First Impression: Iubes 2 (PC) ~ Death To All Cubes?

Official website

For this game, there is a death counter on the website that keeps track of how many iubes were killed in action. What are iubes? Well, these are intelligent cubes fighting against other intelligent cubes. So, you will start in one house without any allies and you will have to fight for yourself in this interesting online strategy game. It’s a game where you can’t micromanage your party, but you have to macromanage it. And if you defeat other players, you can become the new king. Interested? Good, I’m too. So, let’s dive right into my first impressions after playing a few matches in Iubes 2. As usual, feel free to leave a comment in the comment section down below with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article.

Survival of the cubes

So, this game doesn’t have a story to speak off. Well, if you can call the fact that there are 4 factions a story, then there is a story. But each faction has the same abilities compared to the others, so the color you choose only matters to which color you are fighting for.

Something I really like about this game is the UI. The humor put into the UI is really great. Especially the menu system. I really love the design. Also, I really love how there is a button to switch between windowed mode and full screen. This is a really neat feature.

There is one bug I have to mention, that might be fixed when I release this article but switching between monitors in the options menu crashed the game for me each and every time I tried. But, when I launched the game again, it displayed on the screen I had chosen.

The first thing I have to warn players about is the fact that the camera system is something you need to get used too. Since the world is spherical, the camera system is special. At first, it might be a bit disorienting. But don’t worry, you will get used to the camera system after messing with it for a bit in the tutorial.

The tutorial can be replayed whenever you want by going to the help menu and clicking the “tutorial” button. Also, the tutorial helps you get through a basic round of this game and explains everything in detail. But, it only has one opponent. So, you learn only the basics in this tutorial. The help feature isn’t far away if you need it.

RTS with a twist!

At its core, Iubes 2 is a hybrid game between RTS, Strategy and an action game. The game plays like an RTS, but the benefit is that you don’t have to micromanage everything. Unlike games like Age Of Empires and Rise Of Nations, you don’t have to create a boatload of villagers to gather stone, food, wood… for you. The cubes are smart enough to do that for themselves.

This means you can focus on building the right buildings and preparing yourself for war in defeating the other players. While the gameplay is more focused on online play, there is also the ability to play this game offline.

I’m going to come clean and say that I haven’t played this game online yet. Since I’m not the best in online games and I enjoy playing my games more offline, to be honest. I did test out the online game for a bit and I have to say that I haven’t experienced any major issues. So, for this review, I’ll focus more on the offline side of things. If that’s fine with you.

After beating the tutorial, I played several rounds on the easy difficulty. I do have to say that after playing various rounds of other RTS games, this is something you need to get used too. If you enjoy RTS games and you want to play another RTS with some unique mechanics, look no further then Iubes 2.

The fact that I don’t have to micromanage is a godsend. This makes the game fast paced and fun. After I got used to the camera system and the gameplay, I was defeating the AI on easy without any care in the world. It’s true what they say in the Steam reviews and in the game itself. Matches between experienced players can last up to 25 minutes or less.

Visually round

So, the game is a very pretty game. I really like how the world is designed. The polygon graphics really pop due to the chosen color scheme. While all worlds are randomly generated, I really love the effect that you get when staring down the tube and seeing the hills and trees in the distance. It’s really impressive how optimized the game is too.

The game doesn’t require a lot of resources so it can be played on low-end devices. This gets a thumbs up from me.

Together with the amazing visual design comes an amazing soundtrack. For real, I wish I could buy this soundtrack. Sadly, that isn’t an option right now. I really love the techno-style soundtrack that this game has to go. If I was able too, I would love to add this to my day-to-day playlist actually.

The sound design is good. While I wish there were a bit more sound effects for when thunder would strike or your warriors would attack, I think that the sound effects that are already present in the game do their job pretty well.

So far, I have only been saying praises about the game. Are there any negatives about this game? Well, yes there are. The biggest complaint I have is, there is no save feature in the single-player mode. Yes, you can’t save a match and come back later. So, if your game crashes or automatic updates happen… tough luck, you will have to restart. I understand that this isn’t present since the games are pretty quick to finish, but an autosave from your latest games would be helpful to have the two example situations I talked about earlier.

A second complaint I have is that the tutorial doesn’t explain everything. Don’t get me wrong here, the tutorial is short and to the point, but only explains the usefulness of three buildings. I wish there were more tutorials to explain the other buildings. Or the tutorial could be expanded just a little bit longer to talk about what each building is used for. I feel that this is a missed opportunity. Like, the game has so many features but the tutorial only explains so little. On the other hand, I’m happy that the tutorial isn’t forced upon the players so you can explore and experiment with your heart’s content.

My 3^rd complaint is something that can be fixed in a future update. A button to quickly go to your tower when you are either lost or you need to defend it.

And that is all my complaints really. I think that this game is pretty well developed. The game actually feels finished and polished up. I said it before, if you are a fan of RTS games, give this one a go. It’s RTS but with an interesting twist. If you are a fan of strategy and action games, this game is something for you. The game is currently 19€ on Steam. The game only works on Windows and MAC. Surprisingly, this game can run on Windows XP. Oh well, that’s just my nostalgic bone tingling.

In any case, that’s everything I wanted to talk about for this game. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care!

Advertisement

Review: Kirby – Planet Robobot (3DS) ~ Kirby Goes High-tech!

Official website

Last week, when I was working on the review of Kirby Epic Yarn, I have beaten the newest Kirby game called Kirby Planet Robobot. So, I thought, why not review it. Two Kirby reviews in a row, why not? This game is the 14th main installment in the Kirby series. It’s based on the engine of the previous Kirby game on 3DS called Kirby Triple Deluxe. A game I’m planning to review soon too. In any case, I’m getting off topic. Time to dive into this high-tech Kirby game and let’s see what it’s made off. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinions on this game and/or the content of this article.

