Cubic Castles shows us what Minecraft would be if Nintendo had made it

Cosmic Cow Games, the team that made Cubic Castles, hasn't tried to cover up the inspirations behind its game.

It's a "lighthearted MMO" that combines the world-building of Minecraft with the playful platforming of Nintendo classics.
At least, that's what we're told, and that seems to be the case upon closer inspection.

As an oblong-headed creature, you wander around a world, pulling up resources from the ground.

You can then take these minerals to a workshop and turn them into materials used to build castles, houses, and whatever else you want to construct.

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Yeah, it plays near-identical to how Minecraft does. It even has a persistent online world so you can build with others. The main difference is that the worlds you build also double up as platformer levels.

Being able to fix the third-person camera angle to a certain position allows for this.

This platformer focus is also something that Cosmic Cow is pushing for with promotional lines like, "Want to make a punishing parkour with slippery ice and deadly spikes? No problem!"

But there are certain other cutesy digressions to take note of here too. Such as the way the character literally pulls upon cubes of earth and tree trunks with both hands, rather than digging.

The way that the characters can hop along the fluffy clouds also has the same childlike charm that Nintendo always gives its games. Plus, the character customisation seems to favour adorable animal avatars over everything else.

What I'm saying is that Cubic Castles is pretty darn cute. And, when combined with online player-to-player interaction, world construction, and platformer level editing core, it has a lot of potential to become a compelling social and gaming experience.

If you want to check it out, you can download Cubic Castles for free on the App Store [download] and Google Play [download]. It is supported by IAPs.