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Review I.Q Remix+ Intelligent Qube Review

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So, I'm guessing what you were wondering I was hinting at with my review on Ridge Racer V, talking about Sugar & Rockets. If you're not wondering, well, I'll still tell you.

I.Q.: Intelligent Qube, on the PS1, was a fun game. You went back and forth on the stage to "capture" cubes that were either gray or white. You avoided the black cubes while also trying to capture the cubes that you could get to keep them from falling off the stage. The only ones that are supposed to fall off are the black ones. The green cubes though can capture everything in a 9-block radius, but when on the left or right edge, there are only 6 captured.

This continues with I.Q Final. This one was not released in the USA, but IQ was crazy popular in Japan. Like, award-winning crazy. These games, for some reason were called Kurushi in PAL regions, mainly Europe. Why? Who knows.

We then have the launch of the PS2. One of the games at launch was Ridge Racer V, another being Sony's Fantavision, to which I might review it some day if I manage to play it well. No promises. There were others, but another I.Q Game was welcome.

It wasn't given a very warm welcome.

This game, while being a part of a beloved puzzle franchise, was a part of a beloved puzzle franchise. So, when it hit, what it did to the series was absolutely detrimental.

People hated it, and it's the reason, at least, that I can figure, that the last new I.Q game we got was I.Q Mania on PSP. That game seems to have been recived well, but it was too late by then.

Enough of the history lesson.

Graphically, this game is very interesting. A lot of the effects that have been done with the PS2, those being ghosting effects, give the game a very unique look. The I.Q games on the PS1 weren't able to accomplish this, and it definitely looks different in that aspect. The players character is also no longer made up of pieces that are magically held together somehow, but an actual human being. The ghosting is especially apparent with the green cubes, but is quite subtle. If you don't notice it, then you don't notice it. It's not hard to miss, but it's also not hard to not miss if you're paying close enough attention. There's also a bunch of stuff going on in the background, usually what is currently happening. If you lose a bunch of blocks, (as in they roll on top of you), your character getting up will be in the forefront of everything, albeit, semi-transparent.

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Sound wise, the sounds are as they should be. Sharp and not some compressed voice clip of someone talking into a barrel. The music is actually PCM in this game's case, but it's encrypted for some reason. It's 48/16 PCM (48KHz, 16-bit), so if they downsampled it a bit, they could have had them be CD tracks. Either way, it sounds good. The sound effects are satisfying, as they should be.

Gameplay?

It's I.Q as you remember it, but with a few minor twists. Those twists are things like going up close and personal with a maze of black cubes, or trying to narrowly avoid being crushed by a large wall of them that is going past you, with you attempting to get into an opening and not be crushed by the wall, with you having to do that part all over again. Otherwise, you try to get gray/green cubes and avoid the black ones. It's really as simple as that. If you go over the "perfect!" limit, you instead get a female voice, precceded by a short dial tone, saying "great!", as the female "perfect!" voice also has the dial tone. Why? It's a mystery. Sometimes, you'll also get a female Japanese voice saying "great!" or "pafecto!".

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Other than the I.Q Remix+ mode, there is a "100 Attack" mode, where you solve 100 different puzzles. These, however, are not RNG like the cube sets in the regular game mode. They are pre-set. Otherwise, that's really all there is to it, this game is quite minimalistic. Other than everything being rendered in real time, as there are no pre-rendered cutscenes.

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What would I say overall about this game?

Well, there's not much to describe. It's Just a puzzle game where you continually solve puzzles until you reach the end. The puzzles get harder, and the game continues to challenge you. Like any puzzle game.

Would I say the same thing that others said about it?

Not really, but I did initially feel that way when I wrote my Ridge Racer V review.

One more thing to note is that this game's soundtrack got a CD release. The music on here is either re-recorded versions of songs in game (the most obvious one being the sax parts of illusion) or extended versions that they didn't fit in the game. The theme for the opening is "Rack One's Brains", which is a mishmash of the tracks "memory" and "rebirth". That is also the title of the album, "I.Q Remix+ Rack One's Brains". The whole album clocks in at about 39:55, just 5 seconds short of 40 minutes. It's gotten to be quite expensive anymore, and it's pretty good. Not the best, but pretty decent at the very least.

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Overall, I'd say approach this one with an open mind. If you like it, I would understand, but I feel like the one part of this game that brings it down is all the unnecessary graphical effects when you're playing the game. That's my major gripe with the game, really. It just felt like it was shoehorned in for showy effects, and didn't add anything. Play it if you're intrigued or a fan of I.Q., but if you're not, I'd just advise to stick to the original PS1 games.

-Gameboi64
 

Gameboi64

I may be alive, I may be dead.
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