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Raukue

My Brain Limitation on Games. Tetris Attack!

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I started up Tetris Attack rather randomly and as I play I think about how I never been able to get better. How I don't think my brain can do it. To be able to think ahead, plan ahead and see all around me and be able to pull off chains and combos. Only time I make chains is just by luck mostly. And even as I look at the tutorial on how to make them, I can't even see them there. Well I can but after awhile and mostly because the black blocks make it easy to see. But when there are no black blocks to put focus just yeah I cannot see how to make a chain. ( The AI in that game is insane. They pull off x7 chains within the first 10 seconds and keep hitting hard on Super Hard mode ).

Sure it's a puzzle game but I think shows my limitation in games. How I can only get so good and can't get any better. This is one of those harder games I suppose and MAYBE I just haven't given it enough time to get any better but... still. When it comes to any game... racing, shooter, fighting, platform and all that... I can only get so good while others get better than me. I don't know if it's because I never spend enough time with a game, as the most I seem to spend is about a month with a game before I lose the mood, and the total time made up of that month is maybe about 3 hours a day if at all, as some days I don't play.

Anyway I notice that these days when I play games, even just single player ( I don't even play multiplayer though I want to. I just am always afraid to get online and play, dunno why. Fear of sucking I guess. Even though once I do get in it then I have fun. And maybe lack of friends to play such game with like Uncharted 3 but yeah... ), how I notice I play games these days and want to be good at them. To either memorize the map layout of a game such as Castlevania the 2D games or GTA though I don't think I can ever memorize GTA, always relying on the minimap. To be better skilled at a game and all that. But I guess I never spend enough time for any of that on a game before stopping for months or a year and having to relearn everything.



Tell me about your experiences:

So I dunno just another random though journal. Wonder if those of you who play Tetris Attack and are good can give any tips or your experience on how you learned to be good at it, how long it took and all that.

As well as your experiences with ANY game. Be it single player or multiplayer, trying to get better and why you wanted to get better.

Did you just want to be able and win more often in a multiplayer game? Or did you want to be able and know you could be good in a game when you wanted to be in a single player game or otherwise? To where you didn't care about winning and just wanted to have fun, but know you can be good when you have to be.

Just anything else you can think of about all this to talk about. Stories, how you felt, what made you want to get better such as your sibling being better than you or something? I dunno.
Viewed: 47 times
Added: 11 years, 11 months ago
 
dimenianz
11 years, 11 months ago
I used to play against a friend of mine who could pull off the multis (x10) pretty easily. I don't know how he could do it. The most I could get is a x4 and that's if I was lucky.

I ended up playing for long periods. I ended up getting better but never as good as my friend ever was...
Raukue
11 years, 11 months ago
Yeah that is how I am now. Just mostly the common 4 block combos and only up to x4 chains if I am lucky. I can only pull off x2 sometimes when I barely notice the drop will land on the same block.

It's insane how the AI is in that game. I lost within 18 secs a bit much because right at the start the AI would pull off a x7 chain and then pull off some more combos and I was pretty much screwed.
Tai
Tai
11 years, 11 months ago
I used to be good, able to pull off a combo that won the match for me as my first move.
It wasn't tetris attack it was Pokemon Puzzle League, but same thing.
Raukue
11 years, 11 months ago
Yeah same thing. But I have memories with the SNES one there. I never played the others.
tannim
11 years, 11 months ago
I was once very good at that game.  Now I am terrible and cannot figure out combos.  Some people can see patterns, others can't.
Raukue
11 years, 11 months ago
Can't become good at it again? So you were good as in you learned to do chains and combos but now can't pick that back up?
tannim
11 years, 11 months ago
age and disinterest got me.  My reflexes slowed.  I had learned to move the buttons very rapidly and do big chains and combos, now that's long behind me.
Jewelwriter
11 years, 11 months ago
I never could get used to some FPSs even when training on simpler games (Banjo-Tooie).

I get more into it in knowing I can at times pull off some combos very quick (x5 or x6) but I got to be pressing buttons quick to do it which really is a bit of endurance.
Raukue
11 years, 11 months ago
Yeah only time I do such chains is I am just moving fast and pressing the button just randomly moving blocks and get lucky when I get those kind of combos.
RallyJay
11 years, 11 months ago
I'm pretty good at it but I've known people who are better.  But you're never really screwed in Tetris Attack, as long as you MOVE FAST.  I just played a round and I was pretty rusty, but I did manage to hit a few x6s, x7s and one x8.

The computer will launch gigantic chains at you, but as long as you can keep calm, the very nature of the game allows you to throw the garbage right back at them, and chains are much easier to pull off when garbage is turning into regular blocks.

Always look at the piece on top of what you're matching.  You know it's going to hit bottom, so try to line up two of the same block beneath it.  If you can't do that, look to the left and right of where it will land, and try to swap in two blocks horizontally, either one to each side or both on the same side.  Or more!  By matching horizontally you can chain and combo at the same time, if you're careful.

