Cubemen 2 Review

Cubemen 2 Screenshot Wii U 3

Real time strategy is a genre that lacks on the Wii U eshop, a few games exist, but it is always welcome to have more. I like the real time strategy genre, so Cubemen 2 should be a shoe in with me already, it is well received across the platforms it has appeared on so far also. So that should be great, just right for me! 10/10!

Well no, not quite. While I can see how this game will be viewed as great for some people, I will make clear how I felt this game just wasn’t for me. I will point out my stance as a reviewer, reviews are personal opinion, there is no culture in which I would condemn a game in which I feel will be met with joy by someone else, at the same point, I will not follow a wave of hype.

It is an online multiplayer experience of war taken from a general or any military leader’s point of view. The game while simple does have a great layer of depth to it, whether it is within the choice of level, game play (capture the flag etc.) or even the amount of different soldiers that can be used in battle with different powers. You can put soldiers anywhere and they shoot constantly at any enemy that come within it’s shooting line of site. What it basically boils down to is spending a currency called cubes, sending men out to shoot other men, to either protect or defend your base, cubes also can be used to buy walls, upgrade soldiers. Marry all that gameplay with an online system that crosses other genres that have the game on the system.

Cubemen 2 Screenshot Wii U 1

The graphics are simple but work fine for what you would expect for this, blocky charming graphics with each player getting their own colour, the music rocks in a retro electronica way, both with nothing wrong with them at all. The skins for the battle ground and the Cubemen are great too, the variety is too great to list, but there are highlights to look out for to be sure!

All in all the game adds up to quite the nice proposal, so what makes me not enjoy this as much as others. It’s quite simple, the controls are fiddly, the screen movement is unforgiving, the learning curve is unforgiving at best, I found myself frustrated with the gameplay even on the simplest level. You need to put a lot of practice before getting online, this is a tenuous experience, the AI is frustrating at best, I thought I’d find the competition would really be online, but I found the experience not to be much better, when I could find a match that is. Now I am not going to criticise the amount of content or the opportunity to create levels, or even if you have the urge create a game with friends online, even across platforms, it’s all great; it’s the gameplay itself I find frustrating only.

Cubemen 2 Screenshot Wii U 2

Unfortunately that is the crux of the matter, as much as I wish I could I will not find myself thinking back to playing this like other games I have reviewed for this site, or even other games in it’s genre on the Wii U Eshop (Castlestorm being instantly better) it’s online play capabilities (Mario Kart 8 is still king for me there, until Smash Bros maybe) there is just so many other games I’d rather play.

The final kicker, as per usual I checked how much the game costs on the other platforms, yes it is free, while we are asked to pay six pounds or so. It’s just not good enough in general; it’s a port only, a port of a good game, just not for me. I will recommend this to anyone who likes the sound of what I said, but don’t ignore the criticisms either, your money could go to better things on the eshop for sure. Of course that is just my opinion, if you disagree, fine, but after all isn’t that why you are reading this!?

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Nintendo Wii U code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.

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