Positive shocks.

THE GAME

The first of many hit as a direct result from the game page for Quod Init Exit IIo at itch.io one day. The shock was partially due to the game’s history and partially because of the game itself – Quod Init Exit IIm came out in 2016, and it was one charm-fest like few others.

That expanded version of the original game (from 2010) had an “m” after the roman numeral 2 in the title, which stands for “secundus minimus”, i.e., the second small game. The full game, IIo, would be “secundus opimus” – The second big, fat one. (The five other completely different games in the saga would require quite a few more paragraphs to summarize, but they include: BOH, Huenison, SkillGrid, MAH, and KOG – All of them available for the more perpetually modern Amigas, except MAH that’s on the good ol’ C64.)

But back to the good kind of shocks. I remember reading through the “To Do”-list during the “IIm”-era and didn’t even dare of dreaming of a bigger / complete, game. But in August 2025, it was released… After all these (Nine!) years, Quod Init Exit IIo finally came out… (There just shouldn’t ever be any doubts around games when top developers are involved!)

And it’s an absolute 8-bit wonder to behold and play… (Too good to be true? Yeah, the “too good”-bit.)

The game’s history has been documented through developer Retream’s / Simone Bevilacqua’s many intriguing notes. Quod Init Exit was subsequently published / released by RGCD in 2012 in v1.3 – On a physical cartridge. And so the third iteration, Quod Init Exit IIo, was (initially) released on digital cartridge-format “only” due to the game indeed being much bigger than the last one.

But the single most important thing is that Zampo, the cutest pig in 8-bit video game history, is back again…!

STORY

The setting and the plot haven’t thankfully and fundamentally changed since the last time. “IIo” takes place around the world of Suinio (Would that translate to Swinea in English? 😉 where you play as Zampo – The super-adorable and super-ravenous pig with the fastest digestion on the planet. And Zampo is on a critical mission. Huenison, one of the Evil Masters, has stolen every toilet in Suinio, and Cotechina the Witch became so furious that she cast a spell on the alien bastards. The spell was so powerful that it gave the bad aliens a legendarily nasty gastric influenza… But unfortunately, the spell backfired and also turned the toilets into potties… Which then ended up all over the place… Zampo now needs to collect all the potties so that Cotechina can assemble them back into the original Porcelain-thrones… Easier said than done, of course. And Zampo is most of all reluctant and worried about the food.

The hunger is always going to be Zampo’s biggest problem. And the problem that Zampo’s digestion causes is that he needs a constant influx of food and liquid. All kinds of food keep the belly satisfied and the drink of choice, Gasorade, is jet-fuel for the Turbofart. Just like a jet-engine, the Turbofart gives a fiery horizontal boost mid-air, i.e., it makes Zampo fly a short distance while he’s jumping. As you might think, this becomes an important bodily function soon enough. Thanks to Cotechina’s magic skills, food materializes randomly and frequently in vicinity to Zampo wherever he goes. There are also bonus-items like the can of spinach that temporarily makes it possible to obliterate Evil Masters by colliding with them.

The overall design in Quod Init Exit IIo is polished and flawless with checkpoints (flags) at strategic places and those damned hazards (Jagged glass, acid, poo, etc.) in tricky spots. Because when you step on or hit something that you’re not supposed to hit (including Evil Masters flying about the place.), you go in a straight line to the last checkpoint that you passed. You’ll discover new places to jump to all the time. And parts of the levels frequently need to be unlocked by touching level-specific switches here and there. These usually involve disintegrating walls, vertical and horizontal moving platforms, force-fields, and such. But there are also the portals that are used for teleportation to otherwise unreachable parts of the level.

The game and the mission is over when / if Zampo loses all energy through starving…

CONTENT

If you loved the previous iterations of the game in the least, you simply owe it to yourself to get the upgrade and enjoy the full experience. Not only does Suinio contain five zones (With maps at “2048 pixels wide and from 912 up to 960 pixels tall”.), but Bevilacqua has polished every single aspect imaginable of the game. And then some. The zones are called: Factory, Towers, Fun Park, Cliffs, and Fortress. And each zone has its unique features. (Parts of the Fun Park- and the Cliffs-zones featured in the previous games return in “IIo”.) Additionally, there isn’t just one set path that Zampo needs to take in order to finish the zone.

Quod Init Exit IIo has a humorous text-based intro story (and an outro which is unlocked when you finish the game.), a proper built-in manual (Make sure to read it as there truly is more than meets the eye here.), and an absolutely impressive amount of detail in the audiovisual department. (Zampo even gets to use a Supercomputer (C64) in the Towers where you almost worry about a certain “mad scientist” to unleash his robots and make Zampo stay a while – Stay forever!) Completed zones grant access to them from the title screen.

CONTROLS

The Joystick in Port #2 – Zampo runs, crouches, and jumps. (He can also change direction while jumping.) The Fire-button blasts an incendiary fart. Pulling down performs a special action, like teleporting when Zampo turns white / glowing in front of a portal.

The controls are perfectly balanced and couldn’t be better – just like the gameplay. There are a couple of tricks to master. Hair might eventually get torn (If you have any left.), but every bit of progress feels so rewarding – and that, like energy, is the indestructible video game magic…

GRAPHICS

More than ever does Quod Init Exit IIo look like a 16-bit game. (And even better than some of them!) With tons of lovely visual effects, for example the environmental light that changes Zampo’s color, transparent fore- and backgrounds, full-screen playing area (With the status panel / pottie counter taking up a small square in the lower left corner – it keeps track of the food- and the intestinal gas-meter. Plus how many potties remain uncollected and how many items, e.g., blocks of chocolate in the Factory, have been collected.), impressive Sprites / animations, perfect use of color, and…

SOUND

…”content-sensitive porkessive music”…! This is obviously a part of the Progressive Electronic genre, except it’d logically be Pork Electronic. (The non-stop delightful soundtrack was also done by Bevilacqua.) Complete with jingles and some sound effects where needed.

SUMMARY

Games like this (still) don’t really pop up all that often – on the C= or elsewhere. It’s simply one of the milestones – top level kind of awesomeness that enriches a platform’s game library, comparable to every time when games like Sam’s Journey and Briley Witch Chronicles are released in this “new era”. And now that the full game of Quod Init Exit II is out (and it has been updated and bug-fixed every now and then.), you need to play one of the best platformers for the Machine – It should take a good while to get through, and it’s a masterpiece in video game design, programming, and execution.

Developed by: RETREAM
Published by: ITCH.IO
Version Reviewed: Commodore 64
Genre: Platform
Players: 1
Released: 2025
Game Website: https://retream.itch.io/quod-init-exit-iio