Videogame Review, Qix for the Atari 5200 (w/ Atari 5200 Gold Controller)

Videogame Review, Qix for the Atari 5200 (w/ Atari 5200 Gold Controller)

This is one of the best 2-button games you’ll find on the Atari 5200 console or any console for that matter.  Don’t confuse this console for the Atari 2600 console; the Atari 5200 console is figuratively more powerful than the Atari 2600 console, although symbols will be symbols.  If I presented you with two magnets for the refrigerator and both magnets were just images of palm trees, and, if one palm tree was slightly different than the other palm tree you probably wouldn’t care that much.  Qix for the Atari 5200 is most certainly different than a lot of Atari 2600 games.  However, it’s due to game design rather than just Atari 5200 design.  So what’s the point of playing Qix for the Atari 5200 if there’s symbols in the game which are kind of like those for the Atari 2600 games?  What we need to look at to answer this question is look at the Atari 5200 controller… it’s different, isn’t it?  The black controller is a mixed bag of fun: the joystick is silky smooth with occasional clicks, the fire buttons are made of soft red rubber, different edges are placed along the controller’s sides to its base, and, you’ll probably wear out your wrist from normal use unless practice makes perfect and you take breaks between sessions (3 min, 5 min, etc.).  Nothing else is defined for the same comfort I experience from playing Qix for the Atari 5200 during the ongoing pressure of the “Stix” and little sparks which pass for enemies, over which I must take leaps of faith with complexity in joystick movements and twists.  “EXPERT” is especially hard!  The skilled level for normal use requires achieving 65% of the maze-like screen in laid-down colors- the orange takes longer to paint and gives you more points, and the blue takes quicker to paint and gives you less points; as if Atari knew that the 2 fire buttons can be mixed up from having the same red color and being located on the 5200 controller’s “ribs”, a slowly drawn line can be quickly drawn in completion by moving the finger from the “slow” button to the “fast” button, not to mention the fire buttons are comfortable to hold on to during any play including “EXPERT”.  Comfort for wrists isn’t the same as comfort for fingers.  Often the miserable thing a gamer hates about a controller is actually the nice thing about a controller which comforts the gamer, especially if he or she gets mad from having a challenge anyway and can care less about comfort totally.  Can a gamer say that he’s up for a challenge and get miserable from the things which comfort him?  Now what a gamer may want to do since the fire buttons are located in twos for both sides of the 5200 controller is to use the pointing finger for the “fast” button and to use the thumb for the “slow” button.  Then again, it all depends on the size of your hand.  Atari 5200 controllers are more difficult to hold than Xbox controllers.  Just grabbing one is like wrestling with a grapple sort of while the gameplay is underway mentally and physically depending on the chosen games.  Missing a turn in Qix isn’t likely at all unless something is broken with the controller or the console.  When it comes to missing turns with a joystick, Xevious for the Atari 5200 presents more of that kind of obstacle and even Columns for the “At Games” Sega Genesis console basically forces the gamer to miss turns often.  Qix is very good and really great if you’re looking for a complex puzzle game that isn’t simply a poorly emulated Tetris knockoff.  Music and sounds provide Atari 5200 gamers with enough thuds in Qix so as to represent action through parallel vibrations given towards shown moves.