In Cubeus, you are presented with a series of platforms, some of them moving in certain directions, others imbuing you with different coloured powers. The ever-present goal is to manoeuvre your cube into the finishing square with the correct colour imbued.
The key with Cubeus is the manipulation of your direction – you can move whichever way you want, but you’re inherently limited based on what tiles are around you. Often, the tiles only allow you to progress in one particular direction, forcing you to adapt your decision making and move towards the goal however you can.[sc name=”quote” text=”Often, the tiles only allow you to progress in one particular direction, forcing you to adapt your decision making and move towards the goal however you can.”]
Each level has a tauntingly difficult goal of total moves to reach, though it doesn’t penalise you for not hitting them successfully. They’re exceptionally difficult because each target is based on you executing the level perfectly – either you’re a genius with incredible foresight, or you’re restarting the level to try to meet that score.
This kind of arbitrary goal post that is only reachable through restart can feel somewhat unfair at times – however, you quickly forget about reaching that target number of moves when you realise you’ve already passed it and made little to no progress at all towards your goal.
On each face of your cube is a particular colour – the coloured face can be imbued with energy that matches that colour during some levels, encouraging you to try to end up with your cube facing the right direction and put yourself over the receiver. However, as your cube is obviously… well… a cube, as you roll through the level, different faces will be facing different directions. This means that, not only do you need to control and predict where you’re going to end the level, you also need to control and predict what face of the cube will be facing on the ground at the right time.
The inclusion of this colour system turns Cubeus from a simple platform puzzle game into a multi-faceted brain teaser. Each level has you not only working around the physical limitations of the platforms, but actually monitoring exactly what faces move and when.
To compound this, platforms often only move based on one direction, or will shift you a different direction depending on where you entered it from. This means that every single move you make in Cubeus is likely to result in you being taken off course, swearing at yourself for your stupidity as your slowly move the wrong way.[sc name=”quote” text=”This means that every single move you make in Cubeus is likely to result in you being taken off course, swearing at yourself for your stupidity as your slowly move the wrong way.”]
Cubeus is a puzzle game that melds different brain challenges together to create one big game – it seems very simple at first, but manages to challenge the player so much so that you find yourself actively counting moves, almost wishing for a pen and paper to more accurately predict your finishing position.
Cubeus’s victory conditions may feel a bit unfair with their requirement for perfection, but the puzzling gameplay is too enjoyable for you to care enough to really mind.
[review pros=”Multi-faceted puzzles – you’ll be challenged in a lot of different ways. Really enjoyable and difficult, yet surprisingly not frustrating.” cons=”The target for moves is impossible to reach without repeating the level every time.” score=9]
[appbox appstore id1300577407]
