Trioncube
- February 21, 2007 15:44 PM PST
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An inspired plot-driven addition to your puzzle game library, or just another way to stack blocks?
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The premise of Trioncube is quite simple: make 3x3 squares of blocks on a familiar Tetris-style grid to fuel your spaceship as it progresses to the goal of each stage. Making a new 3x3 square with each subsequent block nets you a chain, and the longer the chain the closer, the faster your ship gets to the goal.
The Plot Thickens
It sounds mind-numbingly simple but oddly enough, there is a plot to this puzzle game, and it turns out to be one of its main strengths. A princess gets kidnapped and you are tasked with getting her back using only your penguin-shaped space ship. It's as bizarre as it sounds and the rest of the game doesn't make any more sense, but it all manages to be charmingly strange.
The actual gameplay isn't very deep, unfortunately, and it certainly isn't the least bit challenging. You can easily defeat the Arcade mode's 8 stages in under 15 minutes. The Story mode offers up 45 stages and a little more variety, but again, the easy difficulty means you'll probably blast through it without breaking a sweat. Upon finishing the story, you can play through a second time and the difficulty does begin to ramp up a little but not enough to give you a serious brain cramp. The graphics are effective, at least, with flashy animations for chains and quirky cartoon drawings of the characters.
In the end, Trioncube doesn't offer much for a puzzle game. There's little depth or difficulty to be found, and while the odd story is surprisingly entertaining, it isn't enough to keep you playing for long.
