Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH Wii Review
| Game: | Rubik's Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Two Tribes |
| Developer: |
Some people love a good puzzle game and enjoy using their brain power to overcome problems. Toki Tori was a prime example of this: a cute WiiWare launch title complete with some rather challenging stages. Developer Two Tribes are back with another game that requires your brain to do some work for you, but instead of bright yellow chicks we have colourful cubes.
To describe Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH would be to say its rather like Lemmings (without the green hair) in the sense that your task is to get the above mentioned cubes to safety. It’s also rather like SEGA’s ChuChu Rocket (without the rockets) as you’ll be using arrows to direct the cubes to their destination.
The game comes equipped with a tutorial to fill you in on what you should be doing, and it’s here where you’ll begin your career as the saviour of those stupid blocks. These blocks tumble off ledges to their doom or make contact with one another if your guiding hand is not there to show them the correct path.
On each stage, before the cubes have even begun moving, you’ll have a certain amount of directional arrows to place on the floor, and when you do signal them to start their journey, they’ll come rolling out and will follow any arrow that they pass over, hopefully directing them to their colour coordinated exits without making contact with other cubes or falling off the stage. The game does give you plenty of room for experimentation, though, as failure just means that you reset the cubes that have caused the disaster, moving or replacing arrows with others, and then attempting the process again.
I actually lied, though, as RUSH isn’t simply about placing arrows. There’s also other icons that can be placed and that affect the cubes in their own ways: slowing them down or speeding them up, briefly halting them, acting like a conveyer belt and more. But the game, whilst offering a steep challenge, always remains simple, which is one of its strongest points.
Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH has a stage number that is approaching 70, which means that it’ll have puzzle fans toiling away for hours in their attempts to come up with the solutions for each and every level. As stages are split into easy, normal and hard, you probably won’t be shocked to learn that the game becomes very difficult and, as you meticulously plot the safe journey of each cube, you’ll be carefully studying the stages in order to get the job done.
The controls are very intuitive and uses the pointer of the Wii remote to select and place the arrows and icons that govern the actions of the moving cubes. The game can also be played with or without the nunchuck, though it’s handy for altering the view when looking around the current stage.
There’s also a Rubik’s Cube for you to solve, and online leaderboards that display the quickest times that have been uploaded. As a package you certainly get a fair bit for your 600 Nintendo Points then.
Visually, the game is basic but striking. It’s striking because the coloured blocks are a stark contrast from the colourless paths, but basic because it’s not exactly one of the most attractive games on Nintendo’s console. It’s still pleasing to the eye, though, and certainly very functional.
Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH is a game that fits the WiiWare download service very nicely. It’s priced at a very generous 600 Nintendo Points and is a very satisfying puzzle game to play. This is a heartily recommended download for those who enjoy solving puzzles.
