Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest

"Uhh....yeah. You sure this is E rated?"

Called Animal Leader in Japan, Cubivore is a bizarre quirky game. Animal Leader was originally released on the N64, along with its more popular counterpart, Animal Forest (known to us American gamers as Animal Crossing). While not quite as good or addictive, Cubivore is still quite a good game. However, there is a certain feel of it which you must have to enjoy the game, and some people may not like that feel.

The first thing obviously you will notice is its graphics, or lack there of. Obviously the graphics were not one of the things Nintendo decided to put much effort into when porting it from the N64. In fact, I'm willing to wager a buck they didn’t even bother upgrading them period. And it really wouldn't surprise me. One first look, these will look terrible. But, it is a look that does grow on you.

I still actually give the graphics a decent score because of its style. The style is so weird but so interesting you do have to give them some credit for it. Everything is cube-shaped. The sun and the moon are both cubes in the sky. The creatures are little cubes. The larger animals are bigger cubes with a bit more complexity. When you step into the water, it even makes cube ripples! The backgrounds are all of course literally just blocks, which separate one area from another.

The game revolves around this strange cube world. I suppose that is why they called it Cubivore over Animal Leader, since it’s hard to really call the blocks animals. It's fairly obvious that it was a decision to make the graphics cubic. I mean, even the N64 could do better than that! But if it was intentional, why do I still complain? Well, as long as they were going to make them blocky, they could at least compensate. I mean, you could really ignore the fact that they were all cubes if Nintendo put some effort into the textures. Hell, if they made the textures look nice it could actually look pretty. But, they didn't. The animal faces look extremely flat with almost no texture at all, and the backgrounds are extremely blurry. So, they could have improved on that. Overall, the graphics are atrocious from the standpoint of specs, but it has a surprisingly nice style.

The story is...weird. You start out being born. Ironically, your first incarnation is a pig. So, after typing in my name, to my dismay I became ''Piggy James''! Basically, you start out as a cube. You have the desire to become the king of all the other cubes. To do this, you must kill them and eat their remains to gain their powers. In each area there is a king cubivore of the area. Your job is to find it and kill it. After you have killed it, you receive a piece of ''raw meat'' which upgrades your skills and gives you a new ability. At which point, your horny little cube can now mate (which I must point out he is rather excited about). After he mates, he passes on his traits to his descended, or ''Piggy James 2nd'' in my case. When a descendant is born, they are born more powerful and with an extra limb.

The gameplay is a very fun and unique aspect of the game. You wander through the levels, finding enemies, battling them, then killing them and eating their limbs in order to become more powerful. When you start out, you are a colorless cube with one flap, or limb I should say. As you kill another cubivore and eat him, you take on his color, and it will cause you to mutate. Depending on what type of cubivore he is, it will effect your mutation differently. Your limb might mutate into different places, changing how you move, jump, and even attack. As you get raw meat and mate, you descendant will be born with a new limb, allowing him to get more mutations and attack more efficiently. You continue through the levels, beating up the bosses as you go, getting items to increase your stats, etc. Eventually, you die and are reborn as a bear. Then the game starts all over again, but with more powerful creatures and tougher bosses.

Although there are levels, the game still has a non-linear structure to it. You are not really forced to go anywhere except to where the boss is and the end of the level. You can explore areas and battle for as long or as little as you like. In fact, since often the boss is not the toughest monster in the area, you will kill him then go back and do some more cubivore hunting so you can get the best stats. All of the bosses have pun names like ''The Shoplifter Cubivore'' or ''The District Attorney'' etc. Battling is very fun, but also difficult. Holding one button locks on to a cubivore where A attacks him. You continually fight the cubivore until his life is depleted and you can rip off the limb containing the color you want. After that he dies and is of no further use. However, it is not easy. All the cubivores worth eating have alot of life, and are pretty strong. They can attack and rip off your limbs too. So, you must learn their attack patterns and learn when to attack, how to evade their attacks, and when to block.

The mutating system is very complex. Depending on how many limbs you have, it takes a certain amount of one color to mutate. It also depends on the arrangement of color. Each color has 3 subcategories. For instance, blue has normal blue, pale blue, and dark blue. While dark blue may help your attack, pale blue may increase your speed, so you have to experiment. Then there is reaching mutations by getting 2 blues and 1 yellow to reach a certain form, or vice versa. The system seems confusing at first, but as you get into it you learn how to plan your ''meals'' just right to reach a new form. Later it gets even more complex with rage colors, but I'll leave that out. However, there is a nice little feature. Say you accidentally ate a color you didn’t want in your system. Maybe you were trying for a special red and blue combination, but you accidentally ate a yellow. Well, fear not. The game has a button, which lets you take a crap! Taking a crap allows you to dispose of the most recent meat that has entered your system. Of course, it is not called taking a crap. The game refers to it as ''taking a doo'' (thank you, Atlus).

Now, being Nintendo, one would assume that this is a family oriented game, and many anti-Nintendo people would call such games ''kiddy''. Well, this is definitely not family oriented. While colorful and tame looking enough on the outside, it is quite strange and dark. For one thing, to get the meat you need to must savagely kill the cubivores and rip off their limbs. And when you rip them off, cube shaped puddles of blood burst everywhere. After that, they lay lifeless on the floor with patches of blood near them. Next, theres the matter of your one month old piggy which is overly excited about being able to mate, but I'll save you the stomach of getting into that. Next, when you actually do mate, your reincarnation, or descendant, starts out right next to the lifeless corpse of your dad. Finally, when you meet the ''perfect mate'', rather than mating she err...eats you. I don't know why either, and its pretty strange. Not to mention the fact that your character becomes more and more bloodthirsty as he becomes more powerful.

The control is ok, but it could use some work. While you'd think it would be easy enough, often even moving becomes a problem. Since Nintendo really wanted to make you feel like the mutations really alter your way of playing, some monsters can barely move period. While some are designed to be able to move very fast and freely, other simply slosh along. And others even jump sideways, making maneuvering more difficult. The camera could also use some work. Since it was meant to be on the N64, the original camera was ok, using the C buttons to quickly change. But instead, you have the C stick, which is a bit more difficult. And furthermore, the camera still gets stuck at some points during a boss battle, which can cost you some major life points. It would be nice if plain walking was a bit faster, since your character can not run for long before he gets tired and falls asleep. Jumping is good for speed, but as I said, sometimes you even jump sideways, or backwards, putting you at a disadvantage when trying to hunt. So because of the control, the combat often becomes a chore rather than a game, and really could've used some tweaking.

There isn't really too much sound to the game. Alot of it is simply just you trudging through the grass. There are the smack sounds as you're biting into the flesh of your enemy, and the crunching sounds when you are chomping on the grass, but there is really not too much of a variety. The same goes for music. Music is nothing really more than 6 guitar tunes. However, I really like the tunes and they suit the areas well. There is a standard just roaming tune, there is the happy tune for mating or when your character is in the clear. There is the battle tune in heavy populated areas. And of course, the boss tune, which is your basic jaws rip-off theme. The music works, so as far as I'm concerned it’s just efficient.

As you may have guessed, the game is bound to have replay value. You can literally spend hours in the levels, searching for every little item upgrade, or hunting for just the right animal to eat. Battles can go on for days, since halfway through one of them you can both end up getting tired and falling asleep (and it has happened!). And, there is plenty to upgrade for each incarnation. Since you can upgrade your horns, hump, battle scars, and overall attack there are plenty of training grounds and items throughout the levels to collect. Not to mention the 150 mutations, but I'm sure you already thought of that. I really do love all the different types of mutations you can have, ranging from fast cubivores, to balanced dog-like ones, to basically any type you can think of. The more limbs you have, the more variety in the cubivores, so there’s always the attempt to keep going and mate as often as possible. With the New Game + mode, you can always keep leveling up in any animal form you choose. You don't even get an ending unless you get 100 mutations, so this game will last you at least 12 hours. You must be sure that you get the ending though, because I was mislead to think that it ended when you beat the District Attorney, and my log time was 6 hours. But, you'll have fun. And once you've gotten all of them you can still explore the levels for any secrets you may have missed!

Overall, this is an under-rated game. No one really knows about it except that its one bizarre little game. Overshadowed by its big brother, Animal Crossing, the game never will be known. While it is an innovative and unique sort of Pokemon-esque game, it suffers from a lack of polish, and a narrow appeal line. But, I suggest that you get your hands on it while you can. It’s already become a rare find, and will be a collector's item soon.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/08/03, Updated 02/08/03