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Qix makes me think about risk assessment.
That's what most twitchy classic video games boil down to: where am I safe? There's a thousand bonus points over there, but if I get killed, those are the last points I'll ever earn.
Qix makes this incredibly difficult, because your main enemy is so unpredictable. Sometimes it wanders off to the other side of the screen, sometimes it stalks you along the grid, and sometimes you think you've got some slack, venture off the grid to draw a box, and it pounces, no matter how small a box you were trying to draw.
And the rewards are so proportionate with the risk that it's crazy. Between the slow draw, and the bonus for going over 75% with your last move, it's very hard to convince yourself to play a conservative game. I have yet to succeed in doing so. If I score high or get to a high level, it's more often that a risky decision paid off, than that I paced myself and didn't try to bite off more than I could chew.
That's what most twitchy classic video games boil down to: where am I safe? There's a thousand bonus points over there, but if I get killed, those are the last points I'll ever earn.
Qix makes this incredibly difficult, because your main enemy is so unpredictable. Sometimes it wanders off to the other side of the screen, sometimes it stalks you along the grid, and sometimes you think you've got some slack, venture off the grid to draw a box, and it pounces, no matter how small a box you were trying to draw.
And the rewards are so proportionate with the risk that it's crazy. Between the slow draw, and the bonus for going over 75% with your last move, it's very hard to convince yourself to play a conservative game. I have yet to succeed in doing so. If I score high or get to a high level, it's more often that a risky decision paid off, than that I paced myself and didn't try to bite off more than I could chew.
