Cubivore
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| Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest | |
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| Developer(s) | Saru Brunei |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo (JP) Atlus Co. (US) |
| Designer(s) | Gento Matsumoto |
| Release date(s) | JPN February 21, 2002 NA November 10, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | Action/Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo GameCube |
| Media | 1 × GameCube Optical Disc |
Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest (動物番長 Dōbutsu Banchō Animal Leader in Japan) is a simulation video game developed by Saru Brunei and published by Nintendo in Japan on February 21, 2002 and by Atlus, Co. in North America on November 10, 2002 for the Nintendo GameCube video game console. In Japan, the game is known as "Dobutsu Bancho", which translates to "Animal Leader".
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[edit] Gameplay
Cubivore's gameplay is an action/adventure game with a few RPG elements in it. The purpose of Cubivore is to kill the Killer Cubivore and its cronies. To accomplish this your Cubivore must go through several mutations, through several lifetimes "laps" and generations of "offspring". Upon attaining 100 mutations, your Cubivore can become powerful enough to produce an offspring capable of fighting the Killer Cubivore. Thus, Cubivore is a game that is meant to somewhat represent natural selection.
Combat is simple, but strategic and often fast-paced. When facing another Cubivore, your job is to attack it, weaken it, and finally kill it by tearing off its limbs. Cubivores are able to attack, jump, run, evade (i.e. walk backwards), and block. Much of the combat consists of trying to learn the enemy's attack patterns and hitting a weak point. Once the enemy has been subdued, it becomes a battle of wills when your Cubivore clamps down the opponent and attempts to tear off its limbs (resulting in a large spurt of purple square-shaped blood, uncharacteristically dark for Nintendo). Upon eating a limb your Cubivore heals itself a bit, absorbs the color of that limb, and mutates if possible. Finally some boss monsters have a special limb called "Raw Meat", which grants special abilities when comsumed.
[edit] Raw Meat
- Raw Paw: allows running, its symbol is a dog's paw print
- Raw Bone: improves blocking ability, its symbol is of two crossed bones
- Raw Claw: allows attacking and biting when running, its symbol is a bird claw
- Raw Shnoz: allows player to camouflage itself by standing still, its symbol is a pig's snout
- Raw Peeper: allows player to continue using Raw Meat abilities if they lose a limb, its symbol is an eyball
- Raw Life: allows mating with the "Consu-Mate" and ends a life time lap, its symbol is the emblem of Mars
[edit] Training and Body Parts
While your Cubivore is scavenging for others to devour, it will occasionally run across areas to train himself increasing its abilities. These can be used only once, but they are available again with a new lifetime Lap. In addition there are items that instantal raises your cubivore's statistics.
- Horns: raises attack power, its training it to break down a Wooden Horse
- Scar: raises defese power, its training is to roll in the Rampage Bowl
- Hump: raises health, its training is to run on a Treadmill
- Tongue: raise the chance of Eat-N-Run, the ability to eat a limb automatically, its training is to pull on the plank of a Bullfrog[toad]stool
- Fang: increases the number of limbs eaten at a time, this is incrased by mating and not through a training center
[edit] Mutation
The core of Cubivore is its complex mutation system based on color, intensity, and limbs. There are five colors of Cubivore, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
- Yellowbrate: very slow, but has the best defence, blocking capabilities, and decent attack; they tend to resemble horses, zebras, hippopatomi and other hoofed animals.
- Redapeds: have the best jumping ability and tend to resemble birds.
- Bluocytes: have the attack range; they tend to resemble frogs, snakes and other reptiles.
- Purpials: can walk backwards very quickly, sometimes faster than their normal speed; they tend to resemble rabbits, monkeys and other miscellaneous mammals.
- Greyodons: have the best running capability and have balanced statistics; they tend to resemble dogs, wolves and other canines.
Intensity refers to the color type and combination. The more intense a color is the stronger the cubivore. The levels in increasing order are Pale, "PaleDark", Dark, Clash, and Rage. PaleDark refers to any combination of Pale and Dark limbs. Clash refers to a specific combination of Rage panels. For example, Clash Yellow consists of any combination of Rage Yellow and Rage Red.
Less essential than mutations are limbs. Limbs are lost being torn off combat, resulting in a mutation of whatever has torn off said limb. A Cubivore with missing limbs can regain them by eating limbs from other Cubivores. Every generation of a Cubivore will have one more limb than its parent generation. Each limb can hold one color, one Raw Meat, and allows the Cubivore to attack stronger enemies. For example, a Cubivore with one limb can attack one with up to three limbs, while a Cubivore with two limbs can attack one with up to four limbs.
