Zentrick review by Lord Wolfgang Krauser

written by Lord Wolfgang Krauser screenshots courtesy of Billy Pitt

File:Z1.jpg [As a JPN-only release, the actual US title was never officially worked out. It has been listed as "Zentrix", "Zintrick", "Zentrick", "Joint Link, "Droppers" and other variations. -Ed.]

US Title: Joint Link Japanese Title: Okidashi Zentrix By: ADK Year: 1996 Size: 74 Megs Home Release? No MVS Release? No [possibly as proto] CD Release? Yes

I recently got a copy of this decently rare neo cd title. I must say its under rated if anything, it's a pretty damn good game. Now, with that said, you will need a reason. Let's chop this one up piece by piece.

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Gameplay-8.0

Now, to me, a game without gameplay is simply not a game. I found this to be a very enjoyable game -its like a side ways Tetris. You are given colored bubble type things, and you must match the colors in rows of three; you can also set up combos. The game is a lot like Tetris Attack, a great puzzler for the SNES.
You attack your opponent, and try to block there chance to recover by putting stoned blocks (bubble creatures) on their side of the roster, these cannot be activated to normal again until you put three colors in a row on the same line as they are to bring them back. By doing combos you attack your opponent, and if they get fence trapped they are doomed.

Music-7.0

Not too fond of the music. Pretty good tracks, when all is said and done they don't leave a mark in your mind though. I would not have it any other way considering what type of game this is in the first place, it was not made for listeners use, kind of like grocery store music, its just there to simply be there, nothing great.

Character Concept-8.0

I cannot help it, the characters are great, they have a anime based appearance, and look sweet. They must be seen to get a personal perspective. A character a la Hanzo, appears as well. I like the female character's myself, they work good with the atmosphere, as this game is a puzzler.

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Replay-7.0

Hmmm... Well this is not going to be rated as the greatest in the replay dept. The reason being is its much more fun when playing against a friend. While the game borrows heavily from Tetris attack it leaves out that "going back" type feeling, as the game itself can easily be seen as dull or under created.

Overall-

On a personal perspective I recommend this game to people that are puzzle fans. If you're not, I'd say avoid it. -its got to be in your blood. I however enjoyed my time with it, as its a CD only release, and should not be to hard to get. I recommend it to fans of puzzlers, and semi fans as well, I got my kicks out of it. It could have been much better though.