Reviewed: March 11, 2007
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Namco Bandai
Developer
Namco Bandai
Released: February 20, 2007
Genre: Puzzle
Players: 1-4
ESRB: Everyone
6
6
5
6
6.2
Supported Features
Trioncube is yet another puzzle game that follows in the oft-copied-seldom-duplicated genre spawned by granddaddy, Tetris back in the 80’s. As the genre has evolved into such classics as Zoo Keeper, Puyo Pop, Meteos, and countless remakes of Tetris itself, it becomes much harder to distance yourself from the pack, or at least make your game stand out long enough to spark some sales.
Different than most puzzle games, Trioncube puts players into the role of captain for a spaceship called Penko. The Penko is used for traveling to the far ends of the galaxy to rescue the kidnapped princess from the evil Hellmetal. Unfortunately, heroism is no simple task and as captain you must be prepared for long trips across the galaxy and have the necessary fuel for the Penko to reach your goals. The objective is to stack a series of 3x3 blocks called Trioncubes. The larger the chain reaction of Trioncubes, the more fuel is produced for the Penko and the closer you will be to defeating the evil Hellmetal.
Trioncube takes the skill of combo chaining, usually a bonus scoring device in most games, and creates an entire game around the concept. As blocks fall from the top of the screen you can rotate and position them to form 3x3 clusters initiating a potential combo chain situation. You can then drop additional blocks into the highlighted region to keep the chain going – much like Lumines before the scan line sweeps by. If the combo times out or you stop adding to the cluster the chain ends and the remaining blocks drop to the bottom.
Such a simple core premise might have most gamers yawning, and yes, the game does get mighty repetitive mighty fast. Namco tries to spice things up with various game modes including a 45-mission Story mode, 8-planet Arcade mode, and an Endless mode to test your true endurance. There is plenty to do for the solo gamer, and there is also multiplayer support for single and multi-card games.
The Story mode spans 45 missions (or puzzle screens) and it’s pretty hard to fail anywhere between the beginning and the end. You can do poorly but it’s hard to lose. The presentation is odd but charming with some clever art design and new original characters that look strangely familiar. Perhaps the oddest thing in the entire game is watching Hellmetal make some totally random proclamation at the end of each mission to the cheers of his loyal minions.
Along the way you can earn coins by forming Trioncubes that you can spend in the store to purchase 50 additional effects and 10 new background screens. But since the gameplay and ability to form chains and collect coins is so easy, you can probably buy out the store without much effort.
The graphics are certainly stylized and probably an acquired taste for many gamers. Personally, I found them fun and even a bit charming at times, especially with the fun little spaceship animations going on in the top screen that tried to give my block removal below some synchronized feedback, almost as if I was controlling the ship.
But at the end of the day this is just another puzzle game featuring a lot of blocks. Even so, I was impressed with what Namco was able to pull off with such a limited concept to work with. There are definitely a few moments of inspired brilliance lurking beneath the mundane gameplay.
Much like the visuals, the sound and music can get rather repetitive and nothing pushes any DS technical boundaries. The music is light and cheery, with moments of tension and excitement for some of the more…ahem…action-packed sequences.
The sound effects are totally repetitive but at least you can unlock new sounds in the store so your constant chaining of combos will sound different the longer you play. You can change these sounds prior to starting each mission.
Solo gamers will exhaust most of the fun from this title in a single pass through the story mode, which takes less than two hours. If you really get a kick from the concept of creating endless chains of combos then you can probably entertain yourself for 6-10 more hours with the other modes.
The multiplayer modes are infinitely more fun than anything the single-player has to offer and there is even support for single-card play so you can start playing with a friend right away.
Trioncube is a fun and quirky little puzzle game that would have worked just as well on the GBA. The dual screen is highly underutilized other than for pure presentation value, and the stylus/touch screen is limited to menu input. The actual gameplay isn’t all that challenging and the concept of chaining combos quickly becomes a repetitive nightmare before you get halfway through the game.
But for those who enjoy these types of games, and those who would rather test their reflexes more than their brains, Trioncube will offer a suitable amount of enjoyment, especially for the budget-friendly $19 price tag.
