Q-bitz (solo orange) – The Unboxinating!
Today’s Unboxinating is a neat puzzle game from MindWare called Q-bitz. This solo edition was generously donated to the Library but it looks like Q-bitz also comes in a second solo edition (Magenta) and a 4 player version which calls itself just plain Q-bitz. The Orange and Magenta editions can be added to the 4 player version for extra players but I’m not sure if you can play a Magenta and an Orange together. Maybe? Not sure why not. Another interesting factoid is that this is the only game in the Games Library that has a min player of 1 and a max player of 1. There are a good number of games that you can play solo but this is the only one you have to play solo.
Number One: Parts! You get a passel of wooden cubes, a balsa wood tray to arrange them on, a deck of shape cards, a rule book and your tin. The dice as well as the tray are made with a light weight wood (the dice are most likely not balsa wood but whatever wood they are, it’s not very heavy at all) and the deck of cards isn’t particularly buff either. Your entire game weighs a lot less than you would expect a game with 16 dice, some cards and a tray to weigh. If you are thinking of becoming an astronaut and want to take a game up with you to the ISS but are worried about weight limits, this game would be one to consider. Rolling dice in zero g might become problematic though so maybe not.
Number 2: The dice. As stated above, you get 16 and each of those dice have 6 different sides (pictured). Gameplay has you rolling the dice and building the design on your chosen card so I expect there will be a lot of rerolling to get all the correct faces you need. I do dig a nice visual puzzle game and I like rolling dice so I look forward to actually playing this at some point in time. I did do some practice rolling (strictly to see if the dice work) and they are just a tad too light for maximum rolling fun. They are also very square and kinda pointy; it turns out I like a little roundness and heft in my dice.
Number 3: This balsa wood tray is intriguing. The game doesn’t need a tray per se, a card with a square printed on it would have done the job. Or a cheap plastic printed tray, or even the underside of the lid would have all been options. But instead, MindWare went with light weight but very functional balsa wood. It has a decent lip that holds the dice nicely and yet it’s neatly airy. Maybe MindWare wants this to become the NASA endorsed game of the ISS. I still think the zero g rolling is going to be a problem, however.
Number 4: Shape cards. Here’s a small sampling of the diversity of shapes Q-bitz wants you to make. I’m a visual person so I am enjoying all the different geometric designs and it delights me that you will see them realized in orange and white. Or Magenta and white. Or whatever color you happen to be playing and white. Q-bitz (solo orange) comes with 20 pattern cards…which seems like maybe not enough variety. I expect that the magenta version also comes with 20 cards and it looks like the 4 player version comes with 120 cards. There’s also an expansion pack of 100 cards you can purchase but now you are investing a lot of money to keep one solo game entertaining for longer. If you are considering getting Q-bitz, I’d recommend getting the 4 player and working back to adding the 2 solo expansions and the 100 card expansion.
Number 5: This copy had a defect across many of the shape cards. It’s probably a one off that affected just this particular tin, but if the cards had been a little better in quality would they have scored in this same way? Possibly. But because the cards are not particularly robust and you only get 20 of them, I expect they won’t wear well.
Lastly :
