Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest

""...And over here you'll see a bloodthirsty pink box.""

Cubivore is undoubtedly one of the weirdest games I've ever had the pleasure to play. Why this game was never released outside of Japan until the GameCube came along, I don't know. It's given me probably the oddest experience I've ever had (lately, that is.)

The thing that seems to turn most people away from Cubivore is the graphics. Personally, I wouldn't have them any other way because they suit this game wonderfully. Anyway, enough of my rambling...

Story: 6/10

The story isn't very interesting, but since this is supposed to simulate the life of a predator, that doesn't really matter.

The world's color is quickly disappearing and only the King of Cubivores can restore it. By mutating and mating, eventually your cubivore can become strong enough to do so. You start the game as a pig, or rather, a small pink cube with a pig snout. Once you're ''born'' your character accepts the lifelong goal of becoming the King Cubivore. What follows is encounters with harmless prey, vicious beasts, a lots of mating!

Graphics: 8/10

They're bad, horrible, disgraceful, yet they're nearly perfect for this game. Most objects or enemies you come across will, in some way or another, be shaped like cubes. Your character along with the other inhabitants of this world are shaped like cubes, and the creature's limbs are shaped sort of like two-dimensional squares. The sun in the daytime and the moon at night look like pictures slapped onto a floating cube in the sky, any grass you run across causes you to kick up square-shaped roots, even the water leaves ripples shaped like squares! Your left eye is probably twitching as you're thinking of how bad the graphics must be, but this is Cubivore, so naturally it's full of cubes. The graphics in this game are half the fun.

Other than that, the scenery is clear and colorful. In addition, the animation is fluent, which is great despite the fact that there are cubes running around. The only real drawback I can think of is the occasional pop-up in areas, but luckily that isn't something you'll experience every moment in the game.

Gameplay: 9/10

In one word: weird. Basically all you do in the game is tear limbs off of enemies (who then spurt out square-shaped purple blood), but there's much more to it than that. In order to become stronger you'll have to mutate, and to do that you'll have to rip off and eat limbs of certain colors in conjunction with colors you already have. Some of the strongest mutations come from ''rage colors'' and, in my opinion, make your cubivore look awesome!

Mating is another very important thing. Throughout the game you'll collect ''love bites'' which allow you access to the mating grounds. If you collect enough, you'll successfully mate with every female. Many times you'll be required to visit the mating grounds before you can take on a boss since what you can and can't destroy depends on how many limbs you have. After you mate and chose which new form you want from among the newborns, you're ''reborn'' outside. What's odd though is that your old cubivore dies and his...um...head remains there.

The controls may take a bit to get used to but they should not be very difficult to master. L button locks onto and enemy or prey and A attacks. That's your most important move in the game. You also acquire new moves by collecting ''raw meat'' from different bosses, and you can shift between new mutations and previous mutations while playing. Probably on of the strangest, yet somehow humorous moves is one that allows you to empty a limb of its color, allowing you to obtain color for a new mutation. If you have to wonder what that stuff dropping from your cubivore's butt is, well, cubes have to go too ya know!

Unfortunately, like many great things, this game doesn't last forever. Even worse, it lasts only a few hours. Yes, this is in no way a long game, but hopefully it will keep you coming back.

Sound: 9/10

The music is very light and almost non-existent, which doesn't bother me a bit. Whenever you're in the vicinity of a boss, the music changes to something a bit ''darker.'' The boss music is a little annoying since it continuously repeats, but it isn't too bad.

The sounds of your cubivore and others sound almost like something taken from a wildlife documentary. When you or an enemy taunts, it can sound like anything from a pathetic squeak to a fierce roar. Even fighting has some interesting sounds including the crunching and ripping of limbs and the squeals from your victims...err...prey.

Replay: 7/10

If you're like me, you may not even get the full ending the first time OR fight the final boss. That itself is a good reason to play through again. It may take a while to get all of the mutations and some might not even bother, but if you enjoy savagely ripping the arms and legs from cubes then what's stopping you from doing it a second time? There really isn't much else to do other than that, but I find myself coming back to it every now and then just for the fun of it.

Overall: 8/10

Not the best game ever, but one of the weirdest and most creative titles I've ever played. If you can rent it then you should, it can be completed in a rental's time. I would suggest owning it if you to enjoy it, you never know when you'll have the urge to kill some cubes.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/03, Updated 07/06/03