Q-Bitz Extreme; The Mind Bendy Puzzle Board Game

Q-Bitz Extreme by Mindware Games is the slightly crazy, big brother, of the original QBitz board game.

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The game is really simple… rearrange the cubes to make the shape on the cards as quickly as possible. But in practice, because of the colour combination and the curved shapes, it feels like trying to get out of a weird mirror maze!

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What’s In The Box

• 80 numbered QBitz Extreme Cards
• 4 Black Wooden Trays
• 4 Sets of 16 Coloured Cubes (Red, Yellow, Green & Blue)
• Rules Leaflet

Keep the cardboard insert as it helps keep everything in place when you pack the game away.

How To Play Q-bitz Extreme

Q-Bitz Extreme is for 2-4 players aged 8+ and as mentioned the concept is simple… rearrange your cubes to make the shape on the cards.

Each player has their own coloured board of patterned squares. When a patterned card is turned over players race to create a duplicate of the pattern on the card

There are 4 variations that you can play over 4 rounds or just pick one variation and play it over and over again.

1) turn card over and see who can complete pattern first
2) turn card over roll cubes, compete as much of puzzle using rolled cubes before rolling again with unused cubes. Keep going until someone completes.
3) turn card, memorise for 10 seconds then try and complete
4) turn card and be first to make reverse pattern! (Not in our other Q.bitz) game.

The player with the most cards at the end of the game is declared the Extreme champion!

What Did We Think Of Q-Bitz Extreme?

Personally, I prefer the lighter fresher look of the original Q-Bitz but I do love how much harder and ‘mind-bendy’ Q-Bitz Extreme is.

The black and white cards v. colour and black tiles totally confuses the brain. I’m not sure why, but I think it’s because we naturally lock into the white space to recognise shapes, and this doesn’t transfer over to the coloured and black cubes. So you have to make a concerted effort to focus on the shapes effort to see the black space.

Add in to that the curved lines of the shapes and you end up with a much trickier shape recognition puzzle game than the Qbitz Original, that has straight lined shapes.

Some of the finish/paint job is a little disappointing in places and you can see the wood grain through the paint, which is a shiny gloss finish (I think a satin finish would have been slicker). Sadly the teardrops shape is centered on all the cubes which is not how it appears on the cards. This results in patterns where the tips of the tear drops should be touching not looking the same when the pattern is completed. A minor problem I know, but for younger and very literal players it can make the finished pattern look wrong.

Having said that it is a great family game (aged 8+) and gets quite competitive! Its brilliant for exercising your brain, particularly its visual dexterity and memory. Plus you can also use the cards to support learning about patterns, symmetry, fractions, ratios etc. And it’s a great companion to the standard Q-Bitz game if you already have it. Although the two games are similar the shapes and colour difference make them very different to play!