Q*bert

"Um.....no."

-Visuals 7/10-

Q*Bert hasn’t changed much over the years, save for it’s been placed in a 3-Dimensional world that has plenty of color and plenty of camera action to look at. When playing, you find it slightly disorienting, and in some aspects, very confusing with all of the camera shifts and platform changes. Most of what Q*Bert tries to do, is dazzle the player with flashy detail, and a lot of bright colors, but in the end, it only gives the gamer a headache. For those of you who long for the Q*Bert of old, there is an option to play the classic edition, which features all of the flat colors and doesn’t offer up all of the bright and flashy visuals.

-Audio 5/10-

Bland and droning, it plays move or less as background noise to what is going on in the game. You may or may not find yourself listening to the music after about 30 minutes, and you may not want to. What does come across, is the sound effects which really don’t blend, but they much rather come through as a blaring reminder to shut the game sound effect and music off.

-Control 5/10-

Very very twitchy at best, and it incorporates the old Q*Bert control in moving at diagonals. The controller set-up can be a little strange to master at first, but don’t be surprised at the response time, it is very slow and can be very frustrating. Fans of Q*Bert will be right at home with this set-up, but anyone else will find that it’s a chore to try and play. You’ll see that there isn’t any other buttons movements here, and all that you have to use is the directional pad. Simplistic, yes, easy to use, no.

-Game Play 6/10-

Q*Bert offers a couple of different modes to play, either with a one player game, or a two player match. The one player takes you through the adventurous world of Q*Bert in which your goal is to change the little blocks to a certain color, collect points, and then move to an exit. While this may seem pretty cool, it does get very repetitive after about 30 minutes, and just making it through the game with the twitchy control will find you wanting to shut it off. The two player option is a little better, in which the goal is to gain as many points within a set amount of levels before your opponent does. Again, after about 20 or 30 minutes, you’ll see that it gets very repetitive as well, as there isn’t really a reward to gain from all of this playing.

-Overall 5/10-

Q*Bert fans will rejoice over this game, while other PSX gamers will probably shy away. It has a lot of new features that the classic game didn’t have, but in the end, it’s still the same old game with a fresh new face. In this day and age, gamers who are used to a lot of action, or a rewarding goal, may find Q*Bert a welcomed reminder of what the old days of video gaming were like, and why those days were placed far behind. Worth perhaps a look, or maybe, just maybe if you’re a fan of old Atari games, this might be worth the 10 bucks you can pick it up for. Other than that, leave it alone…it’s definitely bottom-shelf material.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/01, Updated 01/03/01