Super Cube 3D serves as an excellent framework to build a 3D platformer that could rival classics such as Crash Bandicoot and Mario Galaxy. While it far exceeds most 3D platformers in a couple of regards, it falls short in many others as a result of some major flaws in the design of the game. These flaws may be more or less important depending on the player, and I must state that despite any criticisms that I have, the game is still more than worth the price, and very fun to play through from start to finish.
While the game is certainly 3D, it plays much more like a 2D game. Ever since the birth of the 3D platforming genre, developers have struggled to replicate the qualities that made their 2D predecessors work. In 2D games, the player has a perfect sense of distances and their position in space. When this was matched with solid controls, developers were given the freedom to craft challenging gauntlets that bordered on, and often exceeded, the threshold of frustration, without feeling entirely unfair. With the jump to 3D, the sense of precision was lost, and the freedom that developers had to design interesting platforming challenges was lost. Developers realized that making platforming games where the focus was on making accurate jumps just didn't work very well anymore. As a result, 3D platformers became more and more about exploration and collectible gathering, with few exceptions straying from the norm.
This game, on the other hand, feels far more like a 2D game from the old days. This is partly due to the level design, which tends to emphasize movement across a single straight axis, but also because the fundamental movement and camera mechanics allow for the same precision that made 2D games work. The camera in particular is excellent: It's responsive, it doesn't move around on its own, and there's a shift key that locks it to a specific axis to allow for accurate 2D-esque movement. Pair that with a solid sense of control both on the ground and when in the air, and put those mechanics into levels with simple geometry and colors. This all compounds into an experience where it rarely feels like missing a jump was the result of anything but your own incompetence. And that's good.
The controls really are excellent. It's might be the only WASD platformer that feels good to play, and with everything taken into account, the framework for a truly solid 3D platformer is there. However, it lacks something that is arguably far more important than anything related to pressing buttons and seeings a character move on the screen: The game has no art.
No music, no textures, no skyboxes, no... anything. Really there is nothing in the game except from single-colored cubes and rectangles. Each level can be described as a collection of rectangles, which often do have very fun mechanics and level design attached to them, but which carry no emotion whatsoever. If you see games as alternate worlds to disappear into for a moment, then this is not the game for you. You are not traversing an island, you're not exploring a castle, you're not platforming through a cartoon world. You're just a soulless cube in a space with nothing but other cubes. While the game's minuscule filesize is certainly impressive on a technical level, it comes at the cost of everything that I value in a videogame.
But all that said, I have to repeat that the core gameplay is good. The movement is good, the camera is good, the level design is good. In a sea of endless collectathons that offer very little in the way of challenge, a straight forward platforming game like this is a breath of fresh air. But I can't say that I will have even a single vivid memory of my time playing this game in a few months time, because of its complete absence of art to attach any emotion to.
Still, for 2 euros, it's worth both the money and the time. If the developer decides to integrate art in a follow up, it could easily surpass a good chunk of the platformers currently on the market. For now, just enjoy the platforming and try not to get frustrated ^_^
