Reviews

Thank god. After 30 years of hurt we can finally hold our heads high. SQIJ, or ‘the elephant dung in the room’, has finally been shovelled up and removed by Tardis Remakes, who have released a playable remake of the C64 version. Remaking SQIJ for the Spectrum is a lot like going to a dinner party with Idi Amin – fraught with danger but whatever happens it won’t be you looking bad at the end of the night.

SQIJ 2018 is pretty polished, which should come as no surprise given the team behind it – Soren as reliable ‘finisher’ coder, graphics from Lobo, veteran pixel perv Simon Butler and the immeasurable redballoon. Saul Cross’s music is okay but I would prefer a different choice of beeper engine, I think this one is the over squelchy ‘SpecialFX’.

The original Speccy version was so bad it’s easy to forget there was even a game behind it, so it’s worth a quick recap of what SQIJ is actually about. You were an everyday happy mutant bird until the population holocaust, then you were overcome by insatiable hunger when the food ran out. It then smoothly sedgeways to some ropey mystic bollox about collating the Ener Tree on the Great Platform in the underground Labyrinth. Aye. Barmy.

It’s a well above average flip screen game, the 24 x 20 sprites and decent beeper spot effects give it a very fresh feel in this age of AGD. I’m not a big fan of the ‘spawnalot’ genre, but the nasties appear at a manageable rate and aren’t overbearing. The collectable keys and bits of tree are in the same place every game, but a lack of variety in the scenery makes the maze very difficult to navigate. SQIJ 2018 is very completable, a welcome design flaw compared to the C64 version, but you’ll really need to draw a map if you’re to stand a chance.

A cassette version is planned with enhanced replay features, presumably not by The Power House.

Rating: Bad porridge made very good. 4/5.