The most obvious benefit of the advent of platforms like PSN, XBLA, WiiWare and the plethora of downloadable game vendors on the PC and Mac is that publishing a game has become a whole lot easier. Of course, you still have to fork out the money up front to develop the game, taking on all that risk, but you don’t have to spend very much money to get your game into stores and onto the shelf. For the PSN you do have to pass a lot of quality checks done by the Sony team as well as get the game rated, but once you’ve done that you get a prime spot in the online shop for at least a week. CREAT Studios is a group that have been developing games for over 10 years (most notably Tony Hawk’s Motion on the DS and Coded Arms: Contagion on the PSP), but they have only recently begun publishing games on the PlayStation Network. In Cuboid they have created a really solid puzzle game, and I’m excited to see their future output in expanding this game and in new creations.

A cuboid is, by definition a 3-D shape that consists of rectangular sides, with all angles being 90 degrees, and in the game the titular cuboid looks like two cubes placed on top of each other. It starts out a level standing on end on a specially designed platform made up of a grid of squares, and the goal is to get it to fall into a hole located somewhere on the platform. Falling off the platform anywhere else is bad. The shape of the cuboid is what makes the puzzle interesting because as you “roll” it end over end, it will take up two squares, then one, then two, then one. If you roll it sideways it will always need two squares available to contain it. This is really best portrayed via a picture:

Puzzle elements and obstacles

In addition to the complications of maneuvering your oblong-shaped cuboid around in a tight area, there are other puzzle elements added. Wooden blocks aren’t able to hold your cuboid in an upright position so you have to be careful how you move over them. Different types of switches need to be pressed in various ways to activate bridges – some require you to stand the cuboid upright on them, others will activate when you move over them in any manner, some will alternate on and off whenever you press them while others will only deactivate by pressing a matching switch somewhere else in the stage. There are also teleport blocks that split your cuboid into two small cubes. These cubes with forge back into one cuboid if you get them next to each other, but before you do that you will need to use the extra maneuverability of the smaller cubes to activate a switch or move past a tight corner. Finally there are levels that limit your moves. These levels require you to move over certain blocks to collect extra moves if you’re going to ever reach the goal within the move limit.

The various puzzle elements combine into a satisfying whole. Each level has something a little different to it, giving the 66 levels in the game enough variety between them. In addition to figuring out how to do the puzzle, you also have to figure out how to do it well if you are to earn a gold medal (and the trophies for getting lots of gold medals, of course). The game is also paced well – as you play you learn new maneuvers that you use in later levels – so that there aren’t any sudden jumps in difficulty that might frustrate. My only real criticism is one that applies to many puzzle games: within a level there is very little sense of progression. In a puzzle like Sudoku or Picross, for example, you feel the progression as you fill in more of the grid, and you can tell you’re on the right track as you see numbers fitting or a picture appearing. In a puzzle like these in Cuboid you often don’t know if you’re only a step away from the solution or on the wrong track entirely, and extended periods without progress can be frustrating. Fortunately the level design is clever enough to mitigate this problem by usually offering fairly clear subgoals within a level.

66 levels, but more to come

The levels are split between a set of 33 beginner levels and 33 advanced ones, with the early ones taking a matter of half a minute or less to solve and the later advanced ones taking 5 or 10 minutes to solve at most. This means that the game will only last a seasoned puzzle solver around three hours in their first run through. You can go and earn rewards (and trophies) by improving your times and reducing the number of moves your solution for each level is, but that will only take another hour or so. CREAT are going to release an expansion pack of another 33 levels as well as a level editor soon (as a paid booster pack). They also plan to release a free patch that will allow anyone to play other user created levels.

The technical aspects of the game, such as sound, graphics and menus, do the job well enough – I especially liked the sound of the rock cuboid thumping its way around the stage. There’s even a little unexpected polish, such as when your cuboid spontaneously spins around if you don’t move for a time. The controls are simple – the directional pad is used to move the cuboid, and every now and then a button is needed to confirm a menu selection. I would really like a one-hand control variation because puzzle games are best enjoyed while drinking a cup of tea. Cuboid is a relaxing sort of game: the puzzles are not too hard, there aren’t any particular time pressures (unless you’re trying for a lightning rating), and no negative consequences to making a mistake other than restarting the level instantly, so I can happily recommend it for puzzle game fans to while away three hours.

Purchase: