Intelligent Qube
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| Intelligent Qube | |
| Missing image Intelligent_Qube.jpg | |
| Developer(s) | SCEI |
| Publisher(s) | SCE |
| Release date(s) | Japan: January 31, 1997 US: September 30, 1997 Europe: October 1, 1997 |
| Genre | Puzzle game |
| Mode(s) | Single player/Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Kids to Adults (K-A), ELSPA: 3+ |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation |
Intelligent Qube is a puzzle game for the PlayStation. It is known as Kurushi in Europe.
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Basics of play
In the game, the player controls a character who must run around a platform made of cubes, capturing certain cubes as they approach. Cubes are captured by marking a spot on the stage, waiting for the cube to roll on top of it, and then capturing it with a button press.
Cube types
The cubes that approach are of three types:
- Normal cubes - Normal cubes are gray. These cubes should be captured.
- Advantage cubes - Advantage cubes are green. These cubes should be captured. Capturing one of these cubes lights up the 8 adjacent cube spots on the stage -- these can be captured with a different button press than the normal capture button. Multiple green cubes can be captured normally, without erasing the spots that are marked by prior captured green cubes. If a spot is marked by a green cube, it cannot be marked in the normal manner.
- Forbidden cubes - Forbidden cubes are black. These cubes should not be captured, but should instead be allowed to fall off the stage. For every forbidden cube captured, a row of the stage is lost.
Additional penalties
If normal cubes or advantage cubes fall off the end of the stage without being captured, a counter is increased by 1. When this counter reaches a certain number, a row of the stage is lost (thereby reducing the number of rows the cubes have to travel to fall off). On the first level, the limit is 3, but on the last level the limit is 6. If a normal or advantage cube falls off the end of the stage, that set is not considered perfect (see below).
Game mechanics
At the beginning of each level the player is put on a stage that has 23-30 rows. Then 12-16 rows of the stage are raised. Anywhere between 1 and 4 sets of rows comes at the user at one time. On the first stage, 3 rows of length 4 (12 blocks) come at the user at one time. On the last stage, 14 rows of length 9 (126 blocks) come at the user at one time. When all the blocks in one set are destroyed, more blocks are raised -- this happens 3 times, for a total of 4 block raisings per level.
If at any time the cubes roll over the player, the cubes rush to the end of the stage and the player is given the same configuration of blocks on the next set. Any penalties for letting normal and advantage cubes fall of the stage are incurred. If the player ever falls off the stage (the only way to make this happen is to be standing on a row as it is removed from the stage -- you cannot walk off of the stage), the game is over.
Bonuses
After each set of blocks is destroyed, if the player did so without destroying any forbidden cubes and captured all normal and green cubes then they are awarded a bonus for perfection, and an additional row is added to the end of the stage (thereby increasing the number of rows the cubes have to travel to fall off the end of the stage).
The perfection bonus takes into account how many cube rolls it took to capture all the cubes. From the time the first cube is captured until the time the last cube is captured, the counter increments. The immediate consequence of this is that one can mark a spot on the stage and wait to capture it until several rows of cubes roll over top of it. An initial number of rolls is set as being an ideal number to capture. If the player captures the cubes in exactly this number of rolls, they are given a bonus of 5,000 points. If the player captures the cubes in more than this number of rolls, they are given a bonus of 1,000 points. If they player captures the cubes in fewer number of rolls, they are given a bonus of 10,000 points.
Scoring
Individual cube captures are worth 100 points. Multiple cube captures at the same time (via the use of an advantage cube) are awarded combination points. At the end of each level, the number of the rows left on the stage is multiplied by 1,000 and added to the score -- this score typically has a maximum of 39,000 to 50,000, depending on the level.
When the game is over, either by finishing all the levels or by falling off the stage, the total score is displayed, as well as an I.Q. This I.Q is on a scale of 0 to 999, and is not indicative of a real intelligence quotient (for instance, beating the game gives you an I.Q of at least 350).
By beating the game multiple times, additional characters that move faster than the default character, are unlocked. Each complete playthrough of the game takes approximately two hours.
A note about rarity
This game is rare in America, and can not be found for sale in most stores. Since 2000 this game has regularly been sold for $70+ on auction websites and special order stores.