After the excellent WiiWare launch title Toki Tori, everybody was hoping Two Tribes would create more games for the service. It took a while, but their second title is now finally available!
Based on just one part of their retail Wii title Rubik's Puzzle World, the gameplay is not unlike that of Toki Tori. You must place items in the correct positions on the playing field in order to safely allow all automatically spawning cubes to roll towards the exit points of the same colour. It's here where Sega fans might notice something; the gameplay is suspiciously similar to that of the Dreamcast title Chu Chu Rocket! in which you had to guide mice towards an escape rocket in much the same way. That's not even close to a bad thing, though - ChuChu Rocket! was a great game, and so is this.
RUSH has a lot more possibilities. Aside from the basic arrow tiles, which simply change the direction a cube that rolls over heads in, there are also tiles that speed up or slow down cubes, a stop sign that makes them stop for a brief moment, conveyor belts that do not change a cube's direction but simply push them one space to the side, and splitter tiles, which will alternately send any cubes that cross in one of two directions, in order to space them out a little and/or separate different colours.
In Chu Chu Rocket!, there was the ever-lurking danger of cats. If any mouse were to touch a cat, it would be eaten and you would instantly fail the stage. Rubik's Cubes do not have any natural enemies in the wild (that we know of), so there's a different danger to be constantly aware of. Unlike Sega's specially bred magical mice that were able to pass through each other, these cubes are completely solid, so if one touches another, all action immediately grinds to a halt and the offending cubes will be highlighted, so you can see where it all went wrong.
Instead of being played entirely in a fenced-in 2D space, RUSH is played on a floating 3D block formation, so another thing you'll have to watch out for is cubes merrily making their way off the edge and plummeting to their doom. Save for teleporters, there is also no way for cubes to possibly get up ledges, so think well before you create a setup that sends them to a lower platform. The final thing to be aware of is that cubes will always turn right when they touch a wall, if they are blocked there as well, they will make a 180-degree turn and go back the way they came.
When you first start up the game you'll be forced to play through six tutorial stages teaching you exactly how all tiles work. After this, you're given a handful of "Easy" stages, which will unlock additional ones when solved, for a total of twenty. About half-way through that number, you'll unlock the "Normal" stages. A bit more challenging, these will make you think for a while, but should still be fairly doable.
Half-way through the Normal set, you'll unlock the "Hard" stages, which is where the game suddenly takes a massive leap in difficulty, as these twenty stages are incredibly challenging and will require a lot of thinking, especially considering most of them have ten or more objects to correctly place! It's not that surprising though - most of Toki Tori's final stages were also incredibly difficult to figure out! Believe it or not, though, these still aren't the hardest the game has to offer - There's even more difficult stages afterwards, which should break down even the manliest of men.
Of course, a game based around Rubik's cubes wouldn't be complete without an actual Rubik's cube. If you ever long for the old days, the game includes a digital version of the classic toy everybody knows and loves, so you can see how well you do at solving it using the Wii Remote. If you're confident, you can also upload your score to Wi-Fi leaderboards and see how you match up against others.
Overall, RUSH is slightly easier than Toki Tori. One reason for this might be the fact that there is no player character to control. All you have to do is place all items in the correct positions and then release the cubes to see if your solution was right.
The graphics and sound in RUSH are pleasing, everything looks nice and simple, and the music goes along with that, although it can still be quite catchy. As a result, those still worried about their Wii's storage space don't need to worry, as it means the game comes in at just over 100 blocks.
Conclusion
If you loved Toki Tori, you'll love this. If you loved Chu Chu Rocket!, you'll love this. At a mere 600 Nintendo Points with over 70 puzzles, you're getting quite the bargain. It may look simple on the surface, but some of the later puzzles are deceptively difficult, and will have you coming back again and again just to try out a new strategy (only to have you very likely fail again!). On top of that, this is just the first in a series of Rubik's cube-based WiiWare games. We look forward to more!
Comments (52)
Looks pretty good! Definitely gonna download it some time.
i'll probably stick it out for a bit to see what the other rubix games look like, but at least one will be on my wii system memory eventually.
Cool. Nice that it has a low price tag, too.
Nice Marcel, I'll have to check this out. Hopefully I won't hit a brick wall like I did with Toki Tori which had some quite fiendish puzzles (I'm proud to say I made it to the underwater levels without using cheats, though!).
At 600 points this might be my next purchase. Great review.
Sounds genuinely fun. But teh Rubik's Cube is evil!!!!1
I wish that Chu Chu Rocket would make a reappearance (with WiiSpeak support?) but until that happens this fun looking puzzle game will have to do.
Great review. [:)]
@Odnetnin
It's not that hard to solve a Rubiks cube. I do it all the time.
Sounds like a good enough puzzler and the low price tag is a plus too.
Great review Drake. This game sounds fantastic. I never played Chu Chu Rocket before but I really enjoyed Toki Tori. Since this game was developed by Two Tribes I feel pretty confident that it is a high quality game. At only 600 points, it sounds like a great deal too. I will definitely be downloading this game.