Never make a match at the top of the screen unless you're matching garbage; you want to have a block or two on top of your match to fall onto the pieces below. You do have time (not much) to think between the time a match occurs and the action resumes, so USE that time, every time by swapping a piece on top if there isn't one there.  (If you keep digging down, eventually there won't be, so swap one in from the side.  When pieces are about to fall, if you only have one matching piece beneath, but you see another matching piece in the stack just to the left or right, but it's locked in by the blocks that are about to disappear, you can position the cursor in place and hammer the swap button, and you can often swap it in during the short window there.  Sometimes you'll swap it in and then swap it right back, ruining your plan, but the odds of success are good enough that it's worth doing if you don't have something better lined up.

Don't be afraid to mix up the chains with combos, they can really mess players up by adding unbalanced lines of garbage to work around.  And when garbage is transforming on your side, try to unevenly stack up the matches you're lining up, and you'll get multiple chains instead of a chain and a combo.  Don't just match exclamation blocks when you see them, unless you're desperate for a match.  Wait until you've just dropped a big garbage block on your opponent, then match the exclamation blocks (four or more if possible if you really want to ruin their day.)

And don't be afraid to raise the stack with L & R.  You can't chain or combo anything if you don't have any blocks on the screen.
Raukue
11 years, 11 months ago
Still rather difficult. I figure I can't learn by being told or not even shown, I guess it's one of those things you just learn on your own and no one can teach you?
RallyJay
11 years, 11 months ago
Practice can help, but in the end it's about being able to quickly recognize where the pieces will end up when the current match finishes, and positioning other pieces so that the next match happens automatically.

Start with the basics.  Using letters in place of pieces, imagine for a minute you have a column that looks like this:

O
T
V
V
O
O

Now if we reveal a few extra pieces to the side of the T, in row 2:

O
TMRV
V
V
O
O

When you swap the V in row 2 to the left, it'll match the other Vs.  Then look at what's left (leaving out the rest of the pieces in row 2 for simplicity's sake):

O



O
O

The O on top will naturally drop down and create a x2 chain.  But that's basically taking advantage of a good board layout.  Most of the time, things won't be laid out this perfectly.  What if instead, the board looked like this:

O
TMRV
V
V
O
MRTO

In this example, if you match the Vs, you'll end up with two Os on top of an M, which isn't a match.  But if you realize prior to matching the Vs that the O on top will drop when you match the Vs, you can plan ahead and swap the O into position in row 6, so that just as before, you've created a x2 chain.  Only this time, it happened because you planned it that way, not because you got lucky.
Raukue
11 years, 11 months ago
Yeah I guess those are simple enough which I tend to get when I do notice. It's just I know how it's like you should be looking all around while you move and plan ahead and all. Instead I just focus on where I am moving and can't see all around. I know how to play and do that such, the game tells you and you learn that. It's just a matter of being able to see those instances. The demo in the game and puzzles make it seem all the easy since those are the only blocks in focus but in a real game it is mixed in with other blocks so not really easy to spot.
MyMelodyKuromiFan
11 years, 11 months ago
Tetris always required your brain, especially true Tetris games where you're clearing lines and especially when the pieces just appears out of nowhere.
Raukue
11 years, 11 months ago
Yeah but the original line Tetris is at least easier then that other kind of Tetris, if it is even really Tetris, where you swap 2 blocks left to right only.
RazYoshi
11 years, 11 months ago
Used to watch two friends play a lot of Pokémon Puzzle League and they would get chains so high that it would stop showing the number and just be a question mark, I think those were chains above 20? But I could never wrap my head around Tetris Attack, I feel the limitations hard XD. My game was always Dr. Mario >_>
Raukue
11 years, 11 months ago
That sounds hard to believe. Just impossible. I can't even spot how to get so much chains. Even as I play Puzzle Mode I can't see the way to solve the puzzle right away and takes me a few guesses and tries.

Still, Tetris Attack is difficult to be a master of but at least in other games it is easier, such as FPS or games like Uncharted or fighting games, right? Just takes practice and not as much thought as Tetris Attack I think. But even with those games I feel I can only get so good then can't get any better. Maybe it's because I don't play them long enough. I mean it probably takes months of playing to get pretty above average but I never play for that long.
RazYoshi
11 years, 10 months ago
Puzzle mode makes me so sad; I think to myself "can people really solve this in 3 moves?" I just can't see it in my head where things are gonna end up. I think it's just an inherent limitation, just being born with the ability to solve certain kinds of puzzles. 'Cause my buddy mentioned above whose a Tetris Attack wiz can't play Dr. Mario to save his life XD But I'm the complete opposite; i can see those pills lining up in my mind and it's just flawless. I don't think that constant playing of a puzzle game will give you better results like if you play a bunch of FPSs because there's no maps to learn, no weapon combos to figure out, you don't have to be sneaky...it's just inherent. So I dunno, man; will be a mystery forever. =/
Raukue
11 years, 10 months ago
Yeah I am thinking that is just how it might be with puzzle games. You either have it or don't. Other games like FPS, fighting games or racing or otherwise, yeah it is easier to learn to get better but even still I think some of us can only get so high/good and others can get higher/better because their brain is able to just react better and I dunno. All I know I only get so good at a game and can't get better as others are better than me or get better than me when I use to be better than them.
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