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It is with a great deal of confidence that I can predict that there is not a single Spectrum gamer in the world who has been keenly anticipating this release. Mostly due to the fact that the original Sqij on the Spectrum was completely broken. I don't mean a cheap death kind of broken, I mean the kind of broken, where you cannot control the character at all. The fact that it was released with the problems it had, is amongst the most baffling oversights in Speccy gaming history. You would have thought that the quality control checklist would have covered: Can you play the game (Y/N)? But apparently not.

To add fuel to the fire, young Spectrum enthusiasts had to turn up on the school playground and listen to the C64 owners gloating about their version of the game which was actually very playable and enjoyable. The C64 version was programmed by Jason Kendall when he was only twelve years old and is a remarkable achievement. The fact that this remake is playable by today's standards is testament to his programming skills. Fast forward to 2018 and the Spectrum has finally received the version it should have had all those years ago. Sqij 2018 is a remake of the original C64 version of Sqij and is in an entirely different league in terms of... well, everything.

Sqij 2018 sees you take control of a fish with the ability to shoot projectiles from his mouth. You are tasked with finding the hidden parts of the tree of life in order to achieve immortality for you and your family. You quickly become familiar with the maze and after a few hours can navigate it successfully. What is slightly more challenging is that every screen quickly fills up with enemies which give no warning to their appearance so you often swim right into one and lose some vital energy. Touching the walls or platforms also runs down the energy bar so you need to be careful and quickly learn to be accurate in your movements. This is perhaps my least favourite style of energy bar as theres sometimes no way to avoid collision which feels a bit cheap. The gameplay gets a bit repetitive after a while as every screen offers more of the same spawning baddies to shoot and bump into inadvertently in turn. The title screen is beautiful and the theme on that screen is fantastic but unfortunately there is no in-game music due to the memory restrictions. There is a bit of a missed opportunity here to offer an improved experience with some tweaked gameplay and more levels but they have remained true to the C64 original and there's an argument for both cases.

I enjoyed my time with the game but after finishing it, I don't really see myself playing through it again. The Spectrum has hundreds of better games on offer but I appreciate the effort that has gone into righting one of gamings biggest wrongs and finally releasing a game worthy of Jason Kendalls original. Its worth playing just as a piece of history. Now I just need to track down those C64 fanboys and shove this in their face!

The game is a million times better than the original which was unplayable. The controls are easy to master and you quickly get used to not touching the edges of the screen. The idea of righting a gaming wrong is a noble undertaking.

I enjoyed Sqij 2018 for what it is. However I have been able to play it on the C64 since its release and there are really no significant improvements to the gameplay to offer anything new. As a piece of history, it's a great story but you won't find yourself coming back for more.