So check this out – Cubism is an Xbox Live Indie Game in which you build cubes using oddly shaped pieces for the sides. You’ve probably played a physical puzzle just like it. Now consider this – Cubism is one of the best Xbox Live Indie Games I’ve played.

Doesn’t seem likely, does it? I mean, just look at it – it really is an entire game based around the idea of building cubes. Once you’ve built one cube, you move onto the next one and build that one too. Yet there is something about Cubism that is just… right. It feels great to control, stupidly addictive to play and polished to perfection. Never considered cube-building as your cup of tea? You may well after giving this a go.

GAMEPLAY

The main mode in Cubism sees you placing pieces around a central cube. If all of the edges slot into each other and the cube is completely covered, then the level is complete and you move onto the next.

This really is the entire game, but by God is it cleverly designed. Rotating and moving around the cube is done via the right stick, and picking up pieces of the puzzle is a case of moving your cursor over them with the left stick and pressing A. Pieces can also be rotating via B, X and Y, and placed onto the main cube with A again.

The controls are simple yet effective, and feel very satisfying. Spinning the cube and putting the pieces together is such a breeze that there’s never really a feeling of frustration, since it’s so easy to take them all off and start again.

The way Cubism ramps up the difficulty is perhaps the its greatest element. The first few levels are simple, asking you to input just one or two pieces into a semi-complete cube. The edges and sides also have colours on them to show which pieces should go where. Then pictures are introduced, with dogs’ faces all over the place and a panoramic scene stretched around the cube.

Eventually you get mixtures of each element, with bigger cubes, lots of different pictures, cubes with no colour, cubes with colours that will throw you off the right track, cubes with no pieces already applied at all… the amount of variety is staggering, and does the experience a huge favour. It never really gets to the point where you think ‘I can’t be bothered to do another of these’, even after all 70 puzzles have been solved.

Apart from the main levels, you’ve also got a few extra modes. Puzzle mode sees you completing levels with whatever pieces you choose – tapping Y allows you to remove the current pieces and select a new batch. Hence, there is never one single solution to a level. Then you’ve got Freeform mode – don’t feel like building a cube? How about an oblong? A diamond? A pyramid? They’re all here, with plenty of pieces to build around them.

Seeing modes like this with real work that has gone into them, rather than a hopeless tacked on feel like most of the Xbox Live Indie Games we see, is a real breath of fresh air. We didn’t really play around with either of them too much before becoming bored, but we definitely appreciate the sentiment.

STYLE

Again Cubism surprises, this time in the visuals department. For a game that involves a cube and lots of jigsaw pieces, it looks damn pretty with bloom effects and smooth movement and rotation. The backdrops are a little bland, but you’ll most likely be concentrating on everything in the foreground to notice.

The majority of XBLIG developers should take note of Cubism‘s interface and menus. Nothing is particularly incredible about them, but they just feel right – this is thanks to a combination of style and fitting font choice. Developers: Choosing one of the standard fonts and throwing them all over the screen higgledy piggledy is not OK. Watch and learn.

STORY

One day someone was building some cubes and they thought ah, I know, let’s make a game about it! That was in fact the story behind the making of the game – unsurprisingly, Cubism itself does not feature a story.

OTHER

Cubism doesn’t look like much from the screenshots, and for this reason it will not sell well. It’s a harsh truth, but one that we would like to see put right.

Hence, we are telling you now – if you own an Xbox 360, you should pick up a copy of Cubism. It’s addictive and so easy to play, and without realising it you’ll have lost a good few hours simply slotting cubes together. And really, isn’t that all life is about?

BUY/TRY