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.

Wetrix is an isometric puzzle video game where the player, on a square landscape, produces mounds to hold water bubbles falling from the sky.

[1] Uppers, pieces that raise a part of the landscape that come in the shapes of rectangles, squares, and T-shapes, create walls for the lakes, while Downers do the opposite.

[4] There are also hazards that ruin the player's structure, such as Mines which blast holes into the ground, Ice Cubes that freeze the water, and earthquakes that quickly turn the landscape flat once it is too high.

[2][4] In addition to the regular Classic mode, Wetrix has Pro, which quickens the speed of the game, and Practice, which teaches basic rules.

[1] The only multi-player feature is a two-player split screen battle mode, with the same goal as Classic but a different water meter with four colored spaces.

[4] In the mid-1990s, brothers Ste and John Pickford, developers at Software Creations, were dissatisfied with the stillborn projects and perceived declining creativity at the studio.

[6][7] John conceived programming methods that would have taken the most advantage of the available technology, such as having hundreds of foes on the screen at a time, and animating environmental elements in a "dynamic" manner.

[6] Ocean required the small studio to turn Vampire Circus into a game starring the Tasmanian Devil, which became Taz Express (2000).

[7] Explained Ste, "we tried to think about the thought processes and the emotions involved in playing a great puzzle game -- then tried to re-create and enhance those experiences with our own gameplay.

[7] Ste described the visuals for the "simplest elements" as the hardest to get right, even more than the special effects; he recalled creating "eight or nine" variations of the uppers and downers, and "quite a few" for the water bubbles.

[8] After Zed Two's inquisition, a friend of the Pickfords, who worked at Software Creations, used the PC source to secretly code a Nintendo 64 port with the Manchester company's development kit.

"[6] The PC version was mostly only done by the Pickfords from January to October 1997, while a different team consisting of Amir Latif, David Gill, and Jan van Valburg programmed the Nintendo 64 release from around June to Christmas 1997.

It revealed Zed Two to be the developer, Ocean the publisher, and with no screenshot, only had the following description: "players must create (or open) channels of water and evaporate it using balloons that also fall onto the screen.

[7] Despite selling well, Wetrix had its budget cut by Infogrames, which was moved to other projects, feeling the puzzle title would not fit their reputation of producing "mega hit" games.

[6] This prevented Ocean US from selling more copies of the Nintendo 64 version than they did, and caused a seven-player LAN mode the brothers worked on to remain unfinished.

[1][36][39][51] Due to the fact that it involves falling pieces, Wetrix was heavily compared to not only Tetris entries, but the Nintendo 64 titles Tetrisphere and Bust-A-Move 2 (1998).

[48] The high difficulty and steep learning curve generally garnered a mixed response; critics suggested that while it would appeal to hardcore puzzle game veterans, it may not be suited for all players, especially first-timers.

[17][18] Lucas, a frequent player of puzzle gamers and self-admitted pro at Rampart (1990), which also involved building enclosures, was still in the first tutorial stage an hour into Wetrix.

[e] Excitedly wrote N64 Magazine's James Price, "As it brooks little familiarity with lesser skilled players, you actually feel as if you're achieving something by reaching level 15 with an unbelievably high number of points.

[32] She and Schneider felt the game should have adequately accustomed beginners to the gameplay, and John Davison argued the amount of randomization between uppers and water was too much.

[1][32][36] Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot criticized the earthquake mechanic for effectively ending games, and opined it prevented Wetrix from being a truly amazing puzzle title.

His main criticism was that the typical appealing elements of puzzle games, such as simplicity, quirkiness, and addictiveness, felt forced instead of naturally executed.

[2][36] Official Nintendo Magazine reviewer Shaun White disliked the mode's slow pace and expressed annoyance towards attacks temporarily obscuring the playing fields.

[3][47] Opinions on the graphics ranged from Jon finding them "lame" and Fielder stating they need more finesse, to positive claims of taking advantage of console space even considering its simple style.

[56] Wetrix's new age ambient techno soundtrack was well-received for suiting the gameplay, Schneider analogizing it as if Jean-Michel Jarre composed Top Gear Rally (1997).

[1][2][29][50] The sound effects were positively-commented on, a common note being their accuracy to real-life environmental elements, such as the splashes, ripples, and evaporation of water and the explosion of bombs.

[7] The gameplay remained largely unaltered, new features including a Story Mode with bosses and cute-looking characters that Imagineer commanded Zed Two to add to make the product more appealing to Japanese audiences.