The Final Word game review

Cuboingo -- Senntient

R.I.P.
With Cuboingo, I found myself surprised at the actual complexity of gameplay once I sat down and spent the time to really play the game. I would have to say, that as far as PC based puzzle games go, Cuboingo is fairly unique in my experience and one of the more fun PC titles to come around in some time. While at first the game may appear to be like a Tetrisphere (an older release for the N64), or ZooCube (a more recent release than Cuboingo for several console platforms). It only looks like this in appearance, and not gameplay.

There are several types of levels/game modes available to choose from. There's a puzzle mode where you have to match patterned/colored side panels as they float towards the cube from various sides by rotating the cube (with single panel faces) to the correct face to catch the tile. Then there are levels where you have to catch one of more colored panels by matching the face that has the color or color arrangement (say a cube that has 2x2 panels and you've already occupied one of the four panels on that face with a tile, as well as other arrangements.

The only down side I found in the game was the difficulty progression seemed a bit high for the provided games levels/modes. As a first time player to the game, I quickly found myself becoming taxed by all of the game "scripts" that were provided. On the upside, game modules were loaded via the ability to select script files separate from the game. The down side of this was that there was no explanation provided as to which "script" did what, and nothing to differentiate the difficulty level of say "ramp1" and "2x2". Sure the full release of the game allows you build or download new game "scripts" which might be more accommodating to what I'm looking for in gameplay, but I personally just stick with the levels provided by the designer. In my experience, this modification ability really only appeals to a small crowd. My thought here is that some easier, more laid back levels should be provided for the "mom" and kid players out of the box.

Gameplay was good and responsive, although I had to change around the default key layout to accommodate my PC game-pad controller. Graphically, the game is nice to look at, and the audio complements the visuals very well.

Even though I found that the provided game "scripts" tended to become too challenging for extended casual play, Cuboingo was a lot of fun and holds a lot of promise as level design is worked out. Hopefully the game will make the jump from PC to console in the future and we'll get another shot to look at it then. While not a game that will keep me coming back over the years, Cuboingo was pretty fun to play and something different to pass the time. Be sure to at least check out the demo on Senntient's website.

>>>>> 18.5/25 <<<<<		R.I.P.
Graphics		4.0
Sound		4.0
Gameplay/Control		4.0
Longevity/Playability		3.0
Overall		3.5
Total		18.5

(07/2002)