Head to Head Review: Wetrix vs Tetrisphere (N64 Tetris based games comparison)

Game: Wetrix
Console: Nintendo 64
Developer: Zed Two
Release Date: 16th June 1998

Listen to the game OST as you read

Wetrix is a puzzle game loosely based around the concepts of tetris, adding to them to include almost Populous or Simcity-esque landscape elements with the main theme of water and lakes. The player attempts to build onto a flat square, lakes with as much water as possible, to achieve the maximum number of points when you empty them. If this sounds like an odd concept, be assured that it is rather a surreal game. There's not a whole lot more gameplay beyond the building and emptying of lakes.

There's a tutorial mode with 8 stages, to show you how to play the game. This is a necessity due to the complex nature of the gameplay. There are "upper" blocks which raise terrain, in order to shape the lakes, in 4 different tetris-like shapes. "Downer" blocks can get rid of boundaries between lakes in order to make them bigger, water droplets have to be placed carefully to avoid leakage off screen, resulting in loss of the game. Bombs also appear after a while, flattening terrain around them. Not included in the tutorial is ice which falls after a while, turning lakes into frozen skating rinks for a while, and earthquakes which occur after too much placing of blocks (as far as I can tell anyway).

There are scoring multipliers in the form of ducks (which occur in deep lakes) and rainbows (which occur over large lakes), these are key to scoring big in the game. In the classic mode, scoring big is the main aim, there aren't too many other goals. There are multiplayer, challenge and handicap modes, but these are all variations on a theme and overall its much the same as the main mode, with the only difference being a set series of pieces or a time limit.

The game has fairly forgettable space sounding synth music, as it main theme. Its not a bad accompaniment to the game itself, but it doesn't stand out. Graphics-wise, it can be difficult to tell sometimes where blocks will fall due to the almost isometric 3D being used, the shadows below the pieces tend to be misaligned to the grid below, making planning more difficult. Overall gameplay can be a little difficult to understand, and feels lacking in overall aims. 

This isn't so much a bad puzzle game as one lacking in a feeling of achievement, that is more confusing than it should be. Perhaps the addition of a mode where the player has to help out the residents of this strange floating square, with bridges or puzzles would help break the monotony. It's very different from tetris and not really inspired all that much by it, but on its own can feel rather bland, even if the ideas are new.

Rating: 59/100
Grade: D

Game: Tetrisphere
Console: Nintendo 64
Developer: H20
Release Date: 11th August 1997

Listen to the game OST as you read

Tetrisphere is a puzzle game, for the N64 which uses the concept of tetris pieces built onto a 3D sphere, the aim of the game being to remove pieces by landing them on top of pieces of the same shape. Most game modes involve getting to the centre of the sphere to uncover a picture, or make a hole large enough for a creature to escape from.

Gameplay on the whole is fairly simple, you can slide blocks to make bigger combos, and dropping a piece onto a row of like pieces will remove all of them. There are a few different shapes of piece, and as the levels progress more are introduced, resulting in more difficulty. Your score can be increased through a variety of different techniques, including dropping blocks in particular ways and using morphing blocks.

In addition to Time Attack, where the goal is to get to the core of as many spheres as possible, gameplay modes include Multiplayer (where you make combos to drop more blocks onto your opponent's game), Puzzle (where preset combinations of blocks must be removed in a set number of turns), Rescue (where you have to let a spherical creature out of the middle of the play area), and Hide and Seek (where a picture on the centre of the sphere must be uncovered). Although the goals of these gameplay modes are fairly varied, a lot of them play very similarly.

Musically, the game has a wide soundtrack of techno music, which makes the whole affair sound very 1990s. Its pretty interesting on the whole, although obviously some tracks are better than others. Graphically, its easy to see what you're doing in game (compared to Wetrix placing your blocks is a breeze), even if there's not a whole lot of interesting animation or story included.

There's quite a few interesting features to this game, and although it could have included a block dropping mode more akin to the original tetris, I assume that would have cost more to license. There is some charm to Tetrisphere, and the multiple gameplay modes give a little replay value to it. On the whole it feels fairly easy, and sometimes there's a sense of frustration at being able to progress without doing a whole lot to a level, but  as a puzzle game, its mechanics work and are expanded on decently.

Rating: 61/100

Grade: D

So, now to compare the two titles. Both fairly different from Tetris itself, both relying heavily on one or two core gameplay mechanics in every mode. Tetrisphere has more puzzling value to it, with the puzzle mode, and the importance of the pieces and shapes, but Wetrix seems to be going for a different, more relaxed feel. Both could be improved with some more diverse uses of their ideas, and neither is going to knock Tetris off it's place at the top. For me Tetrisphere gets the marginal win, they're both worth a try, but perhaps little more than that.