Lately it seems that the PSP has become nothing more than a dumping ground for PS2 ports, but it’s exciting to see an original title come out once in a while. Unfortunately, Cube doesn’t do much for anyone’s hopes to prove to developers that the sleek little handheld is capable of good, original IPs. Cube is a mildly enjoyable puzzle game and has some moments where it can feel addictive, but those moments are usually quick to give way to frustration from clunky controls, a bad camera, and uninspired production. Cube is a puzzle game that’s somewhat reminiscent of older games like Marble Madness, Mercury Meltdown, and even Super Monkey Ball in some respects. You guide a cube through a series of floating platforms while avoiding obstacles, such as bombs and sink pits, in order to reach the level exit. The thing that sets cube apart from similar games is that your cube is able to defy gravity by sticking to the sides and bottom of platforms allowing a full 360 degrees of puzzle-solving exploration. This works as a blessing and a curse as you’ll be fighting with the camera the entire time. When other platforms or obstacles are not obstructing it, you can use the analog nub to rotate along with the square and triangle buttons to zoom in and out. The catch is that you’re not able to move your cube when you finally get to an angle where you can see what you’re doing. As soon as you begin to move, the camera will take a moment to snap back into its original place to obstruct your view again. In total, there are over 130 levels to play which amounts to a pretty hefty time investment, though anyone casually playing the game will most likely get sick of it halfway through the medium difficulty levels. You’ll start your game on a start platform where you can steer your cube to different zones. Each difficulty has three zones designated by color and each zone consists of fifteen levels. The puzzles you’ll solve range from the ridiculously easy to the insanely confusing. You’ll get a good variety of puzzles including a hefty amount of block moving, switch flipping, and some simple platforming elements. When you’re not moving blocks, you’ll be avoiding obstacles such as bombs (both moving and stationary), barriers, blocks that will kick your cube in a certain direction, fans that blow your cube away, cannons that shoot spiked balls, and blocks that will disable movement for a short time among others. You’ll also get a hold of a couple of power-ups like a crystal that will destroy any bombs in the vicinity or ghost blocks that you can use to fill in otherwise impassible gaps. There are also arrows that you can manipulate to force bombs to crash into objects to open a path, or just crash them into each other. You’ll start each level with a flythrough that you can pause and rewind as much as you’d like, but you’ll come to realize that with the camera and clunky controls, Cube turns into a lot of trial and error. There are portions where you’ll need to react quickly to collect items or avoid bombs only to move one square too far, or worse, not move at all resulting in your untimely demise. With each level you’ll navigate, you’ll be working against the clock in order to earn a good enough rating to get to the next level. Finishing a level quickly and collecting all of the keys hidden inside will get you a gold rating while finishing before the timer completely runs out will get you a silver rating. As you work through the game, you’ll come to realize that the basic puzzle designs repeat regularly. By the time you reach level fifty, you’ll come to know what you’re in for as soon as you catch a glimpse of the flythrough. The design relies on either the exit panel being blocked by a number of barriers that you’ll have to turn off, or the panel residing off on a seemingly unreachable platform where you’ll have to run over a number of X icons to build a bridge. If the single player game wears thin, there’s a pretty simple, yet occasionally confusing level editor that you can use to build your own levels and share over an ad-hoc connection. There are also multiplayer modes available where you can race an opponent through a level to see who can collect the most keys, a mode that acts as a co-op to the single player game, and a battle mode that has players sending bombs after each other. While game sharing is available, it severely limits the options available to you, that is, if you feel this game is worth than more than a couple of hours with a friend. Cube sports a futuristic, minimalist look that seems pretty cool at first, but as you progress, you’ll realize that different zones do nothing more than change the colors of the blocks and background. Load times are also a little unbearable, as you’ll have to wait a good minute or so to restart a level if you fail. Given the trial and error gameplay at work here, there are times where the load times are longer than the actual time playing. The menus also border on the clunky side where if you hit the start button, you’ll have to wait a few seconds for the game to pause and bring it up. The same goes for completing a stage where you’ll have to wait a few seconds for the game to auto save before being able to choose to start the next level or quit to the main menu. Cube’s soundtrack lies on the subdued side. You’ll get an assortment of repetitive electronica that seems to play over and over again in thirty-second loops. The music will also stutter pretty badly when you hit the start button during the game. While you enemies consist of a number of spiked bombs and cannons, explosions when they crash into each other or shoot rounds are unimpressive and soft, which when accompanied by the entire level shaking from the force of the explosion, makes the sound effect seem unimpressive and bland. While the premise of Cube is interesting on paper, the game’s execution of ideas is as straightforward as it gets. When you look at the total package of unimpressive visuals, bland sound effects, and repetitive puzzle design, you’ll quickly come to the obvious realization that there are far better puzzle games available for the PSP. Still, you can’t help to feel a little disappointed since Cube has the potential to shine at certain times. If you’re truly starving for a new puzzle game for your hand-held console, Cube may warrant a rental, but will ultimately leave you feeling used and unfulfilled in the end.
