I.Q.: Intelligent Qube

I.Q.: Intelligent Qube (Intelligent Qube in North America and Kurushi in Europe) is a puzzle video game for the PlayStation.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Simple, yet addictive gameplay. The player controls a character who must run around a platform made of cubes, clearing certain cubes as they approach. Cubes are "cleared" by marking a spot on the stage, waiting for the cube to roll on top of it, and then deactivating the marked spot.
 * 2) If the player manages to clear a stage without destroying any forbidden cubes and cleared all normal and advantage cubes then they are rewarded a bonus for perfection, and an additional row is added to the end of the stage (thereby increasing the number of rows the cubes have to travel to fall off the end of the stage).
 * 3) * Solving puzzles perfectly becomes increasingly important as the game progresses because later puzzles require more rolls, and hence more rows of running space, to complete successfully.
 * 4) There are also penalties, which makes the game intense. If normal cubes or advantage cubes fall off the end of the stage without being cleared, the number of fallen cubes will be calculated on the block scale (i.e. a counter is increased by 1). Every time the number of fallen cubes exceed that of the block scale, a row of the stage is lost and if the player is flattened by rolling cubes, the cubes will race to the end of the stage and fall off. The player will then have to face the same set of cubes again (except if the puzzle is the last set on the wave).
 * 5) Great soundtrack that makes the game feel more adventurous and ominous at the same time.
 * 6) Great graphics for its time, although there isn't much to see.
 * 7) Very ominous sound effects that gives the game an essence of suspense.
 * 8) There are three different types of cubes the player encounters.
 * 9) * Normal cubes - These cubes are usually gray (the same color as the stage cubes you move around on), though this texture can change to some other color depending on the stage reached or on the game's settings. These cubes should be cleared.
 * 10) * Advantage cubes - These cubes are green and should be cleared. Clearing one of these cubes marks its location with a green square. This square can be subsequently triggered to clear the surrounding 3x3 area in one move. Multiple green cubes can be cleared normally, and puzzles usually incorporate advantage cube chains. If a spot is marked by a green square, it cannot be marked in the normal manner until the advantage cube's special feature is triggered. Effective use of advantage cubes is the key to solving puzzles efficiently. But at the same time, the player must make sure that no forbidden cube is included in the marked area.
 * 11) * Forbidden cubes - These cubes are black. These cubes should not be cleared, but should instead be allowed to fall off the stage. For every forbidden cube cleared, a row of the stage is lost, and a perfect score for that wave is no longer possible. If the player captures a Forbidden cube, red marks in the block scale will be cleared. Forbidden Cubes can be marked without being captured by an area surrounded by an Advantage Cube.
 * 12) You can adjust what level of speed the cubes can go, which makes the game a lot more challenging and adds replay value.
 * 13) You can play as three different characters with each being faster than the other.
 * 14) * Eliot (the default)
 * 15) * Cynthia (Cherry in Kurushi)
 * 16) * Spike the dog
 * 17) After beating the game once, you unlock Original mode where you can make your own puzzles.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) There are only nine stages to complete and game itself is only 2 hours long.
 * 2) The character models look terrible as they are very low detailed and Eliot and Cynthia don't even have a face.

Reception
Intelligent Qube received mostly positive reviews. While some critics took issue with the lack of a simultaneous multiplayer mode and the presence of graphical glitches and slowdown in spite of the game's undemanding visuals, most concluded that the game's well-balanced, intelligent challenge outweighs its shortcomings. A number of them additionally praised its music.