Microcube Review

Microcube

Developer: ZPLAY
Platform: Android / Apple 

A review by Adrian Hodgkiss

I have been fortunate enough to test Zplay’s newest release: Microcube. Billed by the developer as a cute running game that’s easy to start and hard to put down. Boy, they were not wrong. For the purposes of this review the game was played on a Samsung Galaxy range mobile phone.

Controls and Gameplay

The control system of Microcube is fiendishly simple. Just hold a finger or thumb on the screen of your device to move the cube, this will extend the arc of it’s constant bouncing jumps. A side scrolling world opens up in front of you with obstacles to avoid and coins and gems to collect. This constant forward movement makes traversing  the obstacles both frustratingly challenging and addictive at the same time.

Each time your cube hits an obstacle, it’s game over and you start again from the beginning. The distance you travelled in that particular turn is recorded, the aim being to constantly try to best your own score. There is also the option to share tour score with friends and also compare yours with friends or all other players globally (currently I am number 4 in the world). A cool feature of this game is that each time you restart, the layout and design of the level changes to offer different combinations of obstacle and terrain. Some times the changes are subtle and sometimes two consecutive levels can be completely different. The coins you collect can be exchanged for new adorable cube avatars. As far as I can see the differences are aesthetic only and make no difference to game play.

Design and Features

For a simple game, I have to say the design is pretty cool, with a mountain back drop with cool geometric terrain and the different cubes are all unique. The catalogue of options is pretty eclectic. I currently have a range of animals as well as a clock, a camera, the planet earth, and so and so on.

The options, it seems, are pretty endless and totally random! The levels are colourful and bright and the obstacles are varied enough to keep things interesting. Some of the available power-ups are pretty awesome with the likes of force field, blaster gun, and rocket travel available.

When it comes to Microcube even the the difficulty settings are simple as you are given two options, Day and Night. Day is classed as “normal” and Night is classed as “hard”. It took me a while to give the Night setting a go and while I’m glad I did, my score on that setting is pretty pathetic, it is spectacularly difficult in the best possible way.

The Verdict
Get it! This game is a wonderful boredom breaker with lots to unlock and explore. Like all the best mobile games it’s fun, addictive, and frustrating all at the same time. I’m not one for mobile strategy or role playing games, sosomething like Microcube is right up my street, filling the short little lulls in my day to day life. If you imagine a cross between Doodle Jump, Super Meat Boy, and Crossy Road with an extra dash of crazy thrown in and you’re about there. Download it, try it, and have fun!

Just for prosperity, below is photographic proof of my top four status at bouncing a cube across a screen!