Game:

Tetris Attack (1995)

Duration: 10:49

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So as I mentioned while I was writing descriptions about the Normal mode playthrough, I started to think more about it and I decided it was a greater disservice to the game and anybody watching if I removed the story segments...plus the fact that most of them are so short it doesn't even really make sense to do so. As you go up in difficulty, more and more time is spent in battle with AI opponents who actually know what they're doing and as such the returns gained by removing those between-battle segments become less and less significant.

Case in point, between this segment and the one that preceded it, I manage to make it only as far as Dragon, so there are still two full-length battles with still more-competent opponents waiting, and a storyline conclusion after that, and then if there's still time the credits and post-credits "cheat" code that tells you how to reach the secret difficulty. I had to drop both of those to just barely make it in at about 30 minutes total running time.

And that actually brings me to another thing...normally I'd be more than happy to play against even higher-level opponents, but that just brings to light one of the most ridiculous aspects to garbage-based versus play in Panel de Pon...it's not about "winning" so much as it is about one's opponent failing to continue.

Sure, sending a lot of garbage to one's opponent serves as a source of external pressure to keep things clearing so that one can continue living, but the existence of all that garbage introduces the potential to start it clearing and hunker down into a defensive stance where all you do is clear that garbage and let its dropped panels create chains that clear more garbage.

As long as you don't clear too many of your own panels in the process, you'll never run low enough to be in any real danger, since one row of garbage is six panels, only one of which do you actually need to use along with two of your own to set off the next layer.

Thank goodness the computer doesn't ever seem to realize this, or they'd take monstrously longer to defeat because of it. It's also why player-versus-player garbage matches tend to last a lot longer.

The computer plays pretty much the same regardless of whether or not they've got garbage, but when it's pressing down on them, they'll be compelled by a directive to live longer by doing the bare minimum necessary to do so...that is, they'll drop their normal routine, seek out a clear on top that's adjacent to the offending garbage, and once they've made it, go about their business...it's only when they fail to do so in time from having not planned in advance like a human would try to ensure their continued existence that they lose where a human probably wouldn't.

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