After playing Cube Farmer, never could I have imagined that developers Colossus Game Studio would turn their cube-based puzzling antics into a serial concept. But here it is, Cube Airport, the next instalment of the game series aiming to satisfy the paying audience. Given how its predecessor only just managed to tick enough boxes to receive the tag of being decent, one has to wonder what Cube Airport is going to do in order to try and elevate the concept.
Will Cube Airport take the puzzling ideas to new and exciting heights, or is it going to ensure your hopes for innovation take an immediate nosedive?
Almost immediately you’re given the important role of constructing runways on various islands in Cube Airport, enabling the aircrafts to take off securely. It appears as though someone else had the job prior, because most of the infrastructure is already in place and all you need to do is fill the gaps. This is done by putting cubes in these empty holes and completing the construction of the runways. That’s essentially the only goal for the entire forty levels present here, but it’s not quite as easy as it sounds.
The 3D cubes must be rolled towards the empty space using a directional input and a button press for confirmation of the chosen manoeuvre, which is straightforward enough to grasp. You are limited in the amount of moves that can be made though, so you can’t take the scenic route to the final destination of each level. Another thing to factor in is that the square on the cube that’s bearing the runway design has to be face-up as it descends into the hole.
Still, with relatively short distances and merely a single cube under your control, it’s pretty simple in the early stages. Much like Cube Farmer, underwhelming is the best way to describe initial proceedings as the lack of difficulty and ingenuity means it doesn’t feel very rewarding to succeed. It does however begin to throw additional mechanics into the mix, which is when it becomes challenging and slightly more fulfilling.
Teleportation portals are introduced, transporting any cube entering one to the corresponding portal of the same colour. The number of portals increases, to the point where you may have to use more than a single set in order to arrive nearest to the end-goal. Another idea sees a ferry able to carry a cube to a different part of the island, which is fairly neat. While such aspects certainly help raise the difficulty, the true toughness actually comes from the simplest of notions: adding extra cubes.
It’s crazy how much trickier it is to manoeuvre them when everything you do to one cube also happens to the rest. That said, it’s disappointing that the best Cube Airport has to offer is such a basic act of chucking more cubes your way. Nevertheless, the levels featuring multiple cubes, alongside portals and ferries, do make you plan ahead and rack your brain to work out the solution. Fortunately there are never more than three cubes to account for; it doesn’t get too hard that it halts progression indefinitely nor causes frustration.
Perhaps the cutesy low-poly visuals and chilled soundtrack are the reasons for the calming atmosphere. The island colours pop in the daytime themes, while the night settings look cool thanks to lighting standing out more. Having miniature aeroplanes flying off upon level completion is a nice little touch too. As for the music, it’s the kind of relaxing BGM you might hear in a hotel lobby or inside a very posh lift. Ideal for background noise without being distracting from the job at hand.
It’s always hard to be overly critical of a game as cheap as Cube Airport, but conversely it doesn’t do anything more than is necessary. The puzzling concept is easy to understand, the levels do become challenging enough to be enjoyable to solve, and the visuals are cute. Unfortunately, Cube Airport is not very innovative, so even though it won’t take much longer than an hour to finish, it feels tedious.
If you’re after a budget puzzler, then Cube Airport is ready to take you off on a short and unremarkable journey.
