the aim of simple tetris is to make as many lines as possible. to do this, you have to position the falling shapes so that you make an entire line of blocks. once a line is complete, it disappears, a balloon floats up and you score points. you score more points the more lines you can fill using one shape. here are how the points are awarded:
1 line = 10 points (green fast balloon)
2 lines = 50 points (yellow balloon)
3 lines = 100 points (pink balloon)
4 lines = 300 points (red slow balloon)
to move the shapes, you use your arrow keys on your keyboard. the left and right arrows move it left and right, the down arrow drops the shape and the up arrow rotates the shape. you can use I, J, K and L instead if you prefer. you can pause the game at any time by pressing P. to resume the game, just press P again.
the longer the game goes on, the more the shapes are filling up at the bottom. you have to make sure the shapes dont reach the top because otherwise you will lose. this means you have to carefully position your shapes so there are no gaps and leave as much room as possible for the next shape. the shape that will fall after the one that is currently falling is shown at the top right of the screen, so you can think one move ahead as to where it can go.
once you complete 50 lines, you move on to level 2 where the shapes fall a little faster. you move on to level 3 if you get 90 lines, level 4 at 120 lines and finally level 5 at 140 lines. the shapes fall faster at each level and when you get to level 5 you just have to hold on as long as you can!
from level 2 onwards, you have 2 special shapes to play with. one removes all the blocks underneath where it lands and the other removes all the shapes on the same level to where it lands. these are handy to remove troublesome blocks and lower the mountain of shapes, so use them wisely! this is what the special shapes look like:
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removes the horizontal blocks |
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removes the vertical blocks |
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once the blocks reach the top and you lose, it will say either 'game over' or 'new record'. it will say new record if your score is the highest you have got since going in the game. if your score makes the top 10 of the day, you will also be asked to enter your name in the box that appears so that you can be added to the scoreboard to see how well you have done compared to everyone else! if you want to play another game, just press any key on your keyboard and the game will restart.