I often find myself wondering why so many block dropping games confine themselves to the stately rectangle. Why not a circle, whose edges are not so rough and whose perimeter so closely resembles that of a delicious pie? Well Marc Lepage of Scalene Software wondered the same thing, but unlike myself, Marc has ambition and set out to make Concentrix, the aptly titled circular block dropping puzzle game for the XBox LIVE Indie Games Marketplace.

Gameplay

Concentrix, as the name implies, is a puzzle game played on a circular field. Blocks originate from the center of the circle and radiate out until they are planted in their final position. While in motion, the player must manipulate these ring segments in various ways, depending on the selected mode of play, to cause them to disappear.

Modes of Play:

• RingTrix – Move the falling multicolor rings of 8 blocks to match 3 blocks in a row of the same color.
• BlokTrix – Move the falling multicolor tetrads to match 3 blocks in a row of the same color.
• RainTrix – Move the falling multicolor triads to match 3 blocks in a row of the same color.
• RadTrix – Move the falling multicolor rings of 4 blocks to match 3 blocks in a row of the same color.
• CoolTrix – Move the falling multicolor rings to match 3 blocks in a row of the same color.
• QuarTrix – Pack the falling tetrads to form unbroken rings around the complete board.
• TriTrix – Pack the falling triads to form unbroken rings around the complete board.
• ClearTrix – Move the falling dyads to destroy targets by matching 4 in a row of the same color.

As you can see from the list, the differences in modes of play are not particularly well defined by the game’s own descriptions. The main thing to understand is that you must either connect three of the same color blocks or complete full rings of blocks to destroy them. The rest of the differences involve the pattern and number of blocks dropped and whether sneaky diagonals will also result in block destruction or not.

Progression in Concentrix is more similar to that of classical block dropping games. As you destroy blocks you’ll gain points and as you gain points you’ll advance in levels. As you advance in levels the game will stay true to its genre and increase the speed at which blocks descend.

Concentrix, in terms of gameplay, is solid. It has a fairly relaxing feel to it, which is always a welcome tone for a block dropping game to set, its ringed approach to the genre puts a reasonably interesting spin on things and its eight modes of play nearly guarantee you’ll find at least one that suits you. However, I was left pondering to myself how much better this game’s experience may be with a touch interface, which as it turns out is exactly what the game was originally designed for.

There are a couple of perplexing design decisions in Concentrix, namely its skimpy mode descriptions and lack of high score tracking. While the lacking mode information may not be a design decision per say, it is certainly an unnecessary obstacle for new players. What’s definitely an odd design decision is the omission of a high score tracking system, which are unquestionably a staple of the genre. Not only that, but its absence delivers a critical blow directly at the game’s replay value.

Audio/Visual

In general block games aren’t terribly much to look at — a few pixels here a few pixels there, maybe the Taj Mahal in the background. Concentrix is really no different. It has some pretty standard graphics with its most notable feature being its animated background which features a collage of animated rings whirling around over a color-shifting backdrop. Most interestingly, the background is contiguous throughout the game, as it loads with the title screen, persists through the menus, and then carries right along into the gameplay. Since the game has no real load times of any sort, it is really quite a nice touch.

One of my favorite parts of Concentrix was its music, which features twelve original tracks by Fatal Orbit. The game actually has a screen saver mode that will let you listen to the music while you watch its animated background, but it seems that it only plays the title screen tracks, which is kind of a bummer.

Summary

Concentrix is an interesting interpretation of the block dropping game. Its circular playing field and rotational control scheme are a little unorthodox for minds trained on the rectangular battlefield of Tetris, but in the end seem like a worthwhile exploration. Concentrix isn’t too difficult to recommend at its 240 Microsoft Point price tag but may be challenging to argue in favor of when compared to things like Chime at the 160 points ($2) more.