When reading this review I want you to consider some facts: it's estimated that all videogames, since they were conceptualised on computer mainframes in the 1960s, up to the present day, across all hardware formats, total well over 70'000 games. That's a conservative estimate. You only need look at the MAME archives to see the thousands of games released for arcades alone over the decades.
So with that in mind, consider this: ZENITH on the Philips CDI is the only example of its genre. The experience it provides you with is unique and you won't find another like it, at least not among the 70'000 games already released.
This is where the review gets fun, because naturally most people reading it will want to argue this is a hyperbolic statement which cannot be true. There are very few games which are capable of defining an entirely new genre. However, this is true, and I challenge anyone to find another game like ZENITH.
Firstly, a lot of places lazily describe it as pinball. This is incorrect, ZENITH is nothing like pinball, other than it features a "ball" which bounces. Which if that were the only criteria, NBA Jam would also be considered a pinball game. The closest ZENITH comes to is Jumping Flash on the PlayStation, or its predecessor (by the same company), Geograph Seal on the X68000 computer. Even then, that's not an accurate comparison.
In ZENITH players control a continuously bouncing silver ball, viewed directly from above, conveying a sense of scale an height similar to Jumping Flash when you make a large jump into the air. In Jumping Flash the camera (in first person) would pivot downwards to give players an idea of the platforms they were jumping from. It was an effective solution which not only showcased the hardware but induced a sense of vertigo. ZENITH replicates this all the time, that constant sense of falling and of vertigo - in some instances the ball will fall to a very low depth before bouncing all the way up to the camera again. The camera is constantly fixed at the same height, with only the ball itself moving.
The experience here is unique because, as players move up or down the field navigating bottomless pits, the game induces a strong sense of anxiety. Sometimes you need to navigate between very small platforms a very long way down and, if you suffer from heights, the sense of falling is palpable. It's like looking down from a very tall balcony and dropping a golf ball, watching as it falls all the way down, seeing it hit a tiny target below, and then watching it fly all the way back up.
Confused yet? I told you, there aren't really any other games which induce this sense of vertigo.
As you navigate you need to take into account your fuel, which is basically just a limited number of bounces you have, starting at 100, and replenishable by hit refuel targets. Other targets you can hit on the ground will give you extra lives, boost points, and activate checkpoints. Some score targets are also booby trapped, threatening to end a life or cause the floor to fall away. Several sections of floor are also triggered to only allow a minimal number of bounces. The object of the game is simply to navigate up or down the vertical fields to find a key which unlocks the exit, sometimes requiring backtracking.
If all this makes the game sound less than fun, you would be right, sort of. The game is difficult and generates an intense level of tension during play. From the limited fuel, numerous obstacles and traps, plus the sense of vertigo, it's promotes a lot of anxiety. But the setting and concept is so unusual, it is as I've said, genuinely unique, that I can't help but love it. There's a real sense of adrenaline when you're trying to navigate over the long drops and you watch as the metal balls hurtles down the side of a cliff while you - the player's eye - flies high above it.
A friend showed me a VR game on his PS4, where you control an eagle flying around a city. This was fun and created a similar sense of vertigo, a bit like Jumping Flash as well, but there's honestly nothing else like ZENITH, with its bouncy physics and obstacle course layout.
I'm giving it full marks because it's a game I come back to again and again, whenever I want to experience that same sensation of falling from a great height. It's surprising no one tried anything like it again, because with today's technology you could make something truly epic. Imagine a VR version of ZENITH, where you're bouncing a ball through a city, or bizarre alien landscape? Or through a house, a bit like Micro Machines.
In a world of over 70'000 games, this was an original idea that seems to have been overlooked.
[Review by Otaku84]