Cubetastic

Cubes are, singularly, the dullest shape in all geometry.

While pyramids are worshipped as wonders of the world, the cube is mainly associated with such utilitarian structures as cardboard boxes and crates. Sure, they’re more useful than a sandy tomb, but they’re hardly exciting.

So the idea of something being "cubetastic" is something of an oxymoron in my mind, unless you have a secret love for warehouses (which you won't if you've ever worked in one).

It’s a pleasure to find out that Cubetastic manages to cram in enough interesting concepts and ideas to overcome this initial trepidation.

As puzzle games go, Cubetastic falls in the easy-to-learn category with a dash of challenging to master. You're charged with manipulating a cube so that a shining light can reach an exit square.

Movement is handled in much the same way as you would a Rubik’s cube: twist columns and rows individually so that the respective squares end up in the right positions.

Unlike the iconic '80s toy, the cube's sides are not painted with various colours. Instead, there are a few choice selections that, when linked up, allow you to trace your light closer to the exit.

The presentation is cold - as if the world was the cube, punctuated by brief flashes of hope represented by the various lighted colours on its surface. In other words, it’s a bit stark and minimalist.

It's just as well because the puzzles themselves quickly grow complex, making anything more eye-catching an unnecessary distraction.

Multiple colours are the first obstacle, requiring you to navigate your light onto colour-switching squares. These pale in comparison to locked rows and columns, hover exits that move independently from the cube, and the over-sized cubes that appear late in the game.

There’s a lot to like about Cubetastic. The levels are plentiful, new concepts are introduced at a regular pace, and the puzzles themselves decidedly tricky to complete.

There are a few niggling issues that prevent it from scoring higher, though. The most annoying of is the controls, which often latch you onto wrong part of the cube. This results in a wasted rotation as you poke around the surface looking for the correct place to start twisting.

The difficulty curve, too, is all over the place. Interestingly, the game adjusts the difficulty relative to how long you’ve spent with a newly-introduced obstacle rather than based on how many puzzles you've completed. As such, early stages have an almost schizophrenic feel as they lurch from hard to stupefyingly easy in a heartbeat.

These bumps shouldn’t bother you if you're in the market for for a tough puzzler, especially given how much content and variation exists across the game as a whole. There are enough levels and stages to keep you rotating away for hours.