Using your laser, it’s your goal to cut up the plates of a three dimensional cube whilst avoiding and eliminating various types of enemies that are lurking on the cubes faces. Slice your way through the plates whilst tapping your feet to the hypnotic techno beat that flows elegantly alongside the light show going on around you.
Cubixx HD is a game that is inspired by the old arcade game, “Qix”, a game I remember owning on my trusty Gameboy, sadly however, back then I was a child and for some reason I didn’t enjoy it. High School years came forth and I found myself glued to Flash game websites playing games of the same nature.
To me, this was a nostalgic experience; reminding me of my childhood, and now it’s 2016. Time to tuck up warm and have a look at this game. Originally, Cubixx was released on the Playstation 3 back in 2009, and then in 2011 they released the HD Remake for the PS3. This year, 2016 see’s the Playstation title come to life on the PC.
The idea is simple. You control a laser, one that has two modes, harmless, and OMG-CUT-EVERYTHING mode. When harmless, you may only move along the outline of the cube, or along the edges of the faces you have cut out. When in the other mode however, you can leave the safety of the outline and travel onto the faces of the cube whilst you cut out a line, however your goal is to cut out the face by returning to the outline, thus creating a completed box; but if an enemy either hits you, or your current line, then you lose a life.
It’s a game that requires fast thinking, quick planning, and patience…patience of the rushed variety.
You’re faced with several enemies on different levels and stages, this keeps the gameplay different and challenging, because lets face it, a game where you just cut up a cube would be boring right? There’s a prominent enemy that features throughout the whole thing, and these ones can’t be killed, you can only eliminate the face that surrounds them. Example, you successfully trap it in a small box, you eliminate the huge area outside of the box it lies within. This makes it that more challenging later on when more enemies get introduced.
If you played the original 2011 version of the game, when you jump into this HD remake, you can certainly see a graphical improvement, the lighting is more dynamic, the smoke looks more dense and real, and nearly everything has a rave style glow blooming from the edges. Oh, and if you’re a frame rate geek, then the frame rate seems to hit 30fps quite nicely and without fail, maybe even 60fps MAYBE EVEN 100!? but, obviously this depends on your system.
Musically it’s obviously quite a techno, head-bobbing, party styled game that relies on music to keep you pumped and wanting to play more, but after a while the beats tend to start getting bland and end up testing your patience, especially after failing on a specific level so many times that it becomes embarrassing. Having custom music would work in a game like this, I’m not quite sure why it hasn’t been implemented, and quite frankly I’m surprised to see it as an absent feature.
I spent most of my time playing the Arcade mode, losing myself in the quest to progress to the next stage as quickly as possible whilst scoring the best high score – working to complete all of the 50 levels. Eventually I ventured onto the other modes that are designed to not only enhance and lengthen your gaming experience, but also challenge you just when you start to get cocky with rinsing another mode. Challenges, Line Attack, Deathmatch, it’s all there waiting for you to try and be the best among the other players that are globally ranked.
It’s a game that puts you on the spot, it makes you question your moves and then begins to force you to to start your moves by sending enemies towards you. It’s a challenging puzzler, but it’s an addictive one where you can even play it with friends and share the short bursts of anger with them, and if you’re like me in this game…you’ll be winning.
