Volfied

Did You Know?

• Taking place in another galaxy, a space pilot returns to his home world of Volfied to find it under attack by an unknown alien force.
• The few remaining Volfied inhabitants signal the pilot from an underground location.
• The pilot uses his ship's defensive weapons to eliminate the alien threat and save his people.

Gameplay

The core gameplay matches that of Qix, but the main enemy changes between levels and is always accompanied by smaller enemies. When the player's spaceship claims a section of the level, the side containing the main enemy becomes the outside; smaller enemies left on the inside are killed, awarding point bonuses. To complete a level, the player must claim at least 80% of the area, split the field between two main enemies if present, or defeat the main enemy with a weapon obtained as a power-up. Each level has a unique background and enemies; cleared area graphics are replaced with the next level's graphic. Grey boxes grant power-ups such as speed or weapons. A special completion bonus is available on certain levels, often by shooting the main enemy.

Ports

The PC Engine version of Volfied, developed by I.T.L and published by Taito, came out exclusively in Japan in 1989. A Sega Genesis port followed in 1991, also from I.T.L and Taito, but this one reached North America under the name Ultimate Qix. Empire Interactive handled ports for the Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS. In 1991, Ving released a version for the FM Towns, which was Japan-only and playable on the FM Towns Marty. A PlayStation port arrived in 2001 as part of the Simple series, later released in North America as Qix Neo. Taito included Volfied in the 2005 compilation Taito Legends for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Windows. A Java-based mobile phone version came out in Europe in 2007 from Taito. Finally, the original arcade version saw its first release outside Japan in March 2024, published by Hamster Corporation for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 under the Arcade Archives label.