Volfied

aka: Ultimate Qix
Moby ID: 432
Buy on Genesis
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Description official descriptions

The space ship Monotros has returned after receiving an SOS call to save his home world (Volfied) from alien invaders and has to defeat a different boss and his minions in each level. Volfied is very similar to Qix -- the player takes control of a ship/object whose purpose is to roam the screen, forming shapes and removing them from the playfield. By way of reward, a picture is gradually revealed in the removed areas of the screen. The borders of the area not yet cleared by the player become the borders of the area the player's pointer can move along. When not cutting, the ship is protected by a shield that decreases over time. When it hits zero, the enemies can also killl you when not cutting.

The player's object must avoid contact with any of the enemies which float around the screen, as this will weaken and eventually destroy it. Barriers limit which parts of the border boxes can be formed through. The goal is to clear 80% or more of the screen, and each additional percent adds bonus points. Most levels contain power-up blocks that can be claimed when the area around it is removed. Possible power-ups can increase speed (S), freeze the enemies for a short time (T), prevent the shield from counting down for a little while (P), give a laser to shoot the smaller enemies (L), kill all the smaller enemies instantly (C) or grant a weapon to kill the boss (a red tomato only found in blocks with the red light).

This game allows for one- or two-player games in three difficulty levels, but offers no passwords or saved games across its numerous levels.

Spellings

  • ヴォルフィード - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Arcade version)

13 People

Game Design
Software
Character
Sound
Hardware
Instruction
©
  • Taito Corporation 1989

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 73% (based on 25 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 47 ratings with 4 reviews)

If I could only keep my cool..

The Good
Gameplay! Volfied is a good adaption of great concept. Although this trick has been done before (for example Qix, Xonix), it is a trick I still enjoy. This game is like Tetris; hard to explain, easy to understand & play and very addictive.

  • It's easy to control this game (you only use your keypad and the space bar).
  • There are some cool power ups like laser, time-stop and speed.
  • It looks good, especially some of those futuristic backgrounds.
  • The design of some of the levels is very nice, I like the way you need to manoeuvre in order to reach the power ups. Level six is my favorite.
  • Runs without problems on modern machines (no need for MoSlo).



The Bad
I'm convinced that this is an easy game, I mean your enemies can't destroy you when you're on the yellow border line. So with patience, caution and some rational thinking it SHOULD be easy to complete this game. In reality, I die a LOT! Then of course I must try again and I must try harder. This usually results in me being too hasty and consequently even more dying. It's so frustrating! (BTW this review is written by a guy who once, after playing a game of Lemmings, hit an old EGA monitor so hard it broke). I wish there were some level passwords!

Volfied' s story line is as bad as any of those Japanese shoot 'em ups (even though it's not a shoot 'em up), it's got your standard alien invasion, some hostile mutated marine life and of course a huge mother brain.

The Bottom Line
Great classic arcade fun, but prepare for some moments of frustration. The only time I (almost) beat this game, I was shown a message saying "You can only play the final level if your selected difficulty is normal or hard.". I did get to see an ending sequence, but was it the REAL ending? Damn, now I have to try to achieve the impossible!

DOS · by Roedie (5239) · 2001

Excellent. Difficult, but excellent

The Good
Volfied has to be one of the first addictive games that were made in the nineties. It is a lot different to Qix. You see, you control a marker that must draw rectangles in order to claim your territory. Getting in your way are small enemies that follow you around no matter where you go, and kill you if you come in contact with them, or they touch the line that you draw, causing a fireball or something to head your way. There are sixteen levels in the game, all of them containing a huge boss that have their own ways to destroy you. Once you claim at least 80% of the screen, you will defeat the bosses and move on to the next level. These bosses are quite interesting, and will have you fight a giant hand, lobster, and fly, killer ladybird, and several others.

You won't be able to complete the level properly without the help of some power-ups, which include time freeze, speed up, and laser shot. All of these power-ups are useful. The time freeze, for example, temporarily halts everything for ten seconds before returning back to normal, and the laser shot allows you to shoot enemies, except the bosses. I enjoyed using power-ups to my advantage because each of them helps to complete the level faster.

The graphics are excellent, with every bit of graphic consistent with the coin-op version. The backgrounds for each level are excellent, and consists of pictures of the moon surface, alien landscapes, icy areas, underwater areas, right up to pictures of brains, and these picture serve as backgrounds. There isn't any music while you are playing, only on the title screen and in intermissions. There are futuristic sound effects, such as lasers being fired and explosion sounds, which are quite awesome.

The Bad
Volfied gets rather difficult as you progress through the levels, and without power-ups, you could be forced to draw tiny rectangles just to avoid getting killed. To make matters worse, you will not be able to collect these in later levels.

The Bottom Line
In conclusion, Volfied is an excellent game that can get challenging at times, especially if you are no expert in finding a way to win every time. As stated before, The game is a lot different to Qix, but that should not put off Qix fans.

Rating: ****½

Amiga · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2005

Another wonderful classic.

The Good
Well, the graphics are very well done (especially for the XT), the music/sound effects are OK as well and the level design is way cool.

But the gameplay - this is one of the games which constitue my definition of the word "addictive". It rocks! It's got too many stages to beat and it's simply incredibly addictive. Even nowadays I occasionally copy it back to the good ole' hard drive and have a few rounds.

Oh, and it runs just fine on newer machines.

The Bad
Frustrating! God damn, is this game frustrating. It's so damn challenging you just can't leave it alone!

The Bottom Line
A real classic, one which you should be playing right now.

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 1999

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

Manual

The Volfied manual has instructions for loading the game both on ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC, but these versions were never released, even though the game itself was simple enough to stand a conversion to most 8-bit formats.

Sound

This game uses two sound devices. The intro music and the music between the levels are produced by your sound card, while the in-game sound effects are made by the PC Speaker. This technique is shared by another Taito conversion, Qix.

Information also contributed by Игги Друге

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 432
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Tomer Gabel.

Arcade added by 666gonzo666. FM Towns added by Sciere. J2ME, Commodore 64 added by Kabushi. Atari ST, Genesis, Amiga added by Martin Smith. Wii added by gamewarrior. Antstream added by lights out party. TurboGrafx-16 added by Игги Друге.

Additional contributors: Roedie, Alaka, Игги Друге.

Game added November 14, 1999. Last modified February 12, 2024.