History YMMV / TetrisTheGrandMaster

* SoOkayItsAverage: ''ACE'', infamous for having so many of the iconic ''TGM'' elements stripped out due to ExecutiveMeddling on The Tetris Company's part, is widely seen as this. It's not a ''horrible'' game all things considered, it's just that if you want to play a Guideline-compliant ''Tetris'' game, there's many others out there, and if you want to play something closer to a proper ''TGM'' game, there are clones of the game that do the job better, as well as the Arcade Archives ports of the first two games.

* SoOkayItsAverage: ''ACE'', infamous for having so many of the iconic ''TGM'' elements stripped out due to ExecutiveMeddling on The Tetris Company's part, is widely seen as this. It's not a ''horrible'' game all things considered, it's just that if you want to play a Guideline-compliant ''Tetris'' game, there's many others out there, and if you want to play something closer to a proper ''TGM'' game, there are clones of the game that do the job better.

** Many ''TGM'' fans were quick to blame Henk Rogers, founder of Blue Planet Software (previously Bullet-Proof Software) and founder and managing director of The Tetris Company, in part for why ''[=TGM4=]'' was cancelled. According to a [[https://tetrisconcept.net/threads/the-end-of-prohibition.1652/ forum post]] from a longstanding member of the ''TGM'' community, Rogers had nothing to do wtih the cancellation and in fact [[ApprovalOfGod enjoys]] the ''TGM'' series.

* MisBlamed: It was believed that ''[=TGM4=]'' was canceled due to the Tetris Company's meddling, but it was revealed on December 5, 2010 that [[http://www.tetrisconcept.net/forum/showthread.html?t=1652 Sega refused to publish it]] and that Henk Rogers and the Tetris Company actually like this series. There are still some details left to speculation, but the troubles related to clones are no longer the only point of contention.

* TheScrappy: There's an unlikely one in TAP's T.A. Death mode. It's the ''I piece.'' Due to it being the only piece that can't kick, [[https://tetris.wiki/TGM_Guide#Uses_and_misuses_of_the_I_piece.2C_part_I:_rotations simply setting up a one-cell-wide hole on either the far left or right isn't enough to set up for a Tetris]]; you also have to set up a slightly wider opening for the piece to slip through. Thankfully, in regards to the other pieces, the game gives you some relief in the form of [[AntiFrustrationFeatures never giving out an S, Z, or O as the first piece]]. The I was RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap in ''Ti'', where a horizontally-laid I can now kick off of the floor once.

* SignatureScene: The "invisible ''Tetris''" sequences in the second and third games that are triggered by fulfilling certain difficult criteria.

* MainstreamObscurity: The game has seen a lot of positive reception from Western fans...the problem is that few ''play'' it, partly because for most Westerners, [[KeepCirculatingThetapes the only way to play]] is to be lucky enough to live near an arcade with it (of which there are very, very few), buy the arcade hardware for a non-trivial amount of money, play clones, or pirate it.

* TheyCopiedItNowItSucks: The sentiment Ichiro Mihara, the lead developer had to the clones of this very game (as detailed in ArtistDisillusionment in Trivia section), which led to him stopping development.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: [=TGM4=]'s version of the Arika Rotation System would have had, instead of step reset (in which the timer for a piece locking resets only on a piece moving down), use move reset (in which you only need to move the piece). This has not sat well with some fans.

* SoOkayItsAverage: ''ACE'', infamous for having so many of the iconic ''TGM'' elements stripped out due to ExecutiveMeddling on The Tetris Company's part, is widely seen as this. It's not a ''horrible'' game all things considered, it's just that if you want to play a Guideline-compliant ''Tetris'' game, there's many others out there.

** ''TGM ACE'' is by all accounts a fairly adequate game if you don't mind that it's not really a ''TGM'' game, but one glaring issue players have is with multiplayer mode, in which the round ends when either player makes 20 lines. To put it in perspective, you only need five Tetrises to win. This gives players hardly any opportunity for intense matches, as rounds are determined by 20 line clears more than by either player being garbaged to death.

* SoOkayItsAverage: ''ACE'', infamous for having so many of the iconic ''TGM'' elements stripped out due to ExecutiveMeddling on The Tetris Company's part, is widely seen as this. It's not a ''horrible'' game all things considered, there just isn't much to get excited about when other Guideline-compliant ''Tetris'' games exist.

