QIX

The Good
Qix is a classic game that reminds me of the days when I was a young kid playing with my Etch-A-Sketch. I had so much fun drawing lines all over the place, and then shaking the thing in order to delete the crappy lines that I did. At the time, I had a Commodore 64 and wasn’t familiar with Taito’s game at all. The closest I got was a clone known as Stix.

The object is simple. You control a marker at the bottom of the screen, and the object is to meet a certain threshold by drawing a series of boxes on the screen. You have to deal with a few obstacles. Qix, seven colored lines that roam about the screen, tries to stop you from doing this. If you hesitate drawing a line, Fuse will appear and travel along it. Then there is also Sparx, two guys who run around the border, as well as any lines that you have drawn. You are encouraged to hurry up and finish the level, otherwise more of them will appear. If you let these three touch you, you will lose a life.

When you have managed to draw a box, it is filled with a nice pattern that would suit your floor and tiles in your house, and they are in different colors depending on the speed in which you draw them. They are a far cry from the solid colors in the coin-op version. Sound-wise, I like the space-like effect when you complete a box. I also like the hum that Qix gives off. The title and high score music also sounds fantastic, and if you let the title music play out, you will enter the game’s attract mode, complete with instructions for anyone unfamiliar with the game’s concept.

Qix offers three modes of play: one-player mode; two-player mode, where two people take turns drawing on the screen; and practice, where new players can practice their skills in one level only. I like the way the game gets challenging as you progress. Besides dealing with two Qixes on some levels, the threshold keeps getting higher as well (up to 80%) and you will restrict Qix even more as you progress through the game. There are even more times that Qix will zip to the other side of the screen in about five seconds.

The Bad
There is nothing wrong with this game; all the official home ports are flawless, including the Amiga’s.

The Bottom Line
Qix is a classic arcade game that made its way to a multitude of platforms. The object is to draw boxes on the screen to meet a certain threshold without coming into contact with Qix or one of the other enemies. The game's attract mode is useful for anyone not familiar with the original concept. The graphics and sound are excellent, and it is addictive as well.