Hands On Project Cube (It’s A Square Enix Shooter)

One of the more unusual offerings at E3 was Project Cube, an Xbox Live Arcade title developed by Square Enix. It’s not a puzzle game, based on an existing franchise, or a RPG.

Project Cube shares more in common with dual analog stick shooters like Robotron and Geometry Wars than it does with Dragon Quest. You move with the left stick and fire laser beams with the right stick. When one of the cubes dies it explodes into a pile of blood. How… postmodern.

The glowing cube killer also has two other abilities. It can dash into cubes and stun them. Tackled cubes turn yellow and die in a single shot. The other move is sort of like a psychic shield. Hold the left trigger to freeze and collect laser beams fired from enemies. Let go of the trigger to send the laser beams flying back. Unlike Geometry Wars your character has a life bar so you won’t die after one hit.

Square Enix limited the E3 demo to a four minute survival round at E3, but Project Cube also has a multiplayer mode. Twin stick laser dodging and bullet freezing should be more fun with friends so I’m going to keep an eye out for the final version of Project Cube.