Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest

Be the King of Cubivores! Got Meat?

JP release: 21st February 2002
NA release: 5th November 2002
EU release: N/A
Developer: Saru Brunei, Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo (JP), Atlus (NA)
NGC Magazine Score: 76%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

Originally an N64 title called Animal Leader, Cubivore is a very strange game where the objective is to bring wilderness back to the land and defeat the Killer Cubivore to become the King of All Cubivores. The animals are made up of cube-like heads while their limbs comprise of squares in many different layouts to create different forms – called mutations – you can use to your advantage.

You start off as a little piggy with one limb. As you battle and eat other cubivores, you’ll gain their colour, which alters your form. Throughout the game you’ll get more limbs, and specific combinations for colours will create new mutations. These various mutations affect how you move, how you attack and how much health you have. There’s also some special type of colours – such as ones with streaks of dark colour – that provide additional benefits.

In order to get more limbs, you’re going to have to mate and produce a child, which always has an extra limb. You do this by entering a heart-shaped cave and, based on how many mutations you have, you’ll attract a certain number of female cubivores (which you never see out in the open). Some of these will give birth and you’ll be able to select a new “e-z mutate” form for your offspring, which will then let you morph into that shape whenever you want. These love caves are placed at specific places throughout the game, so you always have to advance at the same places for each playthough.

To progress, you’ll also need to create special parts called “Raw Meat”, which are usually held by powerful bosses. These bosses have rather bizaire names like the “Shoplifter Beat”, “CEO Beast” or “Neighbourhood Watch Beast”. Combat is simple, but also extremely tough. You hold L to charge your lock-on and press A to pounce. Enemies are really good at dodging and you need to get good at it, too. Evading attacks is especially important when you’re up against multiple foes, as they can essentially stunlock you and you’ll be unable to compete. I found the combat rather frustrating by the end.

The structure of the game is also a bit strange. You’ll improve your Cubivore before getting killed off as the next “animal”, starting from a single limb again and going through the same set of levels (although with large changes) multiple times. It’s still nice to discover the new mutations, and the bosses and new groups of enemies you face still keep things interesting.

The fact that Cubivore was mainly developed for the N64 is very evident in the final product. While the cube and square nature of the animals look great, the environments are al la bit drab. I really don’t like how they’ve used textures with detail on the cube-like environment, it’s an odd mishmash where something much simpler would look much nicer.

The camera is also stuck in its N64 form, clearly made for the c-buttons, as a press moves the camera a set amount. The camera also tends to leave your cubivore out of frame in battles, and it adds to the frustration.

Cubivore is a frustrating game that still manages to have a lot of charm, in both the character designs and the rather bizarre text in the game. It’s such a strange game that it’s definitely worth trying out, even if you don’t finish it – especially as the task of doing so requires you to discover 150 mutations, which is a bit difficult for me due to mixing up some of the colours. It’s an absolutely fascinating game.

Fun

The real joy of the game comes from seeing how your latest mutation will move, react and control. The animation is simply fantastic – each individual cubic animal flips, hops and crawls around the spartan landscape in unique, believable ways. At least, if real animals were made of boxes and squares, this is exactly how you’d expect them to move.
Martin Kitts, NGC Magazine #77

Remake or remaster?

A remake would be wonderful. Improve the camera, make the graphics more coherent and add a bit of flair in terms of particle effects and water, then it could look magnificent.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to play Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest.