SUPERHYPERCUBE
Cubic arcade puzzler is flatter than hoped
Now there’s a name that promises something exciting. Published by Polytron (the developer behind adorable in die classic Fez ), the super lativelytitled first-person puzzler certainly makes a memorable first impression. Neon lights! Lens flare! Pulsing synth! It’s a fiercely ’80’s aesthetic, married to a brilliantly simple conceit – rotate your ever-growing cluster of cubes to fit through each oncoming wall’s hole. The first wall is always the same: a square-shaped gap flying towards you. Float your single cube through it, and new blocks latch onto it. The next wall tasks you with another, trickier hole to squeeze through. The challenge begins: how do you safely clear the wall without blowing a bunch of chunks? (Er, so to speak.) The directional pad spins your three-dimensional Frankenshape on one axis, while tapping shoulder buttons rotates it on another. Between adjustments of the two, there’s always a way to fit through even the most incongruous-looking spaces.
In true arcade style, it’s not just about survival (you start with only two “lives” and grab extra ones later on): you’re also chasing as many points as possible. Expect bonus points for being “Sneaky!” (fitting unscathed but not matching the hole square-forsquare). Zooming through after only rotating your shape by one turn has the game exclaim “Smart!”. Clearing a wall “Fast!” gifts points too – q propelling you forwards.
This also fills up your meter for your Hyperfocus and Smash abilities. e obliterates the wall you’re faced with, while Hyperfocus on r triggers a monochromatic, slo-mo view, buying you extra time to puzzle out the solution. As the levels tick by, your shape becomes bigger and things get tougher. Boosting gets less viable, and it’s harder to refill meters.
THE HOLE SLOG
And barring changes to your Windows 95 screensaver surroundings as you clear each level, and a few rotating “boss walls”, that’s it. The rest is leaderboard-climbing and score-chasing. Elegance and simplicity is the intent, repetitive gameplay designed to soothe you into addiction – but in actuality, it soon gets old. After a few hours, you’ve seen and heard everything.
It doesn’t celebrate your new headset much, either. While tilting your head to look ahead at the hole or suss out the precise angles of your shape seems like a subtle, clever use of VR, it’s quite gimmicky.
At best, you’re channelling a meerkat: popping your head up, down and around your shape and squidging through by a whisker. At worst – and for me, the majority of the time – you’re a beleaguered big rig driver, leaning tiredly on one armrest and craning your neck to gaze ahead at the next blank void. It might look like a rave, and be named like a party, but in the end, SuperHyperCube is surprisingly clinical.
“ELEGANCE AND SIMPLICITY IS THE INTENT, BUT IN (VIRTUAL) REALITY, IT SOON GETS OLD.”