Qwak

Addiction can be a terrible thing. It’s ruined lives and torn families apart. So it’s strange how many games have the term ‘addictive’ bandied about so easily when it can have so many detrimental affects. Qwak, from Team 17, the creators of the stunning Alien Breed series, is one such title that can only be labelled as obscenely addictive.

Released on the Amiga way back in the early nineties, it reminds us of that Taito classic, Bubble Bobble. In much the same ilk as that much fondly remembered title, Qwak was much more fun in multiplayer mode. Across 80 stages, your task was simple in essence, but devilishly addictive in practice. Tossing eggs around with the kind of eagerness you only come to expect from the young ‘uns at Halloween, your duck avatar had to collect keys in order to progress to the next more challenging level, as well as bagging as much fruit as possible to up your score. What else would you expect from, erm, ducks?

Simple? Certainly. Easy? Not on your nelly. Though the 80 stages spread across 8 levels were random within each collection of 10, the jump to the next step on the ladder most certainly was not easy. That’s not taking into account the various ways to up your score, the most notable of which was a hefty points bonuses you’d achieve for “peacefully” beating the level.

The levels certainly didn’t lack style, with a sublime explosion of colour adorning each and every stage through the game’s hefty length. There might not have been any of the immense graphical trickery which was starting to make an appearance on the powerful 16-bit consoles of the time, but that never stopped Qwak from being quite an exciting sight to witness in action.

The graphics never mattered though, and matters even less so now in these heady days of quad core processors. What made Qwak was its astonishing ability to keep you coming back for more. You might have failed at a single level a dozen times, but you’ll still find yourself loading it straight back up almost the instant you switched off your Amiga. It’s so good, that a recent mini re-release has appeared for the GBA, which you can find out about at www.qwak.co.uk. It’s firmly restricted to 300 copies however, so you’d better be quick.

To nab the words of Matt Broughton in the original review found in issue 62 of The One Amiga, Qwak is “brilliantly simple, simply brilliant.”