At a glance...

Reviewer	Platform	Publisher	Developer	Players	Screenshots
Dave Wickham	Nintendo DS	Namco Bandai	Namco Bandai	1-2	Here
Requirements					Buy from Amazon.co.uk
N/A					Click here to buy Trioncube.

Trioncube review

So, falling block puzzle games. They're all the same, right? Make shapes with different blocks in order to clear them out, with the game ending when you run out of space? Well, that's what I thought, at least, before playing Trioncube.

At first, Trioncube looks a lot like Tetris - most of the shapes look very similar, and the layout looks fairly "Tetrisy". The similarity pretty much ends there, though; from the second you try to make a line, you'll realize that this is, in fact, nothing like Tetris in terms of how it's played. The idea is, after you've managed to make a 3x3 square, to create as long a chain as possible, in order to get as many points as you can. Well, I say points, in-game your points are referred to as the distance travelled, since apparently you're flying in a space ship that can only boost when a series of 3x3 squares is made, but I digress. Chaining is made simpler by the fact that squares don't instantly disappear - as long as you can keep adding to the chain, it'll let you, with the blocks only disappearing when you can't continue the chain.

The chaining concept is, I believe, Trioncube's major flaw. Whilst it sounds good in theory, in practice it, combined with other factors such as the extremely slow fall rate, leads to the game simply being too easy. This is one of very few games that I can think of where endless mode really could be endless - I actually played for somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour before finally giving my thumbs a rest. Both Matt and I also completed the arcade mode in our first attempts - clearly too easy. Story mode adds in some factors to make it harder, such as making combinations break quickly, and adding the classic useless blocks, but the game is still pretty easy even with these in play. This can be easily demonstrated by the fact that I've completed story mode twice (90 rounds) in just over a day of very intermittent playing.

A certain level of customization of the game field can be performed - after each game you get some amount of money, with which you can buy artwork and "effects". Artwork replaces the whole game board, including block colours. Effects are a bit harder to describe; basically they're artwork and sound effects that are used when you get a combo, and they range from the semi-normal (bells, for instance), through to the downright silly (a toilet flushing sound, complete with splashes of water). New "items" are made available to buy after gaining a certain total of points, uh, I mean distance, and they have varying price tags. These bits of different artwork and audio do help to distract you from the tedium of playing Trioncube, but only for a fairly short amount of time.

It's a shame that Trioncube is so easy - it has the potential to be a fun game. It's just not compelling enough to make you sit there and play it unless you really want to unlock all of the skins and effects, in which case you're probably a masochist with far too much time on your hands. Perhaps I've just been spoiled with the challenge of playing TetriNET against Matt and other friends. I may just not even be in the target audience. But if you're a veteran Tetris player (like myself), I'd recommend sticking with it and leaving Trioncube on the shelf.

Ratings

Graphics	It's a puzzle game, so there's not much to be excited about, but the different skins give a nice change of scene.	7/10
Gameplay	Fun at first, but quickly becomes tedious and uncompelling.	5/10
Value	Again, the game's just not compelling enough to be played for any length of time, though it is cheaper than your typical DS game.	6/10
Lifespan	While it is a puzzle game, and so could be played indefinitely (I still play the original Tetris), you won't really want to.	5/10
Audio	The audio can get slightly annoying in its repetitiveness (especially on the tutorial stage), but it's nowhere near as bad as Puyo Pop Fever's.	6/10
Overall	It's a shame that the game lacks a compelling reason to play it - if the core gameplay was just a bit more challenging, it could easily be a good game. However, as it is, it's just far too easy to make you want to play it for any length of time.	6/10

Click here to buy Trioncube from Amazon.co.uk.

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