Cubed - Review

Cubed is a Tetris styled game for your Windows Phone that takes advantage of your phone's touch screen. The gaming concept of this Windows Phone 7 game is rather simple.

Various shaped blocks fall from the top of the screen and you rotate them as they fall to form a solid row at the bottom of the screen. As you form a solid row, it implodes and you score points. If your stacks of blocks reaches the top of the screen; game over.

To read more about Cubed, skip on past the break.

From the main screen you can launch a new game and turn on/off the games music and sound effects. You can also swipe around the main hub to view your top scores, the global leader board, a help section, and links to other games by the developer Shockfun.

To launch a game, just tap the "new game" button from the main screen. If for some reason you had to leave Cubed in mid-game, your progress is saved and you'll have the option to resume or start a new.

The game screen layout has banner ads running across the top of the screen and just below the banner, you'll find your current score, level and lines cleared. To the right is a display of your next five blocks to fall and to the left, you'll see a Hold button, an Undo button and how far you need to go to level up.  The further you progress with gaming levels, the faster the blocks fall.

The Hold button will allow you to hold on to a block and swap it out with another one in the future. The Undo button simply undoes your last move and gives you a few seconds to think about how you want to replay that move.

Blocks are rotated by tapping on the screen and moved side to side with swipes. You can also accelerate the fall by swiping downwards on the screen. Block movement can be a little challenging in that at times when you swipe to move the block from side to side, you also rotate the block.

Cubed ran smoothly with no major glitches experienced. The game did crash a few times during start-up but not frequent enough to be frustrating.

Overall, Cubed was an entertaining game that brings back memories of countless hours of playing Tetris. While Cubed is graphically well presented, it's weakness is with block controls. You really need to be careful when positioning a block from side to side that the block isn't rotated inadvertently.

If you're looking for a tetris-like game for your Windows Phone, Cubed is worth a try. It's a free application and you can find it here (opens Zune) at the Marketplace.

George Ponder

George is the Reviews Editor at Windows Central, concentrating on Windows 10 PC and Mobile apps. He's been a supporter of the platform since the days of Windows CE and uses his current Windows 10 Mobile phone daily to keep up with life and enjoy a game during down time.