What 1999 Nintendo 64 game included a storage area for a spare Tetris piece?

The 1999 Nintendo 64 game that included a storage area for a spare Tetris piece was The New Tetris.

Developed by H2O Entertainment and Blue Planet Software and published by Nintendo, The New Tetris added several mechanics beyond the original game. Players could see three upcoming pieces and reserve one in a storage area, swapping it with the falling piece by pressing the L button. This helped players plan larger constructions instead of relying only on the current piece.

The storage mechanic supported the game's signature feature: building 4×4 squares from four complete tetrominoes. A square made from four matching pieces became a gold monosquare, while a mixed square became a silver multisquare. Clearing lines through these blocks could produce extra points.

Tetris Worlds later included a ruleset based on The New Tetris, called “Square Tetris,” which can cause confusion between the two games. Tetrisphere and Tetris Plus were separate Tetris-related titles, but neither is the Nintendo 64 game described here.