Hold piece

Hold piece is a feature of most newer Tetris games starting with The New Tetris. The top left of the tetrion has a window called the hold space that displays a tetromino. At any time starting when a tetromino enters the playfield until it locks, the player can press the Hold button on the controller to move the active tetromino into the Hold Queue and move the tetromino that was in the hold space to the top of the playfield. Be careful: if you swap the tetromino out from the Hold Queue, you have to use it right away—you can’t swap it back until the tetromino that was moved out of the Hold Queue locks! Using the Hold Queue correctly is one of the keys to becoming a great Tetris player—practice using it a lot and watch your scores go up and up.

The Hold Queue was introduced as part of the development of Square Tetris mode (introduced in The New Tetris; also appears in Tetris Worlds), making it easier for the player to assemble squares. Its inclusion in standard Tetris is controversial, as some critics have claimed that it makes the game too easy.

Initial state of the hold box
In The New Tetris, the players start with a random piece in their hold box. In guideline games however, the Hold Queue is initially empty, and the first use of the hold causes the next piece to appear immediately.

Orientation
Most games rotate tetrominoes back to the starting orientation when moving them to the Hold Queue. Tetris Worlds, on the other hand, does not (at least on GBA).

Hold in Radica games
In Fliptop Tetris by Radica, the piece preview doubles as the Hold Queue.

Initial hold
Arika's first TGM series games did not include hold piece. Tetris The Grand Master 3 Terror-Instinct, on the other hand, was released during The Tetris Company's campaign to apply the Tetris Guideline to new games. Both modes of TGM3 (Classic and World) include a feature called "initial hold system" or IHS, which allows the player to press and hold the Hold button during entry delay, and the tetromino will be swapped as soon as it enters the matrix, just as with IRS.

Lockjaw interprets a slightly different form of initial hold. At any time when no tetromino is falling (such as entry delay or line clear delay), the Hold button switches the hold piece with the next piece to come out.

Skip
Shadow mode in both Tetris Party games feature "Skip" instead of the Hold Queue. It is activated like the Hold Queue, but the piece is simply skipped and not stored for later use. The number of skip use is limited; the player is given 10 skips in early levels, but later levels allow more. Unlike the hold, skip can be used twice or more in the row without locking a piece.

A similar feature is in Tetris Best 2, where hold feature destroys pieces. However, this can be used an unlimited number of times, in effect allowing players to choose which blocks they want.

Tetris Blitz
In Tetris Blitz, the Hold Queue can be used twice or more in the row without locking the piece in between, effectively allowing the players to cancel the hold. The game also allows the players to buy the second Hold Queue via real money.