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Post by Weasel on Apr 15, 2008 23:09:22 GMT -5
Years ago, I played a demo of Intelligent Qube for the Playstation at an in-store display. I saw numerous copies of the game sitting on the shelves next to said display, but as I was too young to have a job at that point, I was not able to purchase one (plus, I was still playing through Jumping Flash 2 at that point and my parents didn't deem it necessary to buy another game).
2005 - unable to find a legit copy in my local stores, and unwilling to pay the absurd auction prices that the game was fetching, I scoured BitTorrent. I found my prize. I was rather guilty about not having paid for it - after all, had I bought the thing, perhaps Sony would have made just one sequel.
But then I discovered the existence of IQ Final - a Japan-only sequel/upgrade of Intelligent Qube, featuring more characters, more game modes, more of the awesome orchestral soundtrack, and a level editor! Yet somehow, I completely failed to find a copy until now (again via BitTorrent because I have never seen a legitimate copy of it). Seriously, the game is awesome.
And apparently there are more sequels. IQ Remix + for the PS2? Did that ever get brought over to the States? Or where can I find the PSP compilation, IQ Mania? (Searches for said compilation have only revealed unrelated Brain Training ripoffs...)
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Post by wyrdwad on Apr 15, 2008 23:38:33 GMT -5
IQ Remix + was never brought over to the U.S., nor was I.Q. Final. Of the games I've played (amazingly, I have yet to play I.Q. Mania!), I.Q. Final is easily the best. I.Q. Remix + is basically a slightly toned-down version of the game, with psychedelic visuals and techno music (instead of orchestral). It's visually and aurally quite interesting, but in terms of gameplay, Final is far superior. The most notable omission that makes the PS2 version less fun than its predecessors is the fact that you can't actually speed up the blocks anymore - instead, you have to run past them, which causes them to automatically roll all the way to the end. In practice, it's really not that much different, but it sort of adds an extra step, and gives you less control, which I just don't like. As for where to find I.Q. Mania... Play-Asia to the rescue!Seriously, that should always be the first place you look for any import game. Play-Asia is just an awesome site. (: I'm sure I'll pick that one up one of these days. In the meantime, though, I have I.Q. Final both in disc form, and downloaded onto my PSP from the Japanese PlayStation Store... so that'll tide me over just fine. (: -Tom
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Post by kal on Apr 16, 2008 2:20:32 GMT -5
IQ is a completely awesome game that gets no respect. Had we splurged more on crazy asian games we'd see more of them but now look at us..drowning in FPSs
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Post by Chris B on Apr 16, 2008 12:34:14 GMT -5
I.Q. Final has been released as Kurushi Final in Europe.
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Post by Weasel on Apr 16, 2008 15:27:26 GMT -5
As for where to find I.Q. Mania... Play-Asia to the rescue!Seriously, that should always be the first place you look for any import game. Play-Asia is just an awesome site. (: It amazes me that I didn't think to look there - I don't know why I only bothered with Google searches. And hey, it's only $40! I'll have to order up a copy tomorrow when I get paid. Thanks a lot, dude! @chris B: Hmm, so that's why I never found any evidence of the games being released in Europe - why do they always change the titles of games when they bring them to Europe? I can (sort of) understand "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" and "Shadow Warriors" instead of Ninja Turtles and Ninja Gaiden, but Kurushi? And what's all this about Illusion of Gaia being called Illusion of Time over there? Or hell, why did Chaos Engine get changed to "Soldiers of Fortune" for us American players?
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Post by Weasel on May 9, 2008 19:24:25 GMT -5
Alright, I finally got my copy of IQ Mania for PSP in the mail, but I have to say I'm a little disappointed...
The game seems to play identically to the previous IQ games, the square-button acceleration returns (after a curious absence in IQ Remix+), and all the game modes return. Well, almost all. The Edit Puzzle mode is totally missing.
Musically, the game returns to the same soundtrack as the first to PS1 games instead of the PS2's techno soundtrack. No new songs are added. The intro movie is the same as the first game's, the in-game music alternates between IQ and IQ Final music. But the most disappointing part: it's SLOW. There is an in-game option to speed up the gameplay, but this does nothing to speed up the player actions.
In the first Intelligent Qube, detonating an Advantage Cube would set it off within a split second. In IQ Final, this reaction was instantaneous. In IQ Mania, it takes a little over a second - making the simplest puzzles almost painfully slow. The player moves at a little slower speed than usual, the cubes roll over more slowly (though this can be changed), and the animation that is played when you get a Perfect on any cube formation takes longer than I'm used to. Finally, the framerate has been downgraded to around 25 FPS - a massive disappointment for me, being used to the silky-smooth IQ and IQ Final versions. It's not like the PSP can't do 60 FPS. Hell, running IQ Final on the built-in PS1 emulator runs smoother than this.
Overall? Disappointment - if you can't get your hands on a PS1 version of the game, then that's the only reason why you should buy this one.
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Post by wyrdwad on May 9, 2008 21:36:19 GMT -5
Thank you for the review - shows me that I might as well save my money, since I've got I.Q. Final on my PSP anyway, and it sounds like this does nothing I.Q. Final didn't do better.
-Tom
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Post by Smithee on May 10, 2008 7:58:24 GMT -5
Im assuming you have a Japanese PSP for the Japanese PS1 game, do you not?... So if not could I get Japanese PSN games for my American PSP?
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Post by wyrdwad on May 10, 2008 8:41:50 GMT -5
It's an American PSP, actually. And yes, you can get Japanese PS1 games on an American PSP, it's just a somewhat long and annoying process to do so. (: Here's the basic rundown, copied from an email I sent to a friend:
1) Clear the cookies in your browser, and your cache, if you've ever been to the PlayStation Store before (because if you've ever been to an English-language store, you'll automatically be sent there when you sign in).
2) When asked to choose a language, choose Japanese.
3) Navigate over to the account setup option, and create a new account for yourself. Find a Japanese home address somewhere, and claim that that's your own. (: It has to be a real address, or the member signup thing won't let you continue.
4) Now, here's the kicker: Unless your credit card's billing address is inside Japan, you can't use it in the PlayStation Store. However, you CAN buy "PSN tickets" from a supplier like Play-Asia (for a slight markup, sadly), and use them to "charge your wallet" in the PlayStation Store, then use that "money" to buy games and download them to your PSP or PS3.
5) ...but you must beware! Your PSP or PS3 can only be "licensed" to a single PSN account... which means if you download games from Japanese PSN, you're cutting yourself off from being able to download games from the American PSN! Or rather, you CAN set up a different account on American PSN, and re-license your PSP/PS3 whenever you want to switch to a game from another region... but then the other games on your memory stick are just dead weight, since you can't play them as long as you're licensed to a different account. (AFAIK, though, you can relicense your system as many times as you want - it's just a pain.)
-Tom
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Post by Weasel on May 10, 2008 10:48:55 GMT -5
Myself, I haven't even bothered with all that malarky and just used a PSX2PSP program to convert the actual PS1 game to a format that my (custom-firmware) PSP can play. But hey, since I (kinda) own it legitimately, shouldn't be a problem, right?
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Post by wyrdwad on May 10, 2008 11:04:21 GMT -5
Oh, definitely. I own the physical PS1 game as well, so if I had custom firmware, I would've done exactly the same thing.
But since I'm still on official firmware, I just decided to be lazy and re-buy the game. After all, it's a good enough game that I feel justified in further supporting the original developers.
-Tom
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