With puzzle games, you never know what you’re getting into. Sometimes they’re brilliant and surprising like Braid or Portal and others simply fall flat like Neon Noodles (review here) or STATIONflow (review here). Fortunately, The Last Cube from Improx Games is noticeably more of the former than the latter and it’s a unique and innovative new twist on environmental puzzles!
In The Last Cube, you’re a cube. Shocker, right? In fact, you are literally the last cube and to save your cubic homeworld, you must go on a puzzle solving adventure. Each world you beat restores one of the six sides of your world, bringing back order. Each ‘side’ of the world consists of multiple levels, each of which has multiple goals in addition to simply completing the level, adding a degree of depth to the game.
To be fair though, there’s really not much extra depth needed because the puzzles in The Last Cube are remarkably interesting and challenging, the environments are captivating, and the game design is fun and intuitive. The plot is nothing particularly special, but you’re not here for that anyway. You’re here for the puzzles.
Each area in The Last Cube introduces a new color (and shape) for your cube to exploit. The first area is a blue x and holding ZR with the X on top allows you to spin your cube around in place to reach hard-to-get-to areas. The second is yellow and you can zip forward at lightning speed when the yellow plus sign is on top. The third, a red circle, lets you make steps in midair for your cube to roll down to access new areas. As the levels add more depth, the puzzles become more and more complex, often requiring a remarkable amount of thought and inventiveness in order to proceed. Combining everything you have learned at each step of the game is a necessity to progress and The Last Cube guides you through it all without hand-holding.
To activate the icons you have to roll onto them, sticking the icon to the face of your cube. It’s a neat way to solve the puzzles and requires you to think carefully even when moving around, something that becomes more and more important in later levels. In addition to the different icons, there are plenty of environmental difficulties in The Last Cube too. Areas are locked off until you can trigger the panels, floor panels will wipe your cube clean of icons, and blocks and other items like lasers and helper cubes block your way at every turn. The most obvious path is usually the wrong one here and The Last Cube challenges you to stop and think in order to progress, a rarity these days!
This is a surprisingly unique game visually too. The Last Cube contains an interesting mix of ultra-sleek high-tech environments mixed with what appear to be abandoned ruins, weird landscapes, and other unexpected surprises. Looking around with the extremely flexible camera nets quite a few beautiful vistas as you play through this interesting game. The accompanying music suits the puzzling and explorative atmosphere as well, lending itself to a feeling of immersion as you experiment with the abilities of your cube, losing all track of time. The Last Cube is remarkably engaging and it’s easy to just lose a couple hours puzzling out the solution to a particularly difficult area and have no idea that time has passed! Definitely the mark of a game that’s worth your time!
Controls in The Last Cube are straightforward as well. Your stick moves your cube, the ZR button activates abilities, and that’s pretty much all you need. The elegant simplicity of the controls make the challenge of the over 100 puzzles in the game even more insidious, teasing you with detailed control while you struggle to progress.
The truly great thing about the game is that it doesn’t ask you for anything. You step into the role of the cube, play, and challenge yourself. Sure there are hidden goodies and extras hiding about but the real joy is simply solving the puzzles, all of which seem remarkably simple once you’ve banged your head against the wall for a while (or is that the brain cells dying?). The Last Cube is a pure, simple, and interesting puzzle experience, something that is uncommon at best and missing in modern gaming at first. For any of you old fogeys out there (solidarity!), this is the kind of vibe that Intelligent Qube gave off wayyyyy back in the PS1 era.
The simple fact is that The Last Cube is a gorgeous, well thought out and most importantly fun puzzle game that will challenge you and entertain you for the entirety of its 4-5 hour length. That might seem short for $20, but between the hidden items, unique design, and wealth of background lore about the world you’re exploring, it’s not like you’re not getting your money’s worth. The Last Cube is a delightful puzzle game which presents a wide variety of challenges, a heck of a lot of fun, and some fascinating ideas that are all carefully and effectively executed to make one of the best puzzle games in recent years. This is a sleeper that should not pass under your radar, so go check it out!
This review was based on a digital copy of The Last Cube provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well on both. The Last Cube is also available for PS4 and PC on Steam.