qrth-phyl (XBLIG) Review

Today saw the beginning of the Indie Games Uprising III and the release of the strangely named qrth-phyl (do NOT ask me to say it!) available for 80MSP straight to your Xbox console.

Described as an “arcade documentary of maze/dot/snake mechanic within changing dimensions, axis locks and the corruption of the system” this game in my opinion would be best described as Snake on speed. 
The opening screen takes some effort to decipher. My set up includes a 47inch HD TV but I still found myself struggling with the size and font of the text. Making my way over to 'sequence' the game began.  Playing as a glowing yellow snake the aim is simple, eat the glowing cubes to grow longer, don't run into your body and don't rush headlong into walls. I struggled the first time I played, half of the controls were inverted, an option that makes me feel a little nauseous. I HATE playing invert on any game, but to only have the option to invert the y-axis was pretty annoying, it means that the x-axis is on a permanent invert so I really struggled. 
Even though I found this game pretty frustrating I have to admit it was quite fun. The visuals are brilliant, especially the green grid that appears to show you where the hole to the next level has appeared. The next level also sees you appear inside a cube, transforming the game into 3D flawlessly.  The gameplay, though frustrating was addictive and I found myself playing again and again, trying to beat my previous scores. I kinda peaked at the fifth level, disappointed I tried again and again to go further but unfortunately I just couldn't get my head around the invert enough to get through. 
This game definitely reminded me of the old Snake game that game pre-loaded on the ancient Nokia's. Chances are a lot of people reading this blog now won't remember that gem. Snake was awesome and this game is definitely a valiant attempt to bring it up to date.
This game would have received a slightly higher score had it had leaderboards. Leaderboards on this game would have definitely helped this become a must have. Competition to have the longest snake? Always welcome! And even though I personally struggled with the invert I can totally accept that that is my own fault and nothing wrong with the game. In fact when I had un-inverted the y-axis I found the game much more pleasurable to play. The y-axis was doing exactly what I wanted, the x-axis continued to baffle my brain. 
Overall I think this game is definitely worth trying. For 80MSP you can't really go wrong. Who hasn't got that amount knocking around in their virtual bank?! It is truly an addictive, beautiful and well-made game worthy of adding to anyones collection.

7/10 TRY IT!

A code was provided for the purpose of this review.