No different planet

In this game, Kirby’s home planet gets attacked robots. In contrast to the title of this game, Kirby doesn’t travel to a different planet.

In this entry, the story is a bit disappointing. I’m not saying it’s badly written. It’s badly paced. Apart from the opening scene and some dialogue in some boss fights, the actual story opens up right at the final boss of the game. This is a huge let down in my eyes. Since it feels absent and felt forced into the game. So, there was a lot of missed potential with this game!

Also, you will miss some jokes if you aren’t familiar with the Kirby games. If you don’t know who is who in the Kirby series… Well, some dialogue before the boss fights won’t make a lot of sense.

This game consists out of 6 worlds. Yes, only 6 worlds. Well, six and a half. Since there is a world 7, but that’s the world for the final boss fight. This game is very short in my opinion. I was able to beat this game in under a week. While the Kirby games are known for being easy platformers that kids can get into, this game provided almost no challenge. Also, normally a Kirby game has 7,5 – 8 worlds. I feel that some content is cut here.

The challenge came from trying to collect all the tech cubes. While some are pretty well hidden, others are in plain sight and easy to grab. And when you grab one or two cubes in each level, you are able to get to the final boss.

Speaking of which, I found it quite annoying you were unable to see how many cubes you had to collect in order to open the boss door. You were able to see it when you were right in front of it.

The gameplay in this game is quite similar to Kirby Triple Deluxe with a few changes. Instead of the Super Nova Kirby, you have a Tech Kirby. Kirby that rides a huge enemy robot. In some levels, there is another style of gameplay. When Tech Kirby acquires the Jet power-up, you can fly away and play a sort of side-scrolling shooters. These levels were the most fun in my eyes.

Potential

Like I said previously, the gameplay is quite similar to Kirby Triple Deluxe. So, that means that this game has quite similar controls.

I liked the controls of that game, so I found no issues with the controls of this game. Well, no major issues.

I found the copy ability of Tech Kirby quite annoying to use. You had to stand a certain distance in order for you to copy their ability. That’s the biggest issue I had to with the controls.

Another issue I had with this game is when you sucked up two enemies from which you can copy the ability. In almost every previous Kirby game you got a random power. That random power could also be a different one than the ones you inhaled. In this game, that doesn’t happen. From what I have seen, this game picks the first enemy you inhaled.

The visual presentation of this game is amazing. In this game, you play on Kirby’s home planet that’s invaded by robotic creatures. So, you get a planet where technology is slowly creeping in. And the presentation shows that nicely.

The animation in this game is high quality as well. Not only the animation of the enemies, bosses and everything in the foreground. The animation on the background visuals makes the world come alive and feels real.

Tech Cubes

The soundtrack of this game is amazing. With familiar and new tracks, this soundtrack is one I might add to my library.

The sound design is amazing as well. Because I played most of this game on the train to work, I played this game with headphones on. And it helped to pull me into this game.

The UI is quite well designed in my opinion. I have only one minor nitpick. That’s that there is a useless button on the touch screen. That is: “Drop ability.” Since the X-button does the same thing. You use the other buttons anyways, so why tap the button on the touch screen?

Another minor issue is the steps you need to take in order to return to the mode selection screen. When you are in a level, you have to press start 3 times before you are back. A simple pause menu might have solved this.

The mini-games in this game is a mixed bag. Don’t get me wrong, they are fun to play, but there is so much missed potential. Both of them are quite short and can be beaten in a half hour. I hope that they expand on the mini-games like they did with the ones of Kirby Triple Deluxe.

Something I’m on the edge about is the stickers. You can collect them throughout your adventure. And you can collect each sticker twice. When you collect a sticker in a level, you don’t know which one it is. It will get revealed after you have beaten the level. You can also stick them on Tech Kirby’s robot. So, those sides change in cutscenes. This is a real nice idea. But it’s all for show. There is no gain to it. There are some people who like that.

After you have beaten this game, you get similar rewards than in Kirby Triple Deluxe. You can run through a remixed version of the Kirby with Mecha Knight and you open up an arena.

The arena is just a boss rush mode. I got bored of it rather quickly. But I loved the Mecha Knight mode. Since it provides a bit more challenge to the gameplay.

The two new copy abilities in this game are doctor and ESP. While I found them fun to use, I didn’t use them during boss fights. Since I found them difficult to control in tight situations and didn’t fit my playstyle at all.

In any case, I have said everything I wanted to say about this game. So, it’s time to wrap this review up and head to the conclusion of this review.

Conclusion

The good

+ The Tech Kirby was fun to play with.

+ Amazing presentation.

+ Fun mini-games.

+ Great soundtrack and sound design!

The bad:

-Some repetition in the levels.

-Way too short. Both the main campaign and the mini-games.

-Stickers are underused.

-Tech Cubes and opening the boss door…

-Lacks some minor polish in the UI and controls.

Final thoughts:

This game is fun to play and provides some quality entertainment but it’s isn’t the best game I have played all year. I have played a better Kirby game on the 3DS, called Kirby Triple Deluxe.

This game is fun in short bursts. It’s perfect when you are on the bus or waiting for something.

There is a lot of missed potential with this game in my eyes. There could have been a lot more to this game. I could expand on this, but the start of these final thoughts have explained it all pretty well.

In any case, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoy writing this. I hope to welcome you in another article but until then, take care and have a great rest of your day! Take care~!

Score: 70/100