Cubetractor

Developer: Ludochip
Released: May 2013
Hours Played: 4.3
Similar To: None That I Know Of
Rating: 2/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
Cubetractor is an interesting arcade-type game with a unique mechanic that has you controlling a peculiar looking robot. Here, instead of firing directly at your adversaries, you pull two cubes together so that they merge and form structures. These structures then attack or protect you in your quest to clear the screen of enemies. They can be a barrier, a power station or a missile tower. Of course your missile towers do the direct damage but you'll often have to add other types to get the job done. On hitting Play you view the top-down battlefield and as you roam around the map, enemy missile towers fire a salvo of three or four fireballs directly at you when detected so you know that you will avoid them if you keep moving away from them. 

BALANCE & PACE
You can also destroy enemy buildings by simply pulling blocks towards them but you have to bear in mind that all buildings replenish health constantly. In this case you'll often have to pull a cube or two to hit the enemy building to dish out some damage, then avoid a stream of fireballs while then quickly going back to pull one or two more cubes to complete the job. To merge two cubes together you'll often find that you'll have to do the same thing; that's manoeuvring to the right location, making sure you're facing the right way to quickly activate your pull and then rushing to a safe spot - then repeating the process before the enemy has fully regained health. This is sometimes a fun experience, however in tighter spots it can get quite frustrating. Despite this it is always interesting to work out a plan of action.

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
To a pretty bland soundtrack, you're treated to a terrible looking title-page adding up to a random mess. A speech bubble with an inane and pointless message, written in plain Times New Roman type text, emanates from a pixelated blob of half a robot. There are awful flashing letters telling you how to navigate around the menus (fortunate as it's done with the counter-intuitive Z and X keys on the keyboard). Then there are the option paths themselves written in a blocky, 16-bit style font in different sizes that don't match up with anything else. It's the whole business of mixing fonts and font-sizes along with the inclusion of a ridiculous speech bubble that makes the entire lobby-screen a massive fail in my book. 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
Hitting Play brings up your map-screen where you select a level to play. These consist of open-book icons to indicate a tutorial level; a square to indicate a side-quest level and a trophy icon to indicate the main quest trail. New icons spring up as you successfully complete the latest main levels. The two former level types show a star to indicate the level has been completed while the trophy levels have a different system. For these you get a blue star for completing it; two silver stars for collecting all of its batteries; three gold stars for getting all batteries and completing it in a reasonable time and the four-star master award goes to those who can get all batteries, finish it in a super-fast time and sustain zero damage - very tough! Clicking on an icon shows all these conditions and which enemies you'll encounter before you play.

CONCLUSION
It's the planning and strategic thinking involved that elevates Cubetractor above many of your typical run-of-the-mill arcade games. The star system is also well implemented and will encourage hardcore players to stretch themselves. The downside is that some maps require very tight and quick manouevring skills. I had quite a few episodes where I just had a split-second opportunity to pull a cube but ended up pulling the wrong one or not pulling it at all and then stressfully belting away from the wave of missiles coming my way. This often resulted in receiving lots of damage, ultimately death and a fair dose of frustration. I wasn't a big fan of the silly dialogue boxes with the superfluous messages that popped up at the start of each level either. Thankfully, the game is compelling enough to make the player want to return to try out different strategies.