It’s not what’s for breakfast, and it never will be.
PLAYERS: 1-2 alternating
PUBLISHER: Taito
DEVELOPER: Novotrade
GENRE: Arcade/Puzzle
RELEASE DATE: January 1991
Qix are not part of this complete breakfast, but they are pronounced ‘Kix’ (not Qu-ix) so some confusion is understandable. The Qix in question are rows of ever-moving lines that look like sticks and bounce around a blacked-out square. Even though Qix look like sticks and the temptation to call Qix a bundle of sticks is nigh unquenchable, rule #1 of Qix is Qix are Qix, not sticks (or Styx). Stix are lines you draw around the Qix, blocking them in one area of the square. I am not making this up. In the land of Qix, almost everything ends with the suffix, “-ix.” You don’t get sick, you get sixx. You don’t break your tailbone, you break your coccyx. But I digress.
Block in the Qix with stix to get points and move on to the next level. You can draw fast or slow stix. Slow stix gets you more points, but it also leaves you more vulnerable to Qix penetration. If the Qix touch your stix, Qix hits the brix and you lose a life. Keep in mind, you must always be drawing Stix. If you stop for a moment, a fuse will ignite from the origin of the stix and begin to follow you. If the fuse touches your stix, explosions ensue. And the evil continues. Sparx (what, no -ix?) are vicious little creatures that travel around the square’s circumference and into your stix. If Sparx touch you, more explosions. Two Qix show up on level three and the game only increases in difficulty from there. Qix seems like it has potential to be an addictive arcade experience, but I couldn’t find any enjoyment in trapping lines with other lines. If you’re a points junkie, perhaps Qix will provide a fix. For me, Qix lacks those essential nutrients that make for a complete and satisfying game.
Grade: C-
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5 replies on “#498 – Qix”
C-???
>_<
Qix is awesome!!!
Couldn’t get into it. I amused myself writing the review, though.
I never played this on the NES, but I do recall it for my Game Boy. I liked it well enough, but as a distraction to kill a short period of time. It lacked the depth to keep me into it for any substantial chunk of time. I do believe my Game Boy was the only system I had ever played it for.
I also had this on the Gameboy. I never got all of the adoration the game gets. It’s fine at what it does, but there’s little variety and for me the game becomes impossible pretty quickly.
Qix is a great classic acade game, which I remember playing at the local bowling alley. I have this game in it’s many different ports (Atari 5200, Atari 800, Lynx, GB, NES, Apple ][ along with it’s sequel Volfied (a.k.a. Ultimate Qix) for the TG16, PS1 and Genny. It’s a challenge for both ones calculative skills as well and quick reactions.