[Review] QIX++

Well, this is awkward.  I’ve never actually had to review a game that I wasn’t 100% sure how to pronounce the title of.  Does it sound like “Kicks” or “Quicks“?  Are the addition signs “Plus-Plus“?  For what it’s worth, I’ve been saying “Kicks Plus-Plus“.  Fittingly, QIX++ suffers from the same uncertainty that plagues it’s name.

Do you remember Jezzball, the game that used to come on every PC (along with SkiFree, Minesweeper, etc?)  At it’s heart, that’s exactly what QIX++ is, except that this is a modern-retro version of it.  You are a triangle, and your goal is to cut away parts of the screen in order to trap the blobs (QIX) into a small section of it (usually 75%).  Every level has power-ups that give extra points, give extra shield, attack the QIX to make them smaller, freeze the QIX, make you invulnerable for a short time, or attack the QIX minions (Sparx and Pawns).  After every level, you can upgrade your triangle’s shield, speed, cutter, or luck.  Interestingly, this is about all that there is to know about the game.

Now, we come to the aforementioned uncertainty. After my trial run with the demo, I immediately fell in love with the game.  I was very impressed by the fact that such fun could come out of such a simple game.  I was less impressed when I downloaded the full game and saw the end credits 10 minutes later.  The demo lets you play two stages, and there are 16 in the full version (made up of 8 stages per “Section”).  The problem is that you can blow through each stage in about 30 seconds.  To boot, none of them pose any real challenge.

After you beat each of the Sections, the only real reason to play is for achievements.  Even this doesn’t take very long to clean up the majority of them.  I played for approximately two hours and earned 10/12 achievements.  Only the most dedicated of players will earn the achievement for scoring 3 million points on a Section.  It’s also worth noting that QIX++ has a multiplayer mode, but it seems as if no one’s ever on, making the achievement for 300 ranked points very difficult.

Ultimately, I came away from the game not knowing what to think.  On one hand, it was a quite fun game, especially since I’m usually not one to enjoy “retro titles”.  At the same time, it was so short-lived that I’m not sure that I could recommend it to anyone for $10.  I would urge everyone to download the demo and see if it’s for you.  However, it seems like we’re in a time when gamers need to pinch their pennies moreso than ever, and $10 should get you more than a couple hours of enjoyment.