* MostAnnoyingSound: The REGRET!! sound in [=TGM3=]. Not only is it an indicator that you're going too slow, but it also means you've just lost one grade.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Even if most of these games lack "Korobeiniki", they still have some pretty awesome music.
** ''TGM ACE'' has an awesome remix of "Katyusha", heard only in [[MarathonLevel Another Road]].

* InternetBackdraft: In late 2018, Arika beefed up the requirements for posting ''TGM'' videos on [=YouTube=] (which include: use the #tgm_series tag, use only official hardware i.e. no emulators, no pirate data of ''[=TGM3=]'', and no clones/simulators such as ''VideoGame/NullpoMino'') and declared that effective January 1, 2019, any video that doesn't meet their new guidelines will be met with a copyright strike (and on [=YouTube=], three copyright strikes will kill your account). Given that ''TGM'' is already [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes extremely difficult to have legal access to]] if [[NoExportForYou you don't live in Japan]] (the number of arcades outside of Japan that have legit ''TGM'' hardware likely number in the double digits ''at best'' and of course arcade hardware is expensive), this pissed off a lot of ''TGM'' fans outside of Japan, only furthering the existing disdain against Arika and the TTC and accusations of those two companies being overly [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil protective]] of their brands.

** ''TGM ACE'' is by all accounts a fairly adequate game if you don't mind that it's not really a ''TGM'' game, but one glaring issue players have is with multiplayer mode, in which the round ends when either player makes 20 lines. To put it in perspective, you only need five Tetrises to win. This gives players hardly any opportunity for intense matches.

* ContestedSequel: Fans are split over whether ''[=TGM3=]'' is an improvment upon ''TAP'' with its improved Arika Rotation System (specifically, the new "floor kick" added to the I-piece to make it easier to rotate when in 20G and the piece is horizontal), or FakeDifficulty: The Game due to the COOL system resulting in an unreasonably fast speed curve and the Easy mode having unintuitive and [[GuideDangIt guide-requiring]] scoring mechanics.

** In the original ''TGM'', allowing and refusing VS matches can only be changed through operator settings; if they're disabled, both sides can peacefully play single-player but can't battle, and if they're enabled and another player has the lack of etiquette to put in their coins and press start, the first player's run will be ended. Subsequent games allow the player to refuse VS matches simply by pressing their start button.

* TheScrappy: There's an unlikely one in TAP's T.A. Death mode. It's the ''I piece.'' Due to it being the only piece that can't kick, [[https://tetris.wiki/TGM_Guide#Uses_and_misuses_of_the_I_piece.2C_part_I:_rotations simply setting up a one-cell-wide hole on either the far left or right isn't enough to set up for a Tetris]]; you also have to set up a slightly wider opening for the piece to slip through. Thankfully, in regards to the other pieces, the game gives you some relief in the form of [[AntiFrustrationFeatures never giving out an S, Z, or O as the first piece]].

* TGM wasn't the first game with Sega rotation to introduce wall kicks - ''Tetris Plus 2'' had a similar system a year earlier, and ''Tetris 64'' had kicks as an option a year before that.

* CultClassic: Although the series is known through memetic videos at best outside of Japan, it does have a small dedicated following in the West. This seems to be changing in 2015, as demonstrations of it at WebVideo/GamesDoneQuick have helped bring more exposure to Western gamers. In Japan, the [=Pier21=] arcade in Kodaira maintains a dedicated set of ''TGM'' setups, with periodic competitions still being held for the games over 15 years after the original ''TGM'' was released.

* TheScrappy: There's an unlikely one in TAP's T.A. Death mode. It's the ''I piece.'' Due to it being the only piece that can't kick, [[http://tetrisconcept.net/wiki/TGM_Guide#Uses_and_misuses_of_the_I_piece.2C_parti_I:_rotations simply setting up a one-cell-wide hole on either the far left or right isn't enough to set up for a Tetris]]; you also have to set up a slightly wider opening for the piece to slip through. Thankfully, in regards to the other pieces, the game gives you some relief in the form of [[AntiFrustrationFeatures never giving out an S, Z, or O as the first piece]].

* The "COOL!!" system is disliked by some players due to [[DynamicDifficulty consecutive COOL!! requirements being dependent on how fast you went in the previous section]]; if you have a strong early game the game will expect you to keep it up lest you screw yourself out of good grades and the invisible roll, as opposed to performing decently at the start and improving later on. Thus, this system can encourage players to DoWellButNotPerfect.