Just wondering, how does multiplayer work? And in which modes are the 2 players supported?
Thanks!
Cool, an eight out of ten.
Anyone with questions?
@Collo: Are the games in the Rubiks Puzzle Galaxy series directly ripped from Puzzle World, or is there some new, more fleshed out inclusions. I ask because I know Rubiks Puzzle World Garnered very meh reviews and that may make me wary of these titles.
Should people go for this or the retail title?
@bbpoy
The problem with rubiks world was that we tried to create too many games at once. RUSH is the fully developed, tweaked, expanded and polished bigger brother of one of that games.
We think RUSH is a great stand alone game, and this review seems to agree! So why not use this info to make your decision, instead?
@objection blaster
If you like more content, better presentation, better controls, a multiplayer rubiks and online leaderboards, I'd go for RUSH
I wanted to say congrats on the game. I tried it out a little earlier and it was a ton of fun. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out great. Keep it up!
@Collo: So RUSH, and presumably other titles in the galaxy series, are like you isolated one game from world and really built it up and polished it as its own entity instead of just another game in the group? Like your going back and giving each separate title the time it deserves.
Alright!!!! For the first time in my life, I might actually get some use out of a Rubik's Cube!!!! lol This game looks pretty fantastic!!!! I definitely look forward to downloading it soon.
I'd probably download this game in a heartbeat ($6 for a unique, non-FPS game? How can you say no to that? ) but I'm not sure it's my "Style" of puzzle game. I'm not sure what that means, but I guess someone will reply and persuade me to get the game.
A fast review. Nice. Is there a lot time from the retail game release? i think i´ll go to download this because i doubt to find the disc game (here in Mexico this type of games are very rare to find)
I was 1 point off on my guess of a 7. I'll be downloading this and EWJ1 on my next credit card purchase of points. Waiting until after the new year to see what they have planned for the next few weeks.
I am glad it got a good review. I hope sales increase. I am all ready looking forward to the next game in the series
I loved Chu Chu Rocket. I'm getting this!
@DarkEdi: actually, not a fast review. This was released December 11 in Europe so drake was not in a rush to do the review.
I bought this and must say, its hard. Im so frustrated over making a Rubiks cube even the tutorial is no help for me. I can't get past step 3. Why is there only one size of the cube for the tutorial?
yeah, toki tori was very hard too, harder than abe's sega genesis. if only it could be as good as cubello
Looks nice.
How many levels does it have completely?
Review said 60 puzzles and the trailer said 70.
@y2josh
The trailer is right, there are over 70 levels!
Is Rush different from the "guide the Cubies" mode in Rubik's Puzzle World?
I got this the day it was out and I like the puzzle portion a lot, but as I've said before I really suck at solving a Rubik's cube and even with the tutorial I suck. Great job guys!
@Collo: Does that mean there's more after Hard? The horror!
Yup, there are more after hard Good luck Drake and thanks for the great review!
@HadesGigas
At least half of the levels are new, and a bunch have been significantly altered to take advantage of the new tech and gameplay options made available by the addition of warp points and such.
Must buy!
"If you loved Toki Tori, you'll love this." That's all I needed to hear. I'm sold
Still curious what the series will bring. Collo?
Nothing to report on this front Mange. We'll let you know when we know
I'll buy it on christmas morning. I should have finished the 4 games I'm currently playing by then... oh and I would love to see a sequel to Toki Tori.
Don't go for Rubik's Puzzle World DS (imho), that was balnd. Fleshed out individual gaming elements was the way to go to improve it, and they've done it! Well done TT. This way you can choose which games you want and which ones you don't in this series. Heck, they may be all good this time on wiiware. Insta-download.
Cool! I might get this one!
I wasn't even planning on giving this a second look but I'm glad I did. This review has me SOLD! I'm getting this for sure when I add some more Wii points.
I've already gotten my money's worth out of the easy levels and the virtual cube, now it's up to my wife to master the rest of the puzzles. What a great game!
I'm just surprised that Two Tribes has put out something new for WiiWare. Glad to hear it's another good one, for that matter.
toooooooooo hard, two tribes games are for mensa
just downloaded it yesterday its hard but addicting
this game is fantastic. Two Tribes has done it again. Keep up the great work and I will definitely buy the rest of the series!
i've beaten all the puzzles (took a while to figure out the last two in the hard set), and it says i've beaten 67/66 (yes 67/66 is not a typo), where are the stages that come after hard?
oh i found the hidden puzzles, they're on the side of the screens as different stars. the review made it sound like you actually unlock another set. so there's 71 puzzles total then, the hidden ones being very very hard (still trying to solve them)
hey marioman64,
all levels? you must be a hero! can you give me a little help in my last 3 levels?
So has there been any word on more of these rubik's games?
Nicely-presented thinking puzzles to figure out — Two Tribes does it again:-)
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