Qix[a] (/ˈkɪks/ KIKS[b]) is a 1981 puzzle video game developed by husband and wife team Randy and Sandy Pfeiffer and published in arcades by Taito America.

Qix is one of a handful of games made by Taito's American division (another is Zoo Keeper).

The objective is to draw lines that close off parts of the rectangle to fill in a set amount of the playfield.

In the Gals Panic series from Kaneko, each captured area is not filled with a color, but reveals part of an image of a woman; this itself had been cloned into erotic-oriented games based on the concept of Qix.

Keith Egging, Taito's "Director of Creativity",[8] told Electronic Games: "Qix was conceptually too mystifying for gamers.

AllGame's Brett Alan Weiss commended Qix for its addictive gameplay, technological accomplishments, and responsive controls.

While he believed the graphics and sound effects were overly simplistic and crude, he said the game as a whole is "abstract minimalism at its videogame best".

They also compared its concept to that of the Etch A Sketch, a mechanical toy that allowed its user to draw straight lines across a small screen.

The staff believed the game's simplicity was also one of its strong points, alongside its sound effects for being satisfying to hear.

[14] At the 5th annual Arkie Awards in 1984, Qix received the Certificate of Merit in the category of "1984 Best Videogame Audio-Visual Effects (16K or more ROM)".

A port to the Game Boy developed by Nintendo was released in 1990, with intermissions in which Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach have cameo appearances.

[22] The Game Boy port was released as a Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console title in Japan on June 15, 2011,[23] and in North America and Europe on July 7.

[26] Battle Qix was released for the PlayStation in 2002 by Success, under their Super 1500 Lite budget title series.

[27] Taito released a new version of Qix for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Portable Qix++ in December 2009.