The Lost Cube - A Mixed Bag of Fun and Frustration

The Lost Cube, created by Red Mountain Media and published by JanduSoft, is a 2D challenge platformer released on the Nintendo Switch on 2/25/2021.

After reading that the game is heavily influenced by Super Meat Boy and Celeste I had to give it a try. On the whole I enjoyed my time with this game, but there were still a few quirks that I had a hard time overlooking.

Story wise, the game gives you just enough to explain your goal. Find the titular Cube and combine its magical powers with your magical guitar to return peace to your lands and banish the “evil creatures”. While the story may not have been as deep as I was hoping, I did enjoy the artwork of the story segments between areas.

Speaking of the different areas, each of the three come with a unique esthetic and set of traps/enemies that kept the visuals fresh. Each area is comprised of 20 levels, with areas 2 and 3 culminating in a “boss fight”.

These boss fights are basically a gauntlet of enemies and traps that you need to outlast while trying to collect guitar picks. These segments were tough as nails and were accompanied by some of the games only music. This struck me as odd with the game being centered around a guitar. I would have loved to have a little bit more, but what music is there is decent.

I love the overall visual style, presentation, and level designs. The pixel work is well animated and clean, and the areas themselves are simple, yet beautiful. The level design is challenging, and when you think you’ve figured out an areas dangers it will throw something surprising or slightly different into the mix. (I’m looking at you retractable ice spikes)

Now for the biggest aspect of a game like this, the controls. Movement and jumping are snappy and responsive, but there are two aspects that didn’t set well with me. First is the wall jump. They felt a bit too sticky, and when trying to complete precise jumps from a wall I usually ended up falling straight down due to the control manner. It seems you can only jump off a wall while holding the control stick toward the wall itself. The jumps are so quick, though, that if you mis-time the movement input you will loose all horizontal momentum and plummet to your death.

The second issue I have is the way platform edges have almost a “slope” to them. If you land, or walk too far to the edge of a platform (especially a moving one) your character has a tendency to just slide right off, most of the time resulting in a death I didn’t feel was warranted. This lead to many frustrating deaths and is my biggest complaint.

The Lost Cube Review

Despite these issues I had a lot of fun with this game. I was able to complete it in about 45 minutes so it is on the short side, but with 60 levels of challenging platforming it’s great for a quick pick up and play session or even speed running. It’s definitely worth trying for yourself!

“The Lost Cube” is currently available on the Nintendo Switch priced at $9.99. It is also available on PC, PS4, and even PS Vita!