Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest

"Years after the fact and hype, I got the chance to play this game..."

Cubivore, the ultimate 'rare game find' for the Gamecube. I'd been looking for it since I first heard of it, and finally got lucky a couple of days ago. I went in expecting something incredible and complex, that would be simply amazing. Because, hey, that's what hype and raised expectations lead to. It wasn't particularly complex, and I was pretty surprised by what I actually got. But that wasn't really a bad thing; I love the game for what it is. I was sure I would love it because it seemed to have a sense of humour as well as being a sim-type game, which I adore. And it's definitely got humour. Plenty of it, and I find it to be genuinely funny and at times quite cute.

I'm not quite sure what I thought I would get gameplay-wise, but as it turns out things are really quite simple. Walk with the control stick, or hop with A if you prefer (feels a bit faster sometimes, especially when your cubivore is crawling on its face). Once you get a Raw Paw, hold R to run. B to block attacks. Hold L and then press A to lunge, which is how you attack. Different mutations have differences in the way they jump (forward usually, but a few cases backwards), how high/far they jump, movement speed, defense...some of them can be a bit annoying at first, but you'll either get accustomed to it or simply switch shapes. Camera controls are the most ragged-on part of this game, and they really aren't as good as they could be, certainly, but I don't find it to be a crippling aspect either. Running speed is also quite annoying in its slowness at times, especially in the timed special stages that can take far too long to cross fully if you have a slow mutation.

The toughest things you'll ever have to do controls-wise aren't too bad. Getting the hang of pulling off an Eat 'n Run (you tear pieces off of something without a fight while running by it, pretty much) isn't something I've really managed too well so far, but it isn't ever going to be something you need to be able to do and I haven't exactly been antagonizing about it. And holding X to eat only a single piece of meat from an enemy while also holding down on the control stick and L after hitting A once to latch onto a defeated foe? Not too hard either, and you can even practice the technique (which you actually do need if you want to get every mutation) at special training grounds. So no real need to fear complex controls/menus/etc.

The story mode is short. Very short. Full completion will take a little while, and even getting to the end of the game can take some work, but the story mode itself can be played through in a few hours the first time you touch it. You might not get the required 100 mutations to fight the final boss, but you will get through it and find yourself back at the title screen before you know it. I did find this a bit disappointing, but I was also quite far from full completion after playing through that first time and trying to get the hang of everything.

On the positive side of things, I found the actual story both charming and funny, what little of it there was. After naming your cubivore, you are born and with both childish naivety and surprising intelligence, begin to explore the world. The game is full of wordplay and jokes, and the journal entries complete with dorky poetry that greet you after the day/stage ends are quite fun. Yes, it's another "I'll save the world and overthrow the tyrannical ruler!" story. And there's little to no character development, barring the literal developing of your character with things like horns for attack power and scars for defense. But it's cute, and it's either strangely amusing or slightly disturbing to rend cute cube-beasts limb from limb and consume their flesh in a slightly bloody but far from gory manner.

I really like the graphics, personally. It's very stylized, of course, but it works quite well. Almost everything is a square, from the ripples that spread when you run through water to the splatters of deep-purple blood. The sun and moon are in cubes, and each beast is made up of 1-6 square limbs as well as a cubed head. It could be prettier while sticking with the same style, yes, but I really don't find the graphics a deterrent in the least.

The sound is inoffensive, but also far from outstanding. The music probably won't get stuck in your head, and the endless loop of the boss track once you come across one, whether or not you're within 50 feet of the thing or not, can be annoying. But each colour of cubivore has their own cry to startle yours with, and whenever I hear that high-pitched, hyena-like laugh, or a menacing hiss, I know exactly which colour class I'm being harassed by (grey and blue, respectively). Things scream when you bite them, bugs rustle the grass...it all fits.

As mentioned before, this is not a long game by any stretch of the imagination. But it's really quite fun, and I would disagree with the sentiment that this is not a game you will want to replay after getting through it with fun completion. It's cute, amusing, fun and it's really quite satisfying to attack things. It has its annoying points, certainly, but I feel that they are more than made up for. It probably won't be the kind of thing that you marathon-game for days, true. But it probably won't get one completion then sit on your shelf forevermore either. I'd say it's more something you might play through, enjoy, and then go back to at a later date when you want to tear something to pieces (but in a cute way). A nice medium between the two extremes is what I would say it deserves. Of course, I tend to want to do this eventually to any game that doesn't make me irrationally angry, so that probably colours my opinion.

If you find a copy, buy it. It's really fun, a definite change from the norm, and rare enough that passing it up and regretting it later will probably be a much bigger problem than buying it and finding yourself not totally satisfied. It doesn't quite live up to the years of build-up it received in my mind, but that's mostly because of a fundamental misinterpretation of the mechanics of the game itself instead of the flaws in it. I really enjoy it, even if it frustrates me sometimes, and if you're in the mood for something unusual it would probably hit the spot nicely.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/25/08

Game Release: Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest (US, 11/05/02)