ZooCube

Go Ape!

With ZooCube first coming out on the 5th May in North America, it makes it the first GameCube game to not be released before the GameCube’s very late European launch. The GameCube already had a sizeable library by the time it came out in Europe, but it also meant that some of them skipped Europe and others were delayed further (ZooCube itself took a few more months to reach Europe) so that not every game was competing for a spot at launch. On another note, ZooCube is alphabetically the last GameCube game.

Now that the interesting stuff is out of the way, on to the game itself. ZooCube is an immensely bland puzzle game. You rotate a cube while blocks representing animals fall down. Match two and they’ll score points. And that’s the game.

For how simple it is, having to use two sicks to rotate the cube in different ways is far too fiddly and, while the game introduces more animals and faster speeds, it never gets interesting.

Other than rotating animals, you can re-order your stacks with the L and R buttons, and “lock in” a falling piece with the A button. So the while game is just turning to the right side, pressing A and repeating. There’s no strategy or combo systems, it’s just look at the next bit and connect the shape.

The game itself looks rather drab. The lifeless backgrounds are also unnecessarily busy and detract from the puzzle itself. They’re also strangely pre-rendered when they look like they could have been easily handled in real-time by the GameCube. It feels like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube that you’re holding in front of a TV. Very bland an unappealing.

Poor

Puzzle games should be instinctive and essentially straightforward – with Zoocube you’re having to content with a ludicrous premise, not-very-well-drawn animal parts, and the tiny central cube. And, wort of all, it doesn’t invite you to keep on playing. Quite the opposite, in fact. After a short time, you tire of that fiddly challenge.

Jes Bickham, NGC Magazine #71

Remake or remaster?

Not much reason to do much with it.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get ZooCube.

GameCube Games by Date

2001: Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2002: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2003: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2004: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2005: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2006: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2007: Mar, Jun, Aug

acclaim gamecube puzzle