Game entry

Zenith

1997 · CD-i

Zenith is listed in the GameForever catalogue but not in the duel pool: this game is never offered for a vote, its 1,500 points are never at stake and it does not appear in the world ranking. Its entry and its debate stay open.

World rank

–

ELO score

1,500

Wins

–

Duels played

0

The duel pool gathers the best-known titles of the catalogue, cover included, so that every match-up stays meaningful. It is recalculated with every catalogue update: this game may join it later. How a game enters the duels →

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About Zenith

Zenith is a game which defies traditional genre descriptions. Players control a silver ball, akin to a pinball, with a viewpoint looking directly down on the ball from above. Unlike pinball, where the ball falls vertically in front of the player, in Zenith continuously bounces towards and away from the player viewpoint. Imagine dropping a golf ball on a hard floor while looking at it directly from above - and then watching as the ball bounces directly upwards along that straight line of sight.

There are no flippers or any other traditional elements similar to pinball. Instead the player controls the ball directly. While the bouncing cannot be controlled, the ball can be moved in any of the four cardinal directions. To progress players need to time the bounces on hard surfaces then push in the required direction to pass over bottomless pits and acid/lava pools. Time your movement poorly and the ball will miss connecting with a solid surface and plunge into death, losing the player a life.

The screen cannot be scrolled horizontally, only vertically. As a result, the levels are like long vertical fields, and some levels are made up of multiple fields which are not directly connected. Later levels also feature warp gates which take you to different parts of that level, or to entirely different vertical fields. Power-ups and score increase items can be collected in the levels.

Zenith plays similarly to Bounder and its sequel Re-bounder on 8-bit home computers, albeit with a great sense of depth and speed, and the ability to scroll the screen in reverse.