Everybody has had their say on GTA IV, so to see a review on these hallowed pages now would be more than a little pointless. However, not many words have been said about Cub3d – the playable puzzle arcade game found within some of Liberty City’s ‘adult establishments’. So we’ll review that instead.
GTA: San Andreas had a range of playable arcade games but they were completely forgettable. Well not completely, as I do remember that they at least existed, but can I remember what they were about? Nope. I do remember though that Bully had a swish little futuristic racer that was better than some of the budget racers that the likes of Midas pump out. Likewise, with a few more options and maybe a two-player mode Cub3d (shrewdly subtitled ‘The puzzle game you’ve played before’) wouldn’t make a bad Xbox Live Arcade release. It would be more welcome than that awful Rocky and Bullwinkle game anyway.
A cross between Columns and Lumines sums up Cub3d perfectly. Blocks tumble down the screen in pairs of two; match four of the same colour and they’ll go pop. Match large amounts of the same colour and you’ll receive a power-up, including the ability to wipe out an entire line. Now here’s the hook – the blocks twist as they fall, so you need to do a bit of planning ahead to work out what position they’ll be in when they connect to the rest. This goes a long way to making it an ample time waster, and with one achievement based around Cub3d (beat the high score, which is actually quite a challenge) you might be playing it for longer than expected.
It’s a shame that the arcade near China Town is just for show – a room full of playable games of this calibre would have been awesome. Not that GTA IV needs to be any more awesome…
Comments are closed.