Intelligent Qube

"Caution: prolonged usage of game may cause irreversible hair loss due to pulling."

Intelligent Qube is probably one of the few very innovative puzzle games out there. The game's in full 3D, and you are a little guy [or a woman, or a dog, but that comes later] running around on a giant floating platform in the void somewhere. There are cubes on this platform. They are rolling towards you, and you must blow them up. You can either capture the square directly, or bomb it by capturing a green square, and activating the resulting bomb, which covers nine spaces on the platform. Now here is where the game gets a little more complicated. Not all of the cubes are good cubes, the type that hold up signs that read, "Please. Blow me up. I won't mind!" There are the evil black cubes. If you capture one of those, then a row of the cubes making up your platform disappear, and you have less space in which to solve the puzzles. If you run out of space, eventually the cubes will pin you against the edge, knock you on your back, and toss you off into the void like the fool you are. Now you could use more than one bomb at the same time to solve the puzzles even faster. However, you'd have to make sure you didn't take a black cube at the same time. This requires planning and thinking ahead as well as the all-important quick twitch reactions. The game is a mixture of reflexes and careful thought and planning. The game, however, can get very demanding and extremely frustrating due to the complexity of the later levels and the short time in which the puzzles need to be solved. At first, you will likely die often until you become accustomed to the way of thinking the game requires. Fortunately, there is a continue option, and with some persistence, the game can be beaten quickly. However, this is another game about scoring. Once you continue, you lose your points. So it's best [while annoying] to beat the game in one sitting. Another detail is that the scoring system doesn't just use your score to determine how well you did. One of the best features of the game is the IQ score displayed at the end. Not a real one, mind you, because if that were true, we'd all be supergeniuses. The IQ score in the game is based on your performance. Score, for one, how quickly you solved the puzzles, how many times you were unble to finish them, how many times the cubes flattened you, and so forth. This is the real score of the game. There are also bonuses when you do beat the game, those being the woman and the dog being unlocked. Also, they both have two separate endings, but they are the same content with the character pasted in, so they are something of a copout.

The graphics are great. They are in high resolution and very fitting of the mood of the game. You see, the background is darkness. Little tiny you, on a huge, giant platform, in total pitch black darkness. This style is generally carried on throughout the introduction, option screens, and endings. It creates a sort of lonely, creepy feeling that follows you throughout the game.

The sound is also excellent, with orchestral cheerful/moody background music that is directly off the CD. It's too good to describe here. There is also a voice in the game. A looming, ominous voice. It says the stage numbers, and comments on your performance, usually in one word at a time. It echoes. A lot. The mood is enhanced remarkably by this small feature.

All in all, it's an extremely creative, greatly presented game. However, you might drop it after a short while due to the extreme, at later levels unreasonable, difficulty. But you would be missing out.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99