Qix

The hearts of many enthusiastic retro gamers must be surely leaping at the prospect of playing the classic game of Qix.

For those of you who weren’t born during or before the 80’s or able to get your hand to a computer at the time, Qix is an arcade puzzle game where you must try and avoid being hit whilst claiming a proportion of the screen for yourself. To claim parts of the board you must use your small cursor to cut up the screen in a kind of ‘etch-a-sketch’ style of lines (called stix). By completing a shape by drawing a line from a border to the same or other border, the space is painted in your colour and you are awarded points.

Unfortunately for you, there are the Qix, Sparx and the Fuse - which are the rather annoying adversaries in the game. The whole time you’re trying to cut up the screen and turn it into yours, these quirkily named foes are doing their best to stop you from succeeding.

The Qix is a line-shaped enemy which floats about the screen and gravitates towards your marker. If the Qix touches the line you’ve drawn you instantly lose a life. Similarly, the Sparx move along the limits of the unclaimed area and should one touch you or your ‘stix’, you’ll lose a life.

To make things more frantic for you, there are the Fuse, which activate should you pause or stop in drawing your line. Unlike the other enemies, these little chaps flow along the lines themselves and if they should touch you before you’ve reached the safety of the border – you lose a life.

The game tests your nerve as well as your reactions. By using the d-pad or the number pad you get to move your marker around the screen. You are automatically playing in ‘quick draw’ mode, where you can draw your lines faster, or you can activate the ‘slow draw’ mode – which does make you more of an easy target for the opponents, but does give you greater scores as a reward. To switch between either modes simply press 5 during the game.

As you can imagine, with so many things happening at the same time, you’re going to have to be quick as well as crafty and also just that bit lucky too in completing the level.

As this is a retro game, the game’s graphics are far more functional than pretty. Those of you who remember Elite will certainly see the similarities, both in terms of line drawings but also the game launch sound – which is worth the fee alone!

Overall, this game’s addictive, fun, simplistic and utterly flawless – brilliant, just as a classic retro title should be! I’m finding it hard to find any flaw with the game and in truth; I don’t think I can find a single one. Simply put, this game was made for your mobile and will give you hours of thumb-twitching fun!

Rating 95%

Positives

Classic retro game which looks and feels just as it should

Good controls and plenty of action will keep you glued to the screen

Highly addictive

The game launch sound is great

Negatives

Repetitive game play