Cube Trick Review

Cube Trick is a fairly traditional puzzle game that asks players to move a cube around a level onto glowing, square-shaped spots on a map. Although its aesthetic is reminiscent of strong iOS puzzle-platformers like EDGE and EDGE Extended, Cube Trick is a much slower-paced affair; and unfortunately I found this pacing to be to the game's detriment.

To control the game, players are given a set of on-screen controls. One of these controls is a d-pad that determines the way a cube (or cubes) moves about the map, and the other is tool for rotating the camera around the game's 3-D environment. While the game starts out simply enough the introduction of multiple cubes, as well as environmental obstacles, quickly makes the game much, much more challenging. The primary cause for this challenge is the game's one simple-yet-diabolical rule: when players press the d-pad, all moveable cubes move in that direction. This rule is the primary reason Cube Trick is a slow game, and also the reason it can be extremely frustrating.

After a few levels, players will probably find themselves as I did; racking my brain as I restarted a puzzle time and time again only until trial-and-error eventually revealed a solution. Or maybe it is just that my brain isn't configured to follow the game's logic that other players may find intuitive. Either way, I found that Cube Trick really only rests on its one rule to the point that it feels almost immediately uninspired.

This isn't to say Cube Trick is a bad game, as it is a perfectly executed version of the kind of game it is. That being said, it is a kind of game that I could play in a browser ten years ago for free, and it doesn't seem to add much to either keep me coming back for more or help me with my frustration. As such, Cube Trick stands as a very nice-looking version of a very well-worn puzzle game concept.

If players are looking for a taste of familiarity and want some puzzles that they can really mull over, Cube Trick is a perfectly recommendable game. It does its specific brand of puzzling gameplay really well. I just know that it isn't for everybody, myself included, so consider this a warning to players looking for a more casual, persistent, or modern experience.