Have you been clamoring for another rougelike game to play? Then listen up, folks, as we discuss the answer to your prayers in the form of Survive! Mr. Cube. Those who like challenging action titles with no two playthroughs being the same will love what is found in Survive! Mr. Cube. On top of that, Survive! Mr. Cube is a cute blocky-like game with designs that are extremely charming and cute. Though, be aware that while enemies in Survive! Mr. Cube might be cute…they are still pretty vicious.

Survive! Mr. Cube has players fighting for their lives as they search for a way out of this strange world they have been thrown into. You’ll have to kill hundreds of enemies and various other survivors who seem to hate you as you struggle to endure trial after trial. However, death doesn’t mean you just reload the game in Survive! Mr. Cube. Instead, death means you’re going back into the fray with a new warrior, new set of weapons and a new layout of the map you just were on. Survive! Mr. Cube will test players in their persistence to die over and over but still push forward. If you love rougelike games, then you’re the target audience for Survive! Mr. Cube.

Survive! Mr. Cube follows a soon to be married man who has found himself involved in a tragic accident and awakens in an unfamiliar location. With no guidance, the man named Mr. Cube picks up a sword near a strange device and enters it in hopes to find his way home. However, Mr. Cube is about to learn something very tragic about this world. He’s not the only soul who has been sent here and many are trying to find their way home as well. Can Mr. Cube survive and somehow reunite with his love? It’s time to find out in Survive! Mr. Cube!

Rougelike games aren’t new to the gaming world, quite far from it actually. These survival focused games where death means reloading a game and things changing in some form or another are oddly addicting but don’t always do much to stand out from one another. Usually, most rougelike games just have you taking a character through some dungeon that is constantly randomized upon death and that just gets old fast. That’s why when we got our hands on a strange game called Survive! Mr. Cube by developer IntraGames, we went into it with baited breath. Would Survive! Mr. Cube just be yet another rougelike title or would it wow us with its strange blocky design? Let us find out in our review of Survive! Mr. Cube for the PS4.

From the very start of the game, Survive! Mr. Cube makes us realize we’re entering a strange and perilous world. Players assume the role of Mr. Cube—at least at first—as he awakens in a dark forest. You will pick up the sword that is near the obvious teleporter and from there Survive! Mr. Cube begins truly. You’ll soon learn that there is no safe place after you enter the portal as this strange world is filled with things that want to rip your blocky body apart. However, since this is a rougelike game, death—which will happen a lot—isn’t the end of your tale. Instead, players will see a brief cutscene and soon realize they are controlling a new character with a new weapon(s). Death in Survive! Mr. Cube doesn’t mean anything is over and you’ll begin to quickly learn death isn’t just a means of restarting your tale.

Before we talk about what we mean by death restarting your tale, let us discuss what you’re doing first in Survive! Mr. Cube. The main goal of Survive! Mr. Cube is rather simple; Search randomized map areas, find items like potions and such to help you survive, beat up enemies and find teleporters to the next map. You’ll continue to repeat this over and over again until you find a big enemy known as the guardian. Each area in Survive! Mr. Cube has a guardian and when you conquer it, you move on to the next stage. However, doing this won’t be easy to accomplish. Death is something you’re going to see a lot of in Survive! Mr. Cube as your HP dwindles from too many enemies and you run out of stamina to fight back. Yet, death is the name of the game in Survive! Mr. Cube and we’ll tell you why.

When you die in Survive! Mr. Cube, you do indeed lose your character and you lose whatever items/weapons you had on you. Equally, you lose progress in this dark world which means you start from square one. Yet, this also means that maybe you’ll start with a stronger character and or a powerful weapon. Plus, you do keep gold you find in the various randomized maps which can be used to buy randomized items from a vendor in the starting location. You might get a powerful weapon or maybe a buff to begin your next run with. Just like most rougelike games, Survive! Mr. Cube is all about just trying to get further, get luckier and getting better with how to deal with the situations you will ultimately face.

Speaking of situations, one element that we really enjoyed about Survive! Mr. Cube is the monsters, mini bosses and guardians you’ll face along your journey. While some monsters will always reappear in the same maps—like spiders in the forest level or slimes in the sand area—the bigger threat comes from survivor-like characters similar to you. These randomized mini-bosses usually are tough and can end even the best runs in a mere second. However, if you can best them you usually will gain either a health icon which will resurrect you upon losing all of your HP or some other tool that might help you along your journey. Survive! Mr. Cube might not reinvent the wheel when it comes to rougelike games but it does everything just right to make for an exciting game that will keep you constantly on your toes.

Graphically, Survive! Mr. Cube isn’t going to make your PS4 push itself to the limits. Blocky in design and simplistic with environments, Survive! Mr. Cube isn’t graphically that appealing. However, there is a lot of charm with the blocky monster designs and various warriors you will use as well. The cutscenes—which there are only a few of—are probably the most advanced graphics you will get with hand drawn art stills. What did impress us about Survive! Mr. Cube was the music though. While it’s very simple—which seems to be the keyword in describing Survive! Mr. Cube—the guardian fights have epic tunes and the atmosphere music actually works to keep Survive! Mr. Cube feeling mysterious and fantastical. Overall, the graphics and music aren’t amazing in Survive! Mr. Cube but they get the job done.

Now let us end our review of Survive! Mr. Cube with some issues we had while playing the game. First, Survive! Mr. Cube is filled with some strange translation errors that are seen in the opening cutscene and even with some of the monster/character descriptions during the loading screens. We also have to admit that sometimes Survive! Mr. Cube can be quite repetitive but this is a common issue with most roguelike games. While the maps, weapons and enemies might randomize, the general area itself will always be the same and you’ll kind of get annoyed when you need to relocate the guardian so you can move to the next area but must once more hope it won’t take you an hour to find the path to it. Seriously folks, we once found the guardian of the first area in three map movements then another time it took us almost a dozen. These issues aren’t enough to make us dislike Survive! Mr. Cube though but they are things we feel you guys and girls need to know.

Survive! Mr. Cube is a fun survival title that reminds us that simplicity sometimes can lead to ingenious ideas. While death can sting—especially when you then realize you must start from the very beginning—you’ll eventually find yourself getting lucky new characters to play as and eventually you will feel your own power getting stronger and stronger. We did get a bit tired of having to replay some areas over and over in our quest at getting better at Survive! Mr. Cube, but even that didn’t stop us from enjoying our time with this cute rougelike game. Overall, for the asking price of $14.99, Survive! Mr. Cube is a game you’ll most certainly like if you enjoyed games such as Rouge Legacy. We give Survive! Mr. Cube a solid recommendation as we think it’s a very charming title.

Rougelike games continue to release at a more rapid rate in the gaming world but if they all end up as charming as Survive! Mr. Cube, then we honestly wouldn’t mind. Survive! Mr. Cube might not be the most advanced rougelike title out there and it’s incredibly minimalistic in design and concept, that doesn’t remove the enjoyment factor. Even now we continue to play Survive! Mr. Cube in hopes we can find the best equipment and see what weapons are better than others. Are you thinking of picking up Survive! Mr. Cube? Let us know in the comments down below. For all your game review and gaming article needs, be sure to keep returning to our beautiful hive here at Honey’s Anime.