Games for Lunch: Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest
In a nutshell: The building blocks of evolution
6/9/2008 6:11 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3
Developer: Saru Brunei
Publisher: Atlus
Release Date: Nov. 10, 2002
System: GameCube
ESRB Rating: E
0:00 The box quotes IGN as saying this is "one of the most bizarre games ever created." If that ends up being true, I don't see any reason I won't love it.
0:01 A huge roar issues forth from a monster with a GameCube for a face and box flaps for legs. He scampers to the middle of the screen and deposits what looks to be a steaming dookie in the middle of the floor. Simpler, two-flap creatures flop around the, uh, excrements on a bare white stage. Cue piano!
0:03 Primal Mighty Mite Piggy ACE is created (I always name my characters ACE, FYI). "I feel so nice, so warm. I remember in great detail a past I neither saw nor heard. Once upon a time, the world was full of Wilderness and dazzling, colorful beasts thundered across its untamed plains." Then colorless beasts devoured the Wilderness, using raw meat to give them power. One called Killer Cubivore became king of the world, "If nothing is done, the Wilderness will disappear and the world will wither and fade. I want to survive. That's the first thought I ever had. I want to survive." Heady stuff.
0:04 "Ahh... I am born. I am alive. I am Piggy ACE. I came into this world a beast. I shall eat and eat and become king of all Cubivores." Ambitious!
0:05 I'm in control of a pinkish box with a pig nose and an ambulatory flap. He looks more like a cardboard tadpole than a pig. Gentle piano music and sounds of rustling grass and birds. Peaceful.
0:06 I can shuffle around with the control stick or kind of hop forward with A. I accidentally eat some Snackgrass which "has a delicious tint to it" and gives me more energy, apparently.
0:07 "Is that a bug? Wanna eat! Wanna eat! Wanna eat! Wanna eat! Wanna eat! Wanna eat!" Now that's good writing! I press L to lock on and A to POUNCE! Yum!
0:08 So far, there's not much to do but hop along and admire the spare, blocky scenery while eating bug after bug. It's a good life.
0:10 "A Lovebit! Tastes like love to me. Collect 100 Lovebits and the females will just ADORE me." Sounds like an "adult" version of Mario's coins.
0:12 Wow, a lot just happened. I stumbled across a yellowish "tirejack" and attacked it with a mighty pounce, then threw its carcass aside and ate its "colormeat." It's like a super-cute version of the Discovery Channel. My color changes to Tirejack Pale, and I apparently got some more power. I trundle along differently now, dragging myself with a front flap rather than pushing with a rear flap.
0:15 Another enemy -- a red one this time -- changes me to "hanky pale." My flap is now on the left. There's so much character in the character movement, despite the fact that each character is made up of like seven total polygons.
0:17 A baby tiger with some "dark colormeat" stands between me and the door to "the next land." I defeat him easily and get a stripy pattern on my movement flap. Stylin'!
