Oshidashi Zintrick [押し出しジントリック] Game Sample - Neo Geo CD

Initially being one of the NGCD's few worthwhile exclusive titles (and it still kinda is, more later), "Oshidashi Zintrick" (aka "Zintrick") is a 1996 drop puzzle title with a few unique twists and just enough polish to warrant a recommendation, but it's not exactly an easy game to come by and can set you back quite a bit if you want to track down a copy of your own (although it's far from prohibitively expensive compared to most decent "classics" these days). While there's not much to say about its premise (Once every four years in Asgard, the "Zintrick Tournament" is held; during this time, all corners of the globe can enter and for fame and glory. Each character has basic motives for doing so), the game is one of ADK's most forgotten efforts along with the likes of "Treasure Gear" (through their MiraiSoft subsidiary), "Party Mail", etc. Most of the characters and elements are based around Norse mythology.

Whereas most drop puzzlers play it pretty safe and come off as mild derivatives of the game's they are inspired from (primarily the greats such as Tetris, Columns, Puyo Puyo, etc.), Zintrick subverts most of the rules you would typically associate with the genre. Where as the VAST majority of these games are played vertically, Zintrick takes a horizontal approach. Where as objects reaching the end of the playing field would mark the player's defeat in an ordinary drop puzzler, it does not carry the same automatic doom-and-gloom of other titles. While orchestrating chains will attack your opponent like in most modern Vs. puzzle games, the method it is done is unconventional and can allow for counters on the part of your adversary with little to no intervention on their part, requiring additional planning. While the characters all have their own quirks, they have special abilities and aren't just cosmetically different. The point is, Zintrick is a rebel of the drop puzzle genre and is, for the most part, better for it.

The player has to match three or more blobs to remove them from play and can set up stacks to do all the things you would do in a normal drop puzzler, but with a few caveats. For one, the game has a timer that determines how long you can hold on to a pair of blobs and when it runs out, you will automatically toss the blob at your current position (somewhat similar to "Magical Beat", "Waku Waku Monster", etc.). Next, the game speed increases with your skill level and as your overall timer goes down, and once the timer reaches zero, the game goes into "overdrive". When this happens, a new drop type is introduced and the game requires you to toss blobs immediately. As the player is attacked, you will also run into another barrier: sleepy blobs. These blobs can't be chained with others of the same type until they wake up, which requires the player to cause eliminations near them (although Sheila has an alarm clock as a special ability to awaken all sleeping blobs).

Lastly, if your blobs reach the end of the field, those rows become "barricaded". The game has a unique mechanic where your avatars use scrolling platforms on the edge of the field to navigate and utilize two maneuvers: Spin and Shoot. In laymans terms, this is synonymous with drop and rotate (and just like most puzzle games of this type, spinning in the corners has mild complications), and if the player isn't caught in barricade, they can keep fighting but with more restricted movement. Being barricaded is not fun, but you can continue chains if you're good and recover from this predicament... it's an interesting change of pace for this type of game. The game doesn't have much in the way of options and such, but you can "widen" the playing field with a few extra rows if you want an added challenge.

The audio/visuals are decent; I like the quirky characters and their animations, though the musical score is very limited and leaves a bit to be desired. For die-hard ADK fans looking for some fan-service, Zintrick has you covered -- there's a Hanzo lookalike as well as cameos of Ryu Eagle from "Ninja Commando" and Dark Sniper from "Raguy / Blue's Journey". Overall, Zintrick is a neat curiosity for the NGCD and while it doesn't take much advantage of the CD format, it's a fun puzzler nevertheless. Interestingly, this game was originally slated for an Arcade/MVS release, but was scrapped for a AES release that was also scrapped at the last minute, causing the NGCD-only release we have today. Bootleg MVS/AES versions of the game exist, but these version lack sound, making them inferior to the NGCD version and also adds to the game's collectible status. One last thing to note is the game has one initially long load time (30-45 seconds), then short load times throughout the rest (about three seconds). This is a video of the game in action. Enjoy.

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