could a difficulty cap really affect? It gets really fast on the later stages; it pretty much turns into one mistake and you lose.

How many more people got to play it is a bigger factor than any underlying programming reason, imo
 

Licensed.

Tengen Tetris has a difficulty cap that is equivalent to Level 15 on Nintendo Tetris.

You don't have to be all that good at Tetris to be able to play a single game of Tengen Tetris for multiple HOURS before you just die of boredorm rather than the difficulty.

Anyone that can start at Level 16-18 speed (and make Tetrises) and survive to Level 19 on the licensed version can play Tengen Tetris basically forever.

 

I honestly don't care for the Arcade/Tengen version of Tetris at all. For me, they don't feel right.


I think the Nintendo and Game Boy versions are perfect


Also, I grew up with none of them, other than playing Game Boy Tetris at kiosks a couple of times. I had a rip-off on my Dad's early 90s b&w laptop called 'Zetris' where the bricks moved from bottom to top instead. I'm pretty sure the game is 100% lost, I've never been able to find information of its existance online. I would guess it was released between 1990-92.

Like I said I don't know how many people that affects. I've put in a couple hundred hours over the last 5 or 6 six years and the game is still hard. My gf has about five games she plays and she has had this since it was released and she can't stick around forever. She can max the score, but sitting down relaxing on level 15, no way.

So ya, I believe you that some people think the game is easy I just don't think that would hold for most people.

If your GF can max-out Nintendo Tetris (i.e. 999,999 which requires very skilled play at Level 19+), then she should have no trouble, at all, taking it easy at Level 15 speeds.

WAY fewer people are capable of maxing the score on Nintendo Tetris than can camp indefinitely at Level 15.
("indefinite" defined as "until a mistake is made due to boredom or excessive risk taking" rather than the game having the ability to kill you if you were paying attention even a little bit and burning to minimize risk)

It's funny, now that you're telling me other people find it easy I kinda want to check out videos, but I kind of don't. Like if there is something missing in my strategy that could make me a lot better, the game might not be as fun anymore.

I downloaded and played some Tengen Tetris and was dying from bad rng and droughts. The speed wasn't really an issue. It might also be the slight lag from playing on an emulator.


 

It's lame that pausing doesn't black out the screen in Tengen Tetris as it does in Nintendo Tetris. This version does seem more geared to very casual players which is fine.

I don't like how the Tengen version grays out the pieces when they set. Minor nitpicking, maybe, but it really grates on me.

Tournaments all use the Nintendo version.

I noticed that too when I fired it up just now (made it to Level 14, I think, starting at Level 9 with max handicap). Somehow it makes it harder to sense what's needed to complete a row, maybe because you're using the color of the set pieces in your peripheral vision to guide your intuition. Dunno.

I also feel like there's something weird in the debouncing of the controller input. I got extra inputs/rotations when I didn't intend them.

BTW I played the Tengen version back in the day -- rented it from a local video store, after I think I'd already played the Nintendo release a bunch (not 100% sure but I think so). I was underwhelmed, frankly.

It feels like a bootleg version of Tetris. Nintendo Tetris is much better.
 

One of those threads that youd see every day years ago on this site

I disagree with the music being better. Nes tetris is superior. I used to find tengen tetris more appealing feature wise with the 2 player, but realized how often do i even want to play tetris with another player

Nes is better. Music more catchy, and the piece animation separated into squares is superior visually.

For the music, Nintendo made easy winner there.

But if you are in it for the actual gameplay mechanics, options and all that, Tengen wins hands down. Nintendo had more than one good reason to attack over that game, it was just better done.

Having Tengen Tetris never get fast enough to actually end a competent player's game was a huge lapse in judgement, and singlehandedly gives the Nintendo version the win.

The only way to lose at Tengen Tetris is to decide to stop playing and put the controller down. BOO!