PQ2: Practical Intelligence Quotient 2 (also known as PQ2; Intelligent License 2 in Japan) is a PlayStation Portable puzzle game and the sequel to PQ: Practical Intelligence Quotient. The game is based on Dr. Masuo Koyasu’s human intelligence model developed at Kyoto University. PQ2: Practical Intelligence Quotient 2 is comparable to the previous PQ and other platform-like puzzle games. In each stage, the player controls a human avatar in a virtual reality world, climbing and descending floors, lifting, dropping, pushing, and pulling boxes to activate switches and elevators, block laser beams, and build stairwells to reach an escape point. The player must also evade guards who patrol the level. The main game is presented as a 100-stage intelligence test. The player has 5 hours to finish all 100 puzzles; time is only counted while executing the puzzles, and the player can save and return at any moment without penalty. The amount of “moves” (excluding strolling about) on the stage, the time it took to finish it, and the number of attempts at that stage all contribute to the player’s score. A player can skip a step with a scoring penalty; levels not finished within the 5-hour time limit are also penalized. After finishing, the player can post their score to global scoring tables to compare their results. Level obstacles include Boxes. Small opaque boxes may be picked up and dropped, and their height is the most significant height the avatar can climb up on. Therefore they are frequently used to build stairs; larger boxes can be pushed or pulled. Boxes made of glass. These boxes usually function but will shatter if dropped from any height or struck by whatever is dropped on them. They are also translucent, allowing laser and ordinary light to pass through. Boxes with lasers. Like conventional boxes, but with laser beams coming out one end. Crossing the beams will terminate the level prematurely—panels and boxes for switching. When colored switches are activated, platforms may travel across the field or rise in height, while deactivating a control causes these platforms to return to their original position. Stepping on floor panels or placing a box on them activates them, whereas switch boxes require a laser beam to hit them. Teleporters. These can be moved like boxes, teleporting the avatar between the end locations.
Officers of the law. These characters move from one police call box to the next, shining a line before them. The level must be restarted if the avatar is caught in this light. The police call boxes can be moved to influence the conduct of the cops. Detectives. These figures will explore a specific trail until they come across the avatar’s tracks. They will follow the footprints until the course is lost, encounter an impassable obstacle, or catch the avatar (which will restart the level). Footprints will vanish after a few steps but can be modified by placing boxes and other impediments. PQ2: Practical Intelligence Quotient 2 adds the ability to construct one’s levels and share them with others, as well as a “weekly quiz” that may be downloaded from the Internet.
