For the record, there’s a lot I can’t judge about Pokemon Tetris. I played a Japanese version of the game, so I already had to reference wikis and outside sources to learn about the game due to not being able to read Japanese. If this game poorly explains its mechanics, has misleading text, or there’s flaws surrounding the text and language of the game, I have no idea about it. Also I call it Shock Tetris in this because Pokemon Shock Tetris is its name in Japanese and I think its a cool name.
At its core, Shock Tetris is just, well, Tetris. Simplify this game to its base mechanics, and you just have classic Tetris. While it does deviate from classic Tetris in some ways, you can guess exactly what you’re signing up for when playing it. The focus of its gameplay isn’t about score or speed like most Tetris games, but instead on line clears. Shock Tetris’s main mechanic is that when playing Tetris, a silhouette of a Pokemon will appear on the side of the screen. Getting a 4-line clear (or a 5-line but we’ll get to that) will catch the Pokemon, adding it to your Pokedex. As a result, Shock Tetris mainly cares about getting perfect line clears. While catching Pokemon is an RNG hell, I do honestly think the mechanic is charming. Catching a new Pokemon is fun, and the enlarged sprites are cute.
Something else that makes Shock Tetris stand out is that it’s one of very few Tetris games with pentominoes, or 5-block pieces. Pentominoes add an extra layer of difficulty for those not familiar with playing with them (me) in that you need to learn how to fit them into your board without leaving gaps, since gameplay requires you to go for 4 and 5-line clears to catch Pokemon. Pentominoes are an interesting gameplay aspect, even if they’re kind of hellish to learn.
But pentominoes are extremely important to gameplay because of how they interact with encounters. Completing a 5-line clear will guarantee a new Pokemon encounter (if one is able to spawn), which makes them basically required to complete the Pokedex due to being able to force rare encounters and curb the RNG of running into duplicates. But there’s also RNG involved in this as well, since rarer Pokemon will despawn faster than more common Pokemon, which can mean even if you get a 5-line clear and force a rarer Pokemon, you still may not be able to get it because you couldn’t get the pieces you need in time. And considering that you also will be running into other pentominoes at the stages where you can do this, there’s extra difficulty in trying to set everything up without gaps. RNG is a major gatekeeper for completion of this game, and that can be pretty frustrating.
But the biggest issue Shock Tetris has is that the game is very technically limited. The Pokemon Mini is a really weak system that absolutely limited what Shock Tetris could do. Shock Tetris is lacking various QoL features like having a ghost piece or a hold system (hold was introduced to Tetris games before Shock Tetris released), with the hold mechanic especially being dearly missed due to how catching mechanics work; dex completion would be so much less frustrating if the player could hold a line piece to time when they can catch a new encounter. And while mimicking classic Tetris isn’t a bad thing, not only does Shock Tetris’s inclusion of pentominoes sort of throw off it recreating classic Tetris, but the features missing would have majorly improved gameplay and removed a lot of frustration. Pair this with the Mini’s graphical limitations (and music, because honestly Shock Tetris’s theme got pretty grating and hard on my ears) and Shock Tetris’s technical limits become obvious.
Shock Tetris is stuck in a terrible middleground of having a lot of interesting mechanics (pentominoes and its catching mechanics) that are limited by the system it released on, and being so obscure that it hardly receives any love and is highly unlikely to ever be remade. The Pokemon Mini was limited in where you could get it (Pokemon Center or via online shops) and only ever had 10 games, with 5 of them being Japan exclusive. As well, Shock Tetris never released in North America, obscuring its existence even further. I mention this because Shock Tetris never really got a chance to succeed, and since it's so obscure the game will likely never be revisited or remade. Shock Tetris is nothing short of wasted potential, and it stings a lot because the game is genuinely really cool despite all of its challenges. I just wish Shock Tetris got dealt a better hand than it did.
At its core, Shock Tetris is just, well, Tetris. Simplify this game to its base mechanics, and you just have classic Tetris. While it does deviate from classic Tetris in some ways, you can guess exactly what you’re signing up for when playing it. The focus of its gameplay isn’t about score or speed like most Tetris games, but instead on line clears. Shock Tetris’s main mechanic is that when playing Tetris, a silhouette of a Pokemon will appear on the side of the screen. Getting a 4-line clear (or a 5-line but we’ll get to that) will catch the Pokemon, adding it to your Pokedex. As a result, Shock Tetris mainly cares about getting perfect line clears. While catching Pokemon is an RNG hell, I do honestly think the mechanic is charming. Catching a new Pokemon is fun, and the enlarged sprites are cute.
Something else that makes Shock Tetris stand out is that it’s one of very few Tetris games with pentominoes, or 5-block pieces. Pentominoes add an extra layer of difficulty for those not familiar with playing with them (me) in that you need to learn how to fit them into your board without leaving gaps, since gameplay requires you to go for 4 and 5-line clears to catch Pokemon. Pentominoes are an interesting gameplay aspect, even if they’re kind of hellish to learn.
But pentominoes are extremely important to gameplay because of how they interact with encounters. Completing a 5-line clear will guarantee a new Pokemon encounter (if one is able to spawn), which makes them basically required to complete the Pokedex due to being able to force rare encounters and curb the RNG of running into duplicates. But there’s also RNG involved in this as well, since rarer Pokemon will despawn faster than more common Pokemon, which can mean even if you get a 5-line clear and force a rarer Pokemon, you still may not be able to get it because you couldn’t get the pieces you need in time. And considering that you also will be running into other pentominoes at the stages where you can do this, there’s extra difficulty in trying to set everything up without gaps. RNG is a major gatekeeper for completion of this game, and that can be pretty frustrating.
But the biggest issue Shock Tetris has is that the game is very technically limited. The Pokemon Mini is a really weak system that absolutely limited what Shock Tetris could do. Shock Tetris is lacking various QoL features like having a ghost piece or a hold system (hold was introduced to Tetris games before Shock Tetris released), with the hold mechanic especially being dearly missed due to how catching mechanics work; dex completion would be so much less frustrating if the player could hold a line piece to time when they can catch a new encounter. And while mimicking classic Tetris isn’t a bad thing, not only does Shock Tetris’s inclusion of pentominoes sort of throw off it recreating classic Tetris, but the features missing would have majorly improved gameplay and removed a lot of frustration. Pair this with the Mini’s graphical limitations (and music, because honestly Shock Tetris’s theme got pretty grating and hard on my ears) and Shock Tetris’s technical limits become obvious.
Shock Tetris is stuck in a terrible middleground of having a lot of interesting mechanics (pentominoes and its catching mechanics) that are limited by the system it released on, and being so obscure that it hardly receives any love and is highly unlikely to ever be remade. The Pokemon Mini was limited in where you could get it (Pokemon Center or via online shops) and only ever had 10 games, with 5 of them being Japan exclusive. As well, Shock Tetris never released in North America, obscuring its existence even further. I mention this because Shock Tetris never really got a chance to succeed, and since it's so obscure the game will likely never be revisited or remade. Shock Tetris is nothing short of wasted potential, and it stings a lot because the game is genuinely really cool despite all of its challenges. I just wish Shock Tetris got dealt a better hand than it did.