List of twists

Twists, somewhat referenced in The New Tetris as spinmoves, let a player fix some otherwise difficult situations. These examples cover recent games, but some of them may not work for earlier Tetris games that use little or no wall kick.

Rewards for twists

Some games give scoring rewards for twisting a tetromino into a tight space. Two algorithms, with slight variations, have been used in newer games to detect and reward in-place spins:

• In The New Tetris, a T-spin bonus is awarded if a tetromino locks in a position where it cannot move left, right, or up.
• In Tetris DS (and possibly other SRS based games), a T-spin bonus is awarded if all of the following are true:^[1]
  1. Tetromino being locked is T.
  2. Last successful movement of the tetromino was a rotate, as opposed to sideways movement, downward movement, or falling due to gravity. (Canceling lock delay in games that allow it, such as Tetris DS, does not count as a movement.) The tetromino doesn't even have to end up in a different orientation than it was dropped in; setting up the "well-known twist" below in Tetris Worlds or Tetris DS and pressing both rotate buttons (B–A or A–B) will trigger the T-spin bonus even without any net rotation.
  3. Three of the 4 squares diagonally adjacent to the T's center are occupied. (In Tetris DS, the walls and floor surrounding the playfield are considered "occupied", while in Tetris Worlds for GBA, they aren't.)

Twists with T (or T-Spin)

A well-known twist involves the tetromino T.

Other variants exist, especially in games that use some form of wall kick. For example, the following works in TGM rotation and in SRS, but it is not scored as a T-spin in Tetris Worlds if performed on the floor of the playfield.

This example from SRS is not a T-spin under the old rule, as the tetromino could have been rotated before being dropped, but SRS games from Tetris Worlds through Tetris DS count it anyway:

This one is a T-spin in Tetris DS but not Tetris Worlds due to the difference in how the playfield walls are handled:

Triples may not seem possible, but especially games using SRS will allow them regardless. Notice that the ending position of the T tetromino does not overlap the starting position.

This one works in SRS as well as Atari rotation:

Twists with I

If changing position to the second row, rotate three times so to twist on lower-middle square.

If changing positions to the right columns, turn right. If left, turn left.

In SRS, I tetrominoes can be rotated on their end blocks:

SRS has a slight asymmetry with how end-block rotation is handled. See I-spins in SRS.

This one is silly but should work (with minor variations) in most systems, even if it is not rewarded:

In games that use Atari rotation, a similar maneuver can produce a triple:

Twists with S and Z

If using S, rotate right both times. If using Z, rotate left both times.

SRS only:

In this case, if using S, turn left both times and if using Z, turn right both times.

Twists with J and L

Works in virtually all versions, including Tetris (Game Boy):

Works with TGM and SRS:

Works with SRS only.

Like other spin triples, this works with SRS only:

See also

• Main Page
• I-spins in SRS