Previous Next

Many moons ago, the tribe of Taito did stumble upon the legendary game of Qix, which they did nurture and send out amongst the peasants as a coin-op, so that others too might invest in its wisdom.

Several years passed. The image of Qix appeared on the screens of many machines (except for that of the C64 which is a bit of a shame). There did appear another game, which took the graven image of Qix and passed itself off as Qix, but was on budget and yea verily, Zolyx was pretty good really, but a bit short-lived.

In the meantime, the tribe of Taito grew wise and strong and probably a bit too big for their own boots and did release some odd coin-ops. A bit pushed for ideas were they, but a saviour was forthcoming in the shape of their long-lost sibling. And without further ado, Qix re-entered the domain of the arcade, but with the unpronounceable name of Volfied. The Empire clan saw that it was good, and promptly signed up Volfied (or Super Qix, as it has been known) and lo, the C64 version was born!

For anyone unfamiliar with this game-style, let me elucidate [You do and you can clean it up after you! - Dep Ed]. Each level is a single screen ocupied by a variety of little swarming beasties plus one big stonker. Your Volfied ship moves only in straight lines - up, down, left and right, but not diagonally - and leaves a solid trail behind. When you completely enclose an area of the screen, it disappears to reveal the scenics from the next level (clever, eh?). The amount of area removed is shown as a percentage of the whole, and once you've removed 80% or more, the whole lot explodes and you're on to the next level. All this will be familiar to ex-Qixists.

Your ship, however, is pretty unprotected. And, you'll be thrilled to hear, there are a variety of unusual and interesting ways in which you can snuff it. Collide with a swarmy thing and it's curtains. Similarly, hit the big mother or one of its missiles and you're worm-fodder. Alternatively, you can make a tail that's just a bit too long. When one of the aliens touches an unconnected trail it becomes unstable and sends a pulse of energy speeding towards your ship. If you don't reach an edge before the pulse reaches you, it's vacuum pie for tea, spaceman!

And there's more: you begin each level with a little shield around your ship which protects it from the ravages of the enemy. It's not active while you're making a trail, but you can sit on the sidelines all day without getting as much as a scratch. However, sit around too long your shield thinks 'blow this for a lark', and leaves you to it. One touch from the aliens and it's bye-bye time once again (and believe me you really don't last very long without your shieldy chum).

As you nibble away at the alien's living quarters, so to speak, you will occasionally encircle one of them. This is a good thing because a) it blows up, b) you get bonus points for each one that you destroy, and c) it means there are fewer of them to hassle you.

As well as these weird creatures, there are also patterns of square blocks which appear and disappear at random. Trap one of these (or even a whole group), and they will also explode leaving behind bonus points or a token for temporary power-ups.

The original Qix was a wonderful game but had one or two annoying features, like sparks that constantly homed in on you, the inability to retrace your line, a harsh time limit and a Qix (the big whizzy creature that you had to trap) which was too vicious by half.

Volfied has eliminated all of these, making the game much more playable. With the added attraction of some stunning backdrops, a variety of enemies and the power-up tokens, Volfied is one cool play. You won't be bashing away for hours on end, but I'm pretty sure it'll be in and out of your cassette deck with alarming regularity.

Now, if you'll excuse me, Andy D has just destroyed my high score, so I'm off to Qix some butt, yet again.

1. The addictive Qix gameplay is still there, but has been tidied up and improved.
2. Beautiful backdrops - and there are sixteen of them!
3. Loads of enemies on screen.
4. Arcadey spot effects and ditties are decent enough.
5. Good animation on the alien creatures, explosions, etc.
6. It's a single load - hurrah!
7. Bonus tokens and power-ups help to inject some strategy and variety.
8. Very slickly coded with terrific attention to detail - a brilliant conversion.
9. Extremely challenging requiring tactical play later on.

1. Sprite glitches on the busier levels.