There’s something about VR platforms that allows developers to take what should be an incredibly simple concept and turn it into an immersive, enthralling experience that’ll hook you in for hours. That’s what SUPERHYPERCUBE is – a simple concept based around rotating cube-based shapes to fit into a series of ever changing holes. It’s incredibly straightforward, but at the same time incredibly intuitive and addictive.
It’s hard to describe to someone what makes SUPERHYPERCUBE such a great game when they haven’t been able to see it in action themselves. To be honest, I wouldn’t have been so sold on the game if I hadn’t stumbled upon it by chance at EGX Rezzed earlier this year. I’m glad I did though because it made me aware of the engrossing puzzling that the game offers.
The core concept sees you rotating, twisting and turning a cube-based shape to fit into a hole in a giant wall heading in your direction. Each time you successfully get the shape through the hole a few additional cubes are added, in turn giving you a bigger and much more complicated shape. The holes you need to fit into become more complicated and varied too, demanding you spend more time examining every facet of your shape from all different perspectives. Fortunately it’s not necessarily ‘game over’ if you don’t get things lined up perfectly; sometimes you just end up losing a few cubes off of your shape, giving you a brief reprieve and a gentle reminder that next time you need to get it right.
The main aim of the game is to gain as high a score as possible. The more shapes you manage to get through holes, the higher a score you’ll build. You can compare your scores with other players around the world too, with a global leaderboard on the game’s main menu that’ll constantly remind you of your place amongst other SUPERHYPERCUBE players.
Doing all of this in VR is incredibly immersive and makes SUPERHYPERCUBE the great experience it is. Moving your head around each shape in order to examine it closely feels liberating, offering something that just wouldn’t feel as impressive if done on a boring, standard TV. Looking past your shape to see the hole you need to fit it in is great too, especially since the head tracking of the Playstation VR headset is so effective.
The game adds a few things that change up the gameplay such as the boss walls that constantly rotate and keep the hole changing, demanding both quick reactions and thinking from the player. There are also power-ups that you can use that’ll give you a slight advantage during the game, though those these advantages are fairly short lived in the grand scheme of things. These are the only things that vary up during the game though – if there was one thing that SUPERHYPERCUBE doesn’t have going for it, it’s the lack of variety in regards to game modes. You’re simply doing the same thing over and over. Despite this lack of variation I couldn’t stop playing the game. That’s the appeal of SUPERHYPERCUBE; it’s a simple concept that’ll keep you coming back for more over and over again, even if you are quite literally doing the same thing over and over again.
It’s a great use of VR that doesn’t try to over-complicate things with mechanics that are awkward to perform or that will leave you feeling nauseous. It keeps things simple and in turn kept me wanting to come back to it – I constantly had the urge to get that headset on to try and overcome the puzzling brilliance of SUPERHYPERCUBE and boost my way up that leaderboard. Alternatively, if I just wanted to unwind and just play something simple it would satisfy that urge too.
With its trippy, bright visuals and simple yet effective gameplay, SUPERHYPERCUBE constantly kept me coming back for more. It integrates simple VR mechanics into an equally simple concept, yet the concoction is something that’s ingenious and absolutely enthralling to play. It’s not often I get hooked in by a puzzler, but SUPERHYPERCUBE has really sunk its teeth in.
It’s a little difficult to explain the brilliance of SUPERHYPERCUBE without showing it to someone, but seriously, if you own Playstation VR you need to get the game – you won’t regret it.
Developer: kokoromi
Publisher: Polytron
Release Date: 13/10/2016
Format(s): Playstation VR
