Thursday 3 April 2014

Qix Adventure (Game Boy Colour)

I'm sure most people reading this blog have played Qix, or some clone of it. If not, the idea is that you claim territory in a big box by drawing smaller boxes inside it, while avoiding the things that already live in there. Most clones build on the original Qix's framework by having pictures be revealed in your claimed territory, and by adding power ups. Qix Adventure has these things, as well as a Pokemon bandwagon-jumping

collectathon element (the late 90s kids anime style the game's visuals have are further evidence of this), as
well as some faux-RPG trappings.
Playing as some kid named Speedy, you arrive on an island full of strange creatures that will, before each stage, engage Speedy in poorly-translated conversation. These creatures also appear in the stages themselves, though not as enemies that need to be avoided. The enemies are the traditional Qix and Sparks. There's also a treasure chest in each stage, though it's locked at the start of the stage, which is where the strange creatures come into things: capture them into your territory and the treasure chest opens. Obviously, capture the chest into your territory to claim the goods it contains. Said goods are the aforementioned collectathon element of the game, as the menu between stages will let you look at the treasures you've collected, along with a short description, also poorly translated. None of the treasures I've found seem to have any in-game use, though there is a screen in the menu for equipping items, and you are given money as well as points at the end of each stage, so presumably, there is equipment to buy later in the game? I've played through a few
areas, and hadn't encountered a shop yet, though. The way the game gives the player money is fairly interesting, too: the amount of money received at the end of a stage is a percentage of the points scored in the stage (starting at 2% and increasing gradually as the player progresses through the game).
Qix Adventure also has on the cartridge a port of the original Qix, selectable from the main menu, which is nice, I guess. If you like Qix and Qix-like games, Adventure is definitely one of the better ones I've played, so it's worth having a look at, though I'm not sure I'd want to pay the £10-ish it tends to go for on ebay.
Shamefully, I forgot to take a screenshot of the title screen while playing, and was too lazy to go back to my other computer to take one, so please make do with this google image searched replacement. I took all the other screenshots, though.

3 comments:

  1. Here you go: http://i.imgur.com/wqVRBBe.png

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  2. I own this too. I prefer it to the likes of Volfied or any of the other QIX "sequels". I should play it again on something with a decent screen.

    An interesting story: I once tracked down the original creator of QIX and asked him a few questions by email. He told me that the name of the game came from his car licence plate at the time "JUS4QIX" and that he and his wife came up with the game concept in the Jacuzzi whilst drinking champagne. He was doing very well as a game programmer at the time!

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