Cutie Q

Cutie Q, a 1979 arcade game from Namco, blends block-breaking with pinball mechanics. Players use a rotary knob to control paddles, aiming to rack up points by bouncing a ball into blocks, ghosts, spinners, and other items on the field. It marks the third and final entry in the Gee Bee series. Shigeru Yokoyama handled the design, while Toru Iwatani created the sprites. The game is considered Namco’s first “character game” because of its bright, cute visuals—a style that heavily shaped Iwatani’s later work on Pac-Man. Its name comes from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 1968 cover of “Susie Q,” a song Iwatani liked. To keep costs down, Cutie Q was only sold as a conversion kit for older Gee Bee and Bomb Bee cabinets.

A PlayStation port arrived in 1996 as part of Japan’s Namco Museum Vol. 2, with Bomb Bee hidden as an unlockable; international versions swapped both for Super Pac-Man. The game later appeared in 2007’s Namco Museum Remix for the Wii and its 2010 update, Namco Museum Megamix. A Japanese mobile phone version, renamed QTQ, launched for Yahoo! Keitai services in 2008. Ports for the Sharp X1 and PC-9801 were started but never finished.

In gameplay, the ball can hit “Rainbow Block” formations, pink “Minimon” ghosts, spinners that slow it down, and small yellow “Walkmen” that appear after clearing a block set. Sad-faced rollover symbols in the middle turn happy when touched, and lighting all of them boosts the score multiplier. Touching lettered symbols on either side or green drainage blocks at the bottom awards an extra ball. Hitting the bottom paddle restores cleared brick formations and adds more Minimon.

Reception has been mixed. *Computer & Video Games* praised the game as “brilliantly addictive” for mixing Breakout and pinball, especially with an authentic paddle controller. Allgame’s Earl Green highlighted its role in inspiring Pac-Man’s character designs. Eurogamer’s Kristan Reed, however, called it “rubbish,” noting historical interest but little lasting appeal. In 1987, Namco released a similar block-breaker, Quester, to compete with Taito’s Arkanoid—Iwatani produced it, and its 26th stage recreates a Rainbow Block from Cutie Q. That game later hit the Japanese Wii Virtual Console in 2009 as Namco Quester.