The standard mode of the game, reflected by Super Mario Bros., is closer to a traditional Tetris game where the tetrominos must be spun and moved as they get placed in the correct postions on the stacks with lines being cleared upon completion with the feature of spinning pieces at an infinite rate, a feature derrived from Tetris Worlds as it lets players keep a piece from locking until it's in the right pose with the game getting harder whenever the player eliminates 10 block lines.
The mission mode is style after Zelda and there are different goals shown in the upper screen's upper-right corner where the player can allow specific block clusters to drop in relation to the specified goal with the hold box's purpose being containing block clusters for a later time. The pushing mode is for two-player games where one player tries to make their opponent's pile of blocks hit the bottom first with the player having control of the upper DS screen with the block that's shoved all the way down the competitor's screen first meaning victory for the other player. The touching mode has the Touch Puzzle Mode and the Tower mode with Tower Mode having stacks that were poorly organized and the player must either rotate the block clusters or slide block lines in order to reach the balloon container that is at the roof of the stack and the Touch Puzzle Mode has about 50 levels that have to be cleared by moving pieces by using the stylus to slide them, but not turn them around.
The Metroid-themed catching mode has the player in control in a spinning cluster of blocks where they can ensnare other clusters with the section in the middle of the cluster being eliminated each time a block formation of 4x4 is accomplished. The mode for puzzles consists of more than 175 levels with players needing to complete several puzzle sections by picking out pieces and turning them correctly in order to slot them in place clear each level with the DS's upper screen showing the puzzles and the lower screen showing the puzzles' parts.
Tropes
- Arrange Mode: Tetris DS has "Touch Mode", which presents players with a tower of Tetris blocks and slide puzzle mechanics (think Panel de Pon, but with line clears). There's also "Catch Mode", where players maneuver a small core and stick dropping Tetris blocks onto it. Making a 4x4 square triggers a detonation sequence, and points are earned based on how big the core was when it detonated.
- Crossover: It has its various modes themed after different first-party NES games (namely Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong (1981), Yoshi's Cookie, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Balloon Fight).
- Difficulty by Acceleration: As the difficulty rises, pieces will eventually hit instant drop speed.
- Endless Game: It's technically possible to keep playing forever in endless mode... but after level 99/999 lines, it stops increasing counting your lines or increasing your score, making continuing to play pretty pointless.
- Falling Blocks: It's one of those versions where blocks skip falling at one of the higest levels and immediately his the stack.
- The Goomba: The Trope Namer shows up as one of the opponents in the VS CPU mode of Tetris DS.
- Near Victory Fanfare:
- Tetris DS has its Push Mode based on Donkey Kong (1981). As you come closer to victory, the 25m music gains an upbeat drum beat, adds a melody, and then becomes the hammer theme from the same game. The reverse also occurs if you're on the losing side.
- Also, in Marathon Mode of Tetris DS, while the previous four levels (16-19) play a "Hurry Up!" for their melody, the final level (Level 20) changes the music one last time into
an awesome fast remix of the classic Tetris music.
- Nerf: Tetris DS awards a large number of points or sends a whopping seven lines of garbage to the opponent for a T-Spin Triple. Several subsequent games simply don't recognize T-Spin Triples. Although the the latest games still recognize them, the number of lines of garbage sent by T-Spin Triples are reduced to six.
- Stalked by the Bell: Fail to complete an objective in Tetris DS's "Mission" mode, and your playfield gets bumped up by four lines of blocks before your next objective is given.
- Super Title 64 Advance: Tetris DS is for the Nintendo DS.