Cube Runner is an over the shoulder flight action game which puts players in control of a small ship flying across a planet of cubes. The game was developed by Andy Qua and is a free download from the iTunes App Store. The object of Cube Runner is to stay alive by flying collision free through various feilds of cubes. To avoid hitting cubes players tilt their iPhone or iPods left and right which causes the small arrow looking space craft to bank in the tilted direction. Players can choose from 3 levels of difficult which seems to effect the speed at which you fly through the cubes. Scoring in Cube Runner is done by staying alive. The longer you’re alive the higher your score. Cube Runner also comes with the ability to load user created map packs. Simply typing in the URL of a known map will add it to your list custom map packs list.

Cube Runner is one of those games I keep playing even though it’s not offering me anything new. The game loads quickly. In a matter of seconds I can be up and running, trying to break my old high score. The controls in Cube Runner have a nice gliding feel to them. The tilting action is very smooth and slightly forgiving while still accurate enough to bank through some really tight spots. The maps are all pretty simple and feel randomly generated. After a few seconds of flying through the cube fields you’ll go into an iPhone trance. It’s kind of relexing in a way and that’s why I like cube runner. I was able to load up a few user created map packs and the ones that worked were pretty good. A few rendered the cubes in wireframe which was really cool.

Cube Runner feels more like a demo or proof of concept than it does a full fledged game. There’s not a lot of polish in the graphics, menus or gameplay. While the controls do feel great, there is no way to speed up or slow down. There are no check points, objectives or goals in Cube Runner. You just dodge cubes. Additionally, there is no sound in Cube Runner. The quite can be kind of nice at times, but a few subtle sound effects might make it feel more like a game and less like a demonstration. The ability to add custom map packs is an outstanding feature and I hope the developer works out a better way to distribute the maps. Right now, there are only a few places to get new maps and a lot of them don’t work. I was especially disappointed to find that the BeggarsCanyon map crashed the game.

Cube Runner is a fun game, that is quick to load and easy to control. While Cube Runner could benefit from some improved features and enhancements, there is something interesting about its raw feel. Cube Runner is one of my go to games when waiting for my wife at the ATM or post office and I would definitely recommend giving it a try.

By: Aaron Robbins