The Game Factory has brought the amazing world of Rubik’s Cubism to the Nintendo Wii in the form of the ingeniously named Rubik’s World (Rubik’s Puzzle World in Europe). It is estimated that 5% of the world’s population have purchased a Rubik’s Cube since it was originally released in the 1970’s (that’s over 300 million people), with sales figures like that it would be crazy not to bring the puzzle sensation into the 21st Century with a video game iteration. So how does Rubik’s Puzzle World for Wii shape up? Find out in my review of Rubik’s World for Wii.
We were pleased to hear that it was Dutch developer Two Tribes who are the programming guys behind Rubik’s World on Wii, they have a great pedigree of games which include: Worms Open Warfare 2 and Toki Tori. We can’t imagine it’s easy to take a project such as the Rubik’s Cube and turn it into a fun game, after all the real thing isn’t that much fun after a while and there isn’t really much you can do with a plastic block for any length of time. So if anyone could flesh out the Rubik’s Cube into a living, breathing and fun game for the Wii, it had to be Two Tribes. Thankfully they haven’t let me down because Rubik’s Puzzle World features more than a simple three dimensional Rubik’s Cube to play with, there are tons of levels split into eight different game modes to choose from – each being quite different from the last, let’s take a quick look at the best of them:
- Rubik’s Cube – Solve a traditional 3×3 Rubik’s Cube, a smaller 2×2 Cube the larger 4×4 Cube or the ultimate 5×5 Cube. . If you have always wanted to learn how to complete a Rubik’s Cube then this is the mode for you, you can start with the smaller 2×2 cube and work your way up to the ultra hard 5×5 cube. Whatever the size the principle is exactly the same but that still doesn’t make it a walk in the park. Controlling the Cube is easy, simply hold the A button on one of the coloured squares and drag in the direction that you would like to rotate the section with your Wii Remote. Even though you can rotate the cube and the camera around with the B button this isn’t quite as much fun as having the real Cube in your hands but visually it’s very cool to see this real 3D Rubik’s Cube on your TV.
- Fit – Imagine Tetris but somewhat more inverted, line your Cubies up so that they correspond with the wall which is about to fall down towards them. In a very similar manner to the hit TV show with Dale Winton where celebrities must strike a pose as a wall rushes towards them, here you must you must move all of the Cubes safely away from where the wall will push them to their doom. By grabbing the Cubies with your Wii remote you drag them into an area where the wall is not solid. Simple to start with but later you must move the pieces around obstacles and through mazes to safety. Sometimes you’ll also have to change their shape to fit by hitting them against a special yellow bar.
- Deconstruct is my favourite, very much like Boom Blox you job is to clear an area of blocks. Unlike Boom Blox though you only have to knock away green and blue blocks as opposed to obliterate whole towers of them as in Spielberg’s game. One main difference though is that you don’t swing your arm to throw your Cubie, here you simply aim by pointing where you’d like it go and pressing A. It’s not as simple as it sounds because the Cubie is thrown in a dropping arc which means you do have to aim with precision, this isn’t a first person shooter. Most of the levels require you to knock the green and blue blocks away from difficult locations near red and yellow blocks which mustn’t be knocked over (unless you want to fail the level that is).
For the most part the different game modes are pretty fun and fit in well with the Rubik’s world, as it happens none of them are deep enough to have been fleshed out into a full game in their own right besides Deconstruct (the one like Boom Blox) but put together in a package like this makes perfect sense. There is a good thirty hours of puzzle fun to be had here, even more if you like puzzle games but take an age complete them. If you fancy a change from the regular mode you could always bring a friend over as there is fun to be had with two players here, sadly there is no online play which would have been rather fun.
Even though Rubik’s Puzzle World for Wii isn’t really an original puzzle game, most of the game styles can be found elsewhere, it’s still a pretty good package for a mental workout, the 3D models and graphics are crisp and clear and all really well animated, they might not be pushing the Wii but it’s certainly not been rushed together from an old Playstation 2 engine. The music and sound effects sound like they’ve been done on an old Casio keyboard but that aside, suit the game well enough. Most of the game is controlled by pointing at the screen so there isn’t too much annoying Wii Waggle to worry about so this makes it a great title for the core and casual gamer alike. I award Rubiks Puzzle World a rather good 7 out of 10.
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Related: Rubiks Puzzle World for the DS review, Colour Cross review