Tetris: The Grand Master - A Guide

This game can be played with up to two people, and with the right settings the unique versus mode can be played.

This mode has the two players battling it out using mechanics familiar to Tetris fans (lines sending lines to your opponent) with a twist: once a player advances enough to fill a gauge, their next piece becomes an item that, once cleared, can do one of a variety of things, helping them or hindering their opponent. Best of three matches wins.

I highly recommend this mode, as it’s a blast with the items creating chaos in a principled game. If you want to play the mode without items, you can by having both players hold their Start buttons before the match starts.


There is a hidden grade you can get called a Secret Grade. To obtain it, you have to create a stack in a special way, as pictured at the right. For each row of the secret you create, your Secret Grade goes up. If you get a Secret Grade of 5 or higher (5 rows or more) it will be displayed when you top out.




As this is an arcade game from the 90’s, it has codes. These codes aren’t cheats in this game, but extra modes to play. You enter them at the title screen after you insert a credit, and you can have any number of them active at the same time.

Here they are, and what they do (UDLR are directions, ABC are buttons):

  • 20G Mode: Sets the gravity to 20G starting at level 000.
    • DDDDDDDDCBA
  • Big Mode: Makes pieces twice as big for twice the points for half the space (doesn’t make them snap to the virtual 5x10 grid they make though, so watch out).
    • LLLLDCBA
  • Reverse Mode: Flips the game upside down, forcing you to press UP to Soft Drop. Doesn’t flip left/right, just up/down.
    • DUUDCBA
  • Mono Mode: Tetrominoes are all gray. Or grey.
    • RRRUCBA
  • TLS Mode: Makes the TLS show for the entire game, instead of just 000 through 100. Only useful from 200 to 230, in my experience.
    • ABCCBAACB
  • Uki Mode: Makes voice lines play upon clearing lines. A nice nod to Sega Tetris, and nothing more.
    • ABABABABABABABABB

Scores made with codes enabled will not be saved on the in-game leaderboard.

You’re probably playing the Arcade Archives version of the game because it’s the most accessible one, right? That one’s got a couple extra features:

That about does it. Thanks for reading! If you have any questions for me, you can contact me with the “Questions?” page.