Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 PLUS

Tetris The Absolute The Grand Master 2 is the second arcade game in Arika's TGM series. Shortly after it was released Arika offered a free upgrade to a PLUS version, which among other things introduced the popular T.A. Death mode. The game is often abbrieviated "TAP" (The Absolute Plus).

Normal
Normal mode behaves just like Master mode in speed and timing, but stops at level 300. At levels 100 and 200 a special item block (also found in versus play) is given to the player. "Free Fall", which moves all blocks in the field down through holes (like gravity being turned on) is given at 100 and "Del Even" which clears every other row throughout the field is given at 200. The credit roll challenge is a slow 20g, but playing through it is not required for a "Clear".

Master
Master mode is Arika's upgrade to the original Tetris The Grand Master gameplay and behaves very much like that game. One of the most important differences is that the speeds continue to increase throughout the 500–999 levels, similar to but not exactly like 0–499 of T.A. Death (below), as opposed to topping off at TGM's 20g mode speed. Also, a hard drop that doesn't lock was introduced, improving sub-20g play by giving birth to the Zangi-moves. The ranking system is also much less forgiving and former TGM Gm class players will find themselves struggling to make S7 or even finish for that matter. Perhaps the most infuriating addition to the Gm qualifications is an invisible challenge during the credit roll where pieces disappear immediately after being locked; topping out results in rank M. Arika is currently hosting a video showing a Gm performance: tgm2master.

TGM+
This mode features speeds similar to the original TGM, with one important gameplay addition to keep the game interesting: Rising garbage during play. A fixed pattern of garbage rises, one row at a time, after a certain number of pieces have been played. It takes about 500 levels to cycle through the complete pattern, forcing the player to surpass it a second time in 20g.

T.A. Death
This is possibly the most famous mode ever featured in a TGM game. A video originally called Death 800 has floated around the Internet under the name Tetris Japan Finals, making the TGM series famous throughout the world. It is a video of a player breaking level 800 on death mode. This video is very popular and was singlehandedly responsible for introducing most western players to the TGM series. (People with a recent version of Flash Player can view this video on YouTube. ) Arika currently hosts a much better Gm rank Death Mode video: Death-Gm05.

Ranking
The TGM1/Master ranking system is absent from the screen although both M and Gm grades are achievable. Level 500 is the turning point: Gm is awarded at 999 regardless of time or score. The game does continue through the credits, but winning or losing at that point has no effect.
 * If you reach 500 with a time greater than 3:25:00 the timer will stop, the credits will roll and you are given an "Excellent!" but no grade. (the level 500 background is not shown)
 * If under 3:25:00 at 500 the M grade is achieved, the level 500 background is loaded, and the game will continue to 999.

Medals
Taratang and Lardarse have posted their hypotheses to TC's forum. As of July 2007, these results (especially RO, SK, RE, CO) have not been backed up by a disassembly or exhaustive test performed by English speakers.
 * AC (All clear): Bronze for one bravo, silver for two, gold for three or more.
 * RO (Rotation): Player used excessive rotation (how much?).
 * ST (Section time): Bronze or silver for approaching the machine's section time record; gold for beating it.
 * SK (Skill): Lots of 4-line clears. In Master: 10 give bronze, 20 give silver, 35 give gold. In Death: 5 give bronze, 10 give silver, 18 give gold?
 * RE (Recovery): Clear lots of lines with few consecutive tetrominoes.
 * CO (Combo): Clear several lines with successive tetrominoes. One hypothesis is that it must start with 4 lines with an I tetromino; another is that each line clear in a combo must be a double or better. Perhaps it just refers to boosting the "combo" number (see TGM1 scoring discussion) to some amount.

Timings
Though Death Mode has a fixed gravity of 20g, there are 4 other timings that shape the flow and speed of play.

Some repurcussions of this are that there is no time penalty for clearing singles instead of tetrises from level 100 through 299. Also, with such a low lock time, the possible places you can put a piece are reduced again, becoming a subset of what was once possible in 20g.

Doubles
Doubles is a two player cooperative mode that puts both players in one well that is 14 units wide instead of 10. It is selectable from the menu, though it was accessed by entering a special code in TGM2. One credit pays for both players!

Each player has a separate level counter, and both players must reach level 300 for the win. Though the level counter does not stop at every x99 as in standard modes, the final 299 does require a line change to 300. If one player reaches 300 before the other, he enters 20g for the rest of the game. It is quite difficult to survive for long with 20g in such a wide well, so winning requires a fine degree of coordination between the players so that they reach 300 synchronously.