Introduction
Today we are not rolling into a review but rather cubing into one, how come? We are going to review one of the rarest Gamecube games ever made, Cubivore! Imagine a game where you need to evolve to become stronger, but everything is a cube! It is like the Minecraft style, but long before Minecraft was released. This game was barely released outside of Japan, the genre? Unknown!
What did I think before playing Cubivore?
I was still looking for more Gamecube games after the last one, I was looking high and low, and then I found a cube! Not just any cube, the lowest cube of them all in Cubivore, you are a little piggy, but you want to live and become stronger to become a king! However, the killer cubivore has taken over the land and this little piggy needs to mutate by killing other cubes to become strong enough to kill the killer cubivore that is terrorizing the land. For more information, we went to the Nintendo fandom page!
The Nintendo Fandom page
https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Cubivore:_Survival_of_the_Fittest
It is exactly as I expected, you grow and become stronger, as you grow, you will gain more limbs, bosses will give you special items, these special items will give you new skills, supposedly, I think skills like running and blocking. It is not clear yet how the combat would work, but it mentions tearing off limbs in a lighthearted manner, excuse me sir, I will now be taking your limb!
Rating
I rate Cubivore with a 7.6 before playing.
A game with cube art, roughly ten years before Minecraft? I bet if Minecraft was already released, this game would have sold a lot better!
Story
The story takes place in multiple laps of evolution, and it starts with you being a piggy. You can certainly not be strong enough to defeat the killer cubivore, but you might just return some wilderness back to the land that he took! If you evolve enough, you might become another creature, it is your goal to mutate 100 times!
Rating
I rate the story of Cubivore with a 6.8
While I like the story, getting all the mutations needed for the real final battle is hard! We did find the previous killer cubivore and took him down, but we are not strong enough yet to take the real deal down!
Gameplay
The gameplay of Cubivore is quite thought out for an unknown game. There are 150 mutations, but how do you go about collecting these mutations? You find other cubes in the wild, these cubes usually want to eat you, so what do you do instead? Eat them off course! This way you will gain their colors and sometimes even their forms! This goes all the way in tiers, from normal colors to rage colors.
That is not the only way to grow stronger, you can earn special points to grown scars or even horns. You can find these points laying out in the wild, or maybe you might stumble upon a special training ground. Most of these are hidden in places where the wilderness is gone, to restore the land you will need to eat wild bugs that are scattered around.
To make sure that you are as strong as possible, you need many limbs, those limbs need to be the same color. If you want only one color of a certain beast, you can use a diet plan to only take one color. If you want more limbs, you need to mate with other female cubes, however you need to offer them a piece of meat which can be found after defeating a boss.
Rating
I rate the gameplay of Cubivore with an 8.4
For an odd game out, Cubivore is very well-thought-out, and the gameplay works great. If this game had more marketing, it might have been a great hit, now it is a collector’s item with a hefty price.
Sound and Graphics
Graphics
The graphics that Cubivore present you are quite reminiscent of voxel art, the style of Minecraft, but before it was even invented. The only thing that bothered me is the camera, but I got used to it quickly, as combat is fast-paced. You jump after your enemies and try to bite them where it hurts the most. The graphics are important to see what color and species your opponent is, the certain species are quite distinct, all the bosses are silver.
Sound
The soundtracks of Cubivore are not bad at all, however it is a lot of ambient sound effects that make the game. The tearing of limbs is not as gross as it sounds, in my head, I hear a nom nom sound when my cube takes a limb!
Rating
I rate the sound and graphics with a 7.7
It feels like looking at a rough but sleeker version of voxel art. As most of the cubes do look smoother compared to voxel art.
What did I think after playing Cubivore?
I had a great time when playing Cubivore, hunting down mutations was hard, and I am still working on it to find the real killer cubivore. After beating the game, you can re-run your evolution laps, but with all skills active. This makes combat easier to gain new mutations. I believe also certain portals have opened to new mutations, however clash and rage beasts are not in the run of the piggy mutation.
If you are having trouble defeating a boss, you either need a new limb, or you need to synchronize your colors to gain even more power. The minions of bosses also have limbs that can give you a special mutation, that mutation will off course let you mess up everything until you find clash beasts.
Rating
I rate Cubivore with an 8.0 after playing.
For a game that is from 2002, the gameplay is quite expanded upon, and it feels very solid. I do like the name of the vegetabugs though, it reminds of Dragonball Z.
What are my personal thoughts about Cubivore?
I feel like I need to find a special word to describe my experience with Cubivore, as I was expecting a short and quickly developed game, instead I found a well-thought-out game that just never got a real footing in the field of the many games that have been released on the Gamecube. While a general completion of the game can take up to eight hours, getting all the mutations would offer over 30 hours! Cubivore is, simply, amazeballs, I was dumbstruck that this was actually a good game.
Rating
My personal Rating of Cubivore is an 8.9
Who knew it would be so much fun to jump around in fast-paced combat and tear up cube beasts!
Last Words
Pros
- Become multiple beasts as you devour cubes to try and become the king of cubivores.
- Gain new skills that will grant you the edge in the heat of battle.
- Mutate into 150 different colors and species, all of them are unique.
- Explore the world for hidden training grounds to become even stronger.
- Mate with other cubes to gain more limbs, more limbs equals more skills!
- The graphics and sound effect are quite good.
- Your character usually conveys his feelings of the situation to you, it is strange but a great experience.
Cons
- It is hard to get used to the camera in the heat of battle.
- It can be a daunting task to gain all mutations.
- finding a physical copy of this game will be nearly impossible.
The best part of this game? Your cube fights to become stronger, defeat bosses, hunts down numerous predators and in the end, your cube dies by an ambush attack of a woman cube! The game developers had the right idea, women are stronger!
Final Rating
7.7
Let me know what you think of Cubivore in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
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I’ve never heard of this game ever before, must be a hidden gem
It was never even subjected to marketing!
nice find! tamagochi on drugs 🙂
Good review! Cute game!
Looks like a bit of light hearted fun,I agree it looks well thought out and had I come across it would probably played it
game is so old but it still good
Survival of the Fittest
I think 7.7 is the best score for this game
Interesting analysis :b
cool
Just found out how pricy this gem is now. I wish I could go back in time and experience that which I missed out on, like this game. Oh well.
I used to have this on my Gamecube back in the day, however I lost it along the road.
Awesome game!
Cubivore is an Awesome game! Everyone should try it!
Gamecube game omg. i know this console. i miss old days.
This old game is playable on Steam?
Nice to hear that anyone heard about this strange game. I never played it, by I know cousins who own the Gamecube copy of it.
You need to download the Retro arch game on Steam, it is free, but you need to modify it yourself to use GameCube cores. N64 cores are available for standard use, I think they will add GameCube cores to the standard soon.
Graphical type reminded me also Twinsen Little Big Adventure 1, 2 games, anyone remember?
Thanks for discovering it to us, gameplay sounds cool 😉
I never heard of those games, I might look them up.
Looks like one of those old cool games
I’ve never played this, but it looks like fun.
Excellent review and what a find! I’ve never even heard of this game.
It’s from an age when games dared to be unique, not copy-pastes of a formula.
I am glad that you liked this review, I like looking at older games and if they are still to fun.
nope
This sounds like a very unique game! Sounds like a similar idea to Kirby absorbing enemy powers, but you can customize your character with your own creativity!
You can even hunt unique creatures!
Never heard of it before.
Now that’s the game i’ve never heard of before
The game looks quite fun. I skipped that console generation, maybe I’ll try this game .
You could try it on Retro Arch.