One way to maximize your score and speed up game play is to learn how to utilize the wonderful down button to 'drop' your tetrads into position. An advantage of the Nintendo Tetris is that you have much greater control over the drop function than most other computer versions. But remember: your main goal is to score tetrises. Do not ever forget that, soldier!
Now some might say that, especially on higher levels, 'over-dropping' ones tetrads is extremely dangerous, as many careless mistakes may result from the quest for relatively pithy points. But these rabble-rousers are nothing but spineless cowards who don't want to live life to the extreme.