Cubes Lite

Posts Tagged ‘lite version’

Cubes Lite

Michael (Admin) | Aug 8, 2008 Games

User rating:

(31 votes, average: 3.10 out of 5)

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Cubes Lite is the free version of Manta Research’s kickass Cubes game. It’s a 3D puzzle that looks like a giant Rubik’s Cube and you can swipe in all directions to turn the cube any way you want as you double-tap your way to achieving the target score set for each level. Tap once to select blocks, tap again to get rid of them. You must tap groups of at least two adjacent or stacked cubes of the same color, and when you tap them out of existence gravity will let the cubes above fall into place.

This game is really amazing. The gameplay is a little like JawBreaker except JawBreaker is boring and Cubes is fun and addictive. Novices will be tempted to tap any combination of two or three like-colored cubes, but well-seasoned pros know that the fun (and big scores) comes in hitting major combos where you’re tapping a large number of cubes all at once.

In the drawbacks department, the cube can be a little hard to move in the direction you want it to, but I think that’s just a matter of practice. Even if it rotates up when you wanted it to rotate left, you can still get there in your own sweet time – you’re not being timed or anything.

Cubes Lite includes three levels where the full version of the game costs $.99 and includes unlimited levels and increasing difficulty plus a Quick Play mode. As with any game, if there’s a free trial version you should definitely play it to (a) make sure it lives up to your expectations and (b) show app developers that offering “lite” versions for free is a good practice that you support. Once you conquer the three levels provided in Cubes Lite, though, you’re gonna want more.

The App Store page for the full version of Cubes states that $.99 is “limited time promotional pricing”. Whether or not that’s actually true (and I have a feeling it is), $.99 is a very small price to pay for an awesome puzzle game like this one.

: Don't let the cheesy 80s-themed title screen fool you - this game rocks

: Like it or not, instructions do come in handy sometimes

: Use small chains (this one is worth only 14 points) to set up bigger chains

: Translation: YOU SUCK!!!!

: Big chain = big points, small chain = Loser!

: Sorry, old habits die hard

Tags: 3D, free, lite version, puzzle

DizzyBeeFree

Michael (Admin) | Aug 3, 2008 Games

User rating:

(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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This is the free version of one of the most aggravating puzzle games I’ve ever played. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a lot of fun but, even in this free version, advancing to the higher levels can seem like a feat of epic proportions. Your mission is to help the annoyingly cute Dizzy Bee rescue his fruit friends and make it to the sinkhole before evil Frowny Face villains slaughter the bee with extreme prejudice. Ok, I made up the Frowny Face name, but that’s basically what they are… frowny faces.

When you first start the game it advises you to hold the game vertically. At first this might seem like stupid advice and you’ll want to hold your iPhone flat and tilt it to and fro… ah, but this makes the poor bee sick! Holding the game upright and rotating it like a wheel actually feels a little easier, although it may not seem that way when the Frownies are constantly on your ass.

See, the only way to make Dizzy Bee move is to turn his world upside down. When Dizzy Bee falls, so do the fruit friends and so do the Frowny Faces. This is a dilemma indeed. With everyone moving in the same direction, staying alive becomes kind of a problem. The one thing that makes the game slightly less hellish is that Dizzy & Co. appear to live underwater since everyone floats from place to place. There are also other elements spread throughout the mazes such as bubble sprayers and a giant ball that acts like a really annoying door, and these things can either help you or hurt you real bad.

This is an unusual puzzle game and I strongly recommend you try this free version first before you pay Igloo Games for the real thing… speaking of which, I love it when developers let you try before you buy. Shouldn’t they ALL be doing that? Kudos to Igloo.

Getting back to the game… the graphics and sound are top-notch, but you may find it so frustrating that you just can’t deal with it beyond the first few levels. Dizzy Bee appears to have an infinite number of lives, but you can only die so many times before you want to reach out and strangle the bee yourself. On the other hand, if you love this game to death (and I suspect a lot of people will) then it’ll be the best $2.99 you’ll ever spend in your life.