Edge

Edge
Developer:  Two Tribes
Category:  Platformer (Time Attack)
Released:  Aug 2011
Usual Price:  £5.49
Hours Played:  3
Controller Compatible:  Yes
Rating:  0 Stars

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Plenty to get your teeth into here. This is one of those games that seem bland and dull judging from first impressions but which then has quite a bit to offer as you complete levels and dig a little deeper. The difficulty is comfortable for your average gamer into platformers.

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Menus, Progress & Stats

The game will jog the memory of those who played Rush or QUBE as presentation is quite bare and sparse with cubes and squares being the shapes you'll be working with. Thankfully, Edge comes with a slightly better edge (sorry, couldn't resist) and a heftier kick. Its soundtrack will also remind you of that other quadrilateral-based game, Blocks That Matter. With its pure looking white and grey colour scheme, the title-page offers a few of the common paths but on hitting "edge challenge" you'll be taken to a similar menu screen that offers normal or extended levels that offer 48 and 44 levels respectively. There are also bonus levels if you join the community.

Levels are presented as little white squares neatly set out in rows and columns. Clicking on one displays the name of the level, your best time to one hundredths of a second, your rank (S+, S, A, B, C and D), and how many prisms you've collected. Although this display is a little small and the font-size is on the tiny side, it does keep the player informed in a reasonably efficient manner. The tiny prisms (colourful if collected / greyed out if not) could also have been done with being a bit larger as well. Finally, there is a "Leaderboard" that you can get to from the "Scores" path on the title-page but this alt-tabs you and brings up a browser. This shows online ranks but is unfortunately hard to interpret.

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Gameplay

You control a cube which gets portalled onto a landscape that hovers in outer space and is made up of square blocks like random lego pieces jammed together. Your task is to roll your cube to the glowing exit portal. Initial attempts may involve just picking up all the prisms and to get used to the traps and obstacles that you'll encounter. Later tries will be to beat your times and to get awarded that elusive A grade or even an S! You'll also need to activate the small grey switches to make certain blocks move so that you're able to proceed. Extra variety comes in the form of floating blocks that move mechanically and follow a set path.
  

Additionally some will rise and fall, operating as lifts, while there will also be occasions where you'll shrink to half the size and can climb the outside surfaces. Finally, there's the ability to move your cube so that its edge kind of hangs onto the edge of other special cubes. When I started the game and moved though the levels I felt the game used an out-of-date engine and that the environments were pretty bland and uninteresting. The game didn't seem to have much character and it just felt kind of lonely and soulless. However, after a while you realise that the game is about mastering levels as best as you can and then speed-running it after learning its quirks.

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Conclusion

Edge operates the use of an engine that features just the bare essentials and this can make the game seem a little empty and unfulfilling at times; especially when compared to games that come packed with an entourage of bells and whistles like Mutant Blobs Attack, Adventures of Shuggy or Nimbus.

Fortunately, it manages to cater to the nerds who like speedruns and who like to see themselves making progress with the use of a fair grading system. Playing this game definitely instills that feeling in the player that they're getting better (like most decent games of this type should). Also, at over half-way, I have found the difficulty to be very comfortable and have not had to resort to walkthroughs at all - which is good.

On the negative side, online leaderboards not only alt-tab you out of the game and bring up a browser (which can kill immersion), but also displays stats that are not explained and make no sense. Gone are the best times and in comes a kind of points system where the lowest score gets you a higher rank. What that all means, however, is anyone's guess.

Still, although a little luck-based at times, for those who like to learn from mistakes and are into pure speedruns Edge might just allow you to scratch that itch.