Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest GCN

Your role in Cubivore is to raise a beast from birth to king of the animals. With an abstract visual style and bizarrely addictive gameplay, this game is for players who have a hunger for something different.

The Circle of Life?

When the game begins you are born as a cube with eyes, mouth and the will to survive. Soon you will learn that in this game, as in the Darwinian jungle, the rules are simple: eat or be eaten. As you roam the wilderness you will encounter countless other creatures that aren't too keen on becoming your latest snack. Many have their own ideas about where you fall on the food chain. Actual battle mechanics are quite simple, however.

You Are What You Eat

Cubivore critters evolve not by the slow and tedious process of natural selection, but by rapid-fire assimilation of desired characteristics. Or, to put it more bluntly, Dinner's on! Animals you encounter are color-coded, so eating different color combinations will result in up to 100 different mutations. Your diet will determine your appearance, speed, defense and strength.

Some of the more powerful beasts will yield extra Limbs. Limbs are actually square tiles that are positioned on your beast's body in an amazing variety of ways. Given so many possibilities you will easily get the feeling that you have ultimate control over your beast's destiny.

Between stages you will hear deep thoughts from your animal on subjects such as eating, mutating and wooing the females of your species. These ponderings serve the dual purpose of explaining game strategy and revealing what makes your polygonal pal tick. The clever monologues includes an occasional haiku about the meaning of life.

Graphics

Literally everything in the game is composed of squares. Every animal and every inch of the wilderness is composed of square tiles. When cube-shaped animals splash through the water they leave square ripples shimmering beneath a square sun.

From grass to king of the beasts, everything in this way-out world is literally a building block of life.

Surprisingly, the well-animated creatures in Cubivore seem to have lives of their own. Some animals will hop, some gallop and others wobble. Other natural behaviors include stalking predators, camouflaging and fleeing from battle.

Cubivore is a one-of-a-kind game. Raising your animal from its lowly beginnings is quite addictive, but the battles leave something to be desired. Whether you think of Cubivore as touching on deep philosophical questions or just a lot of fun, you'd have to agree that the Nintendo GameCube is the perfect place for these cube-shaped animals to run wild.

For a sharper and clearer image, select the Progressive Scan option when playing on a TV set that supports that feature.

Last updated on 10 December 2007