It seems to me like we’re living in the age of nostalgia, where many of us are almost constantly looking back to what we remember as a golden age of gaming, when all the games were great and no one was shouting “noob” at us from across an internet connection. The Xbox Live Arcade has slowly built up a library of remakes, reboots and upgrades of old arcade classics like Asteroids, Centipede, Pac-Man and Galaga.

Another such title just released is Qix++, an improved version of the old arcade game from 1981. Originally released by Taito, the point of Qix (pronounced /kɪks/) according to Wikipedia, is to fence off, or “claim” a majority of the level’s playing field. Every level is a large, empty rectangle containing the titular Qix, a computer virus according to the game’s back story.

By controlling a Marker and drawing rectangles on the playing field, the player can cordon off parts of the playing field in order to trap the Qix and finish the level. Upon completing each level you can upgrade your ship to move faster, draw faster, resist damage and have more luck.

Qix++ is the kind of game that’s easy to learn and not that difficult to master either. The game features two difficulties in the single player mode, each difficulty consisting of eight levels. To be fair it’s more like four levels each, because the damned things repeat themselves halfway through each difficulty mode or “Section” as Taito calls it.

Gameplay is about as bog standard as you can get it; hold A to draw rectangles and control the marker with your control stick, but at least that part of the game works. As for the game modes, there is a promise of “Hunt Mode” and “Float Mode” in the “How to play” section, but no way of unlocking it in the Standard Mode. This is most likely something to be released later as DLC. So for now you get the Standard Mode with a total of 16 levels.

The downside to this is that each of those 16 levels can take as little as 15 seconds to finish. If this was an iPod or iPhone game I would have understood the shortness of the single player mode, but for an Xbox Live Arcade game it’s just too damned short.

Each level contains an individual Qix unique to that level alone, and learning how to defeat them can be a fun experience, for about 2 minutes or so. Every time you go back to play the game again, the Qix are about as bare boned as they can be. Sure, some of them shoot at you and some of them have irregular patterns of movement, but eventually you start to ask yourself: “Really? Is this is?” If you’re a score-whore there might be something for you here, and there are 15 achievements of varying difficulties, but you will probably get very bored very quickly.

At the start up screen the first thought that struck me was that the game seems a lot like Rez, mostly for its use of techno music. But while in Rez the music is a core part of gameplay, in Qix++ it’s nothing more than repetitive and boring background music. It might be fun to listen to if you’re on an acid-trip, but it won’t win any awards for best music anytime soon.

The same can also be said about the graphics, which are bright and colourful, but pretty much average for a Live Arcade game. I’ve seen games that both look better and worse. Everything looks and sounds like it belongs in a 90’s rave. What isn’t bright blue is bright green, and what isn’t bright green is blood red or orange. Everything looks like a neon-light construct; bright, but a bit hollow.

Does Qix++ reinvent the arcade experience? Having never played the original arcade game I’m not really sure if it does. What I do know is that Qix++ is a game with a lot of flash, but without a lot of substance. Everything from the graphics, the music, the gameplay and even the game modes are about as bare bones as it can get. Even the game’s back story, which you have to access through the pause menu for some illogical reason, feels tacked on and insubstantial.

I can’t really recommend Qix++ to anyone, unless you’re a huge fan of the original, in which case you may gleam a bit of entertainment from it. If you’re an achievement whore, then maybe you’ll be willing to spend the Microsoft Points on it, but even then I doubt it’ll be worth it. It’s fun for a few minutes, but quickly gets dull and repetitive.

– 6 / 10