The sequel to the 1981 arcade game, Qix, Super Qix is more of the same line-drawing, area-capturing gameplay that made the original so challenging and compelling. It was first released by Taito in 1987.

The ‘Qix‘ – which in the original is a series of moving lines – in this is a line of moving gremlins, and if it touches a line you’re drawing you’ll lose a life.

Drawing an enclosed rectangle captures a percentage of the screen and the aim is to acquire a target amount on each of the sixteen different rounds.

Letters are released when capturing areas and these can be collected to spell a word at the top of the screen for extra points. If you manage to acquire 98 per cent of the screen (or more) you’re awarded an extra life. When the target amount is captured on a level a ‘Joker’ (as in: the playing cards) appears and reveals a colourful animated background image.

There are also power-ups that can be collected to aid play, such as hearts that speed up your movement (which are extremely useful and these should be collected as a priority), a shield that protects your marker for one hit, and another that freezes enemies temporarily.

The presentation has been given a boost over the original, and there are more enemies on-screen than in the original Qix, which does make the game significantly harder.

Overall, while Super Qix is a reasonably compelling game, it is still maybe too limited in scope to provide anything more than short-term fun.

More: Super Qix on Wikipedia
More: Super Qix on Moby Games