Much of the game's strategy comes from deciding how to mutate. Because much of the game's emphasis is on attaining as many mutations as possible, the player will want to try to discover how to obtain certain colors in certain levels, rather than simply eating everything. The player also has to worry about tearing the right limbs off of enemies and not eating too many. The Cubivore is given an option to "take a doo" and expunge unwanted color panels from his system if necessary or to use the "Diet Plan" technique to only eat one color panel off of an enemy.
[edit] Mating
Another large focus of Cubivore is on its mating system. At certain points in the game, a cubivore will face a boss it simply cannot beat, since it does not have enough limbs to attack it successfully. Thus, a cubivore sees fit to enter a "Love Tunnel", whereupon it can mate with females and inhabit a new generation of cubivore, now with an additional limb. As your cubivore attains more mutations, he will find more females willing to mate with him, thus giving the option for more variety of offspring. Once the two have mated, the player is given the option of selecting from the pool of possible offspring (although many females may be willing to mate with the cubivore, the number that give birth is random, unless the Cubivore has collected over 100 hearts for that cycle, at which point all females will give birth). Any offspring selected will be stored into the "EZ Mutate" catalog, allowing a player to switch to that mutation via the D-pad anytime when they have that amount of limbs. Any offspring chosen that is not already in the catalog of overall mutations (separate from the "EZ Mutate" catalog) will be added.
[edit] Development
Reports indicate the game was first announced July 2000, in an issue of Famitsu detailing a list of games to appear at Nintendo's 2000 Spaceworld conference.[citation needed] It was said to be designed by the creator of Jungle Park and the designer of Parappa the Rapper. The game's nature was initially unclear, but due to its name, "Dobutsu Banchou," (translated roughly as "Animal Thugs" or "Animal Leader") it was thought to be a combat game.[citation needed] Spaceworld revealed little more about the game than anyone already knew, though the purpose of the game was revealed to be something about "fighting your way to the top of the food chain." Although the game was in its earliest stages designed for the N64DD, the game was shifted over to cartridge format, possibly because the DD proved unnecessary and its lack of userbase might have hurt the game's chances of success.[citation needed] Much of Animal Leader's coverage was overshadowed by the inundation of attention towards Nintendo's other animal game, Animal Forest.
In 2002, IGN released an article stating that Animal Leader's development had shifted to the GameCube console.[1] Along with Animal Leader were a few other titles announced, such as Dinosaur Planet, Eternal Darkness, and most notably Animal Forest. Although not announced, there is speculation that it was also around this time that Doshin the Giant, a God-simulation game released for the ill-fated 64DD, was being ported to the GameCube.[citation needed]
After being ported (and presumably finished), Animal Leader was finally released in Japan on February 21, 2002. The critics's responses were mixed; the graphics were clearly of an N64 game (and a rather low-quality one at that), the controls were loose, the game had a frustrating camera setup, and some were turned off by the art style.[citation needed] But others loved it, and in Japan the game soon had a small cult following.[citation needed]
Due to less then favorable sales in Japan, Nintendo later announced that it had no intentions to localize Animal Leader in other countries. The game therefore remained Japan-only.[citation needed]
Finally, hope came in the form of Atlus, revered quirky game localizer and designer of the enormously popular Shin Megami Tensei series. In August 2002, Atlus announced that they would be picking up the game for localization.[2] Atlus dubbed the new title "Cubivore", after the game's cubist art-style.
[edit] Reception
Cubivore received mixed reviews, attaining metascores of 71 on Metacritic and Game Rankings.[3] Common complaints were the length of the game, which can be completed in less than 15 hours by a skilled player, and a frustrating camera setup.[citation needed] However, many critics seemed to enjoy the game's sheer strangeness and creativity, as the game was a substantial departure from anything else on the market.[citation needed] The critics also had mixed reactions to the graphics, stating that while the graphics themselves were technically inferior to everything else, the overall style was enjoyable and endearing.[citation needed]
[edit] Plot
Cubivore's story centers on the world of Cubivores. One such beast, known as the Killer Cubivore, reigns at the top as a tyrant with his gang of chronies. His reign of terror keeps not only the subservient creatures in turmoil but the very land itself: nature (known in the game as "Wilderness") has begun to fade away. The user-named protagonist has put it upon himself to kill the Killer Cubivore and restore Wilderness to the world of Cubivores.
[edit] References
- ^ IGN64's page on Cubivore. Retrieved on 2007-01-27.
- ^ Gamespot.com's page on Cubivore. Retrieved on 2007-01-27.
- ^ Cubviore Review. Retrieved on 2007-02-12.
