The Rubiks Cube has been a popular puzzle pastime for millions of people around the world for several decades, mentally testing those who try it with its plentiful supply of colours and the overall objective of attempting to match everything up perfectly by twisting and turning the cubes sides around. Now Two Tribes has transferred that puzzle classic to Wii via the WiiWare service. Cubed3 got the chance to talk to the developer about the project in further detail.
Cubed3s Mike Mason, Reviews Editor: Please give an overview of the gameplay.
Collin van Ginkel, Creative Director at Two Tribes and Lead Designer on Rubiks Puzzle Galaxy: Rush: Rush is a unique three-dimensional puzzle game where players guide streams of rolling cubes to their colour-coded exit points. This can be achieved by placing signs on the levels, that influence the direction and speed of the cubes. There are more than 70 levels available. The game also has the original Rubiks Cube incorporated as a bonus. Complete with tutorial on how to solve one in real life!
MM: Are the Wii controls entirely pointer-based, or have you used motion also?
CvG: For Rush we have determined that the pointer based controls would work best. Sometimes its best to avoid motion controls, and this was one of those times.
MM: Was there any difficulty in getting a licence to use the Rubik name?
CvG: The license was acquired by The Game Factory, and Two Tribes is responsible for the development and co-publishing. As far as I know there were no difficulties, they have been really easy to work with.
MM: Online leader-boards are included. Is online multiplayer also in there?
CvG: We do have multiplayer included in the game, but it is split-screen two player competitive. The leader-boards allow you to upload your scores from the Rubiks Cube part of the game to compare with others.
MM: It sounds as if you already have a tournament or two planned with the leaderboards; can you give any details at this time?
CvG: We have built in the option for having tournaments, more information on it will be announced after the release of the game.
MM: Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: Rush is only the first in the series. How many are being planned so far?
CvG: Weve got a bucket-load of ideas for this series. Were taking it one step at a time though, right now we are making sure Rush is launched properly. Any feedback we receive on this release will surely make its way into the second entry, so let us know what you liked and disliked!
MM: What did the team learn from the development of Toki Tori on WiiWare?
CvG: A lot! Toki Tori was our first downloadable game. In hindsight we went in pretty much having no clue what to expect, or what was expected of us as a digital publisher. For Toki Tori we had not succeeded in providing customers information about the game prior to the release. So were taking no chances this time and hope people will be looking forward to Rush after seeing the trailers and screenshots!
MM: Are we likely to see a sequel to Toki Tori on WiiWare at any point? CvG: Weve got a couple of plans in the oven for Toki Tori, which could very well end up as WiiWare releases. So I would not be surprised if you see more of him on the service in the future.
