Wetrix is a 3D puzzle video game developed by Zed Two, the studio of brothers Ste and John Pickford, for the Nintendo 64 and personal computers in 1998, and the Dreamcast and Game Boy Color in 1999 (as Wetrix+ and Wetrix GB respectively). The player's goal is to hold water bubbles falling on a 3D isometric landscape. To do this, enclosures are created with Uppers, which fall in a similar manner to Tetris blocks, that raise the ground. While water can be evaporated with fireballs, hazards such as Mines, Ice Cubes, and earthquakes also fall and ruin the player's construction.
The Pickfords conceived a Tetris-esque puzzle game out of a water demo they worked on for another one of their Zed Two games, the hack and slash Vampire Circus. For design, the biggest focus was on the basic elements' interaction with each other, as well as the puzzle game style's originality; the use of falling blocks was the only similarity between Wetrix and Tetris. Zed Two signed a two-game deal with Ocean Software, a week before its merge with Infogrames. It required the brothers to turn Vampire Circus into Taz Express (2000), while allowing the brothers free rein with Wetrix. The PC version was produced from January to October 1997 by the brothers themselves, while the Nintendo 64 port was developed with three additional programmers from around June to Christmas 1997.
The Nintendo 64 version sold over 105,000 units in the West, and just above 12,000 in Japan, while the PC version sold 30,000 copies. Wetrix was generally well-received by critics, who applauded its addictiveness and original concept but were critical of the limited camera mobility and divided on its difficulty, steep learning curve, and two-player mode. It garnered the highest rating for a review of a Western-developed title from the Japanese magazine Famitsu Weekly in years. The critical and commercial success motivated Imagineer, developers of the Game Boy Color port, to commission Zed Two to develop a sequel, the PlayStation 2 launch title Aqua Aqua, which made little alterations to the main gameplay.
Gameplay
thumb|The second level of Wetrix, an [[Isometric video game graphics|isometric puzzle video game. As an L-shaped Upper is about to fall, so is an ice cube that will freeze the water. There is also a rainbow filling the currently-made rivers.]]
Wetrix is an isometric puzzle video game where the player, on a square landscape, produces mounds to hold water bubbles falling from the sky. The studio's first project was Vampire Circus, a 3D isometric hack and slash video game in the style of Gauntlet (1985). This was the last deal Ocean made, as it began its merging into Infogrames a week later. The brothers had no other source of income, meaning finishing either Wetrix or Vampire Circus needed to be done quickly to pay their rent. On 12 March 1998, the cover art was revealed, and the date for the Nintendo 64 version was set at April 1998. It was delayed to June 1998, IGN suspecting it was due to issues of manufacturing copies.
In North America, the Nintendo 64 version of Wetrix was released on 12 June 1998. Ocean released the Nintendo 64 and PC versions on 19 June 1998 in Europe. Imagineer published the game on 27 November 1998 in Japan.
Ocean hired Imagineer to develop a Game Boy Color port. Although the IP rights were held between Ocean and Zed Two, the port's development began without the knowledge of the Pickfords. The Dreamcast port, Wetrix+ was released by Xicat Interactive in the United States on 16 December 1999 with distribution handled by Acclaim Entertainment, and by Take-Two Interactive in Europe on 31 March 2000. A Japanese version of Wetrix for the Dreamcast, named Aquapanic, was commissioned but dropped near its completion, at the end of the console's lifespan.
| GR_N64 = 78.94%
| GR_PC = 64%
| MC_N64 = 81/100
| Allgame_SDC = 4/5
| Allgame_N64 = 4/5
| Allgame_PC = 4.5/5
| CGSP_PC = 1.5/5
| CP_SDC = 50%
| CP_N64 = 75%
| CVG_N64 = 4/5
| Edge_N64 = 7/10
| EGM_N64 = 5.5/10<br/>5.5/10<br/>6/10<br/>5.5/10
| EPD_SDC = 7.5/10
| EPD_N64 = 8/10
| GI_N64 = 8.25/10
| GamePro_N64 = <br/><br/><br/>
| GSpot_SDC = 6/10
| GSpot_N64 = 8.8/10
| GSpot_PC = 6.8/10
| GSpy_SDC = 8/10
| Hyper_SDC = 84/100
| Hyper_N64 = 83%
| Hyper_PC = 78/100
| IGN_SDC = 8.7/10
| IGN_N64 = 8.4/10
| IGN_PC = 7.8/10
| JXV_SDC = 15/20
| N64_N64 = 74%
| NGen_N64 = 3/5
| NP_N64 = 7.4/10
| ONM_GBC = 70%
| ONM_N64 = 91%
| PCZone_PC = 5/10
| rev1 = DC-UK
| rev1_SDC = 7/10
| rev2 = Ultimate PC
| rev2_PC = 81/100 Others were underwhelmed. Most of the praise was directed at the water, particularly its realistic flowing, ripple effects, transparency and reflection mapping.