- Smooth feeling cube to sort
- Lots of mini-games
- Instructions to teach you how to solve a cube
When it comes to Rubik's cubes, I don't know how to solve them. They feel like that staple that every child gets in their lifetime, but unless your parent knows how to solve them, it becomes a sort of broken toy. The GoCube, however, combines technology with a physical cube, which can both teach you how to solve cubes and also work as a controller when playing a bunch of mini-games.
GoCube Itself
When I first opened the GoCube, I, of course, started spinning it around. The cube itself has weight to it and feels good to slide. I quite like how smooth the movement was when twisting it around! There is an X of small dots in the middle of the yellow face, which is used to charge the cube.
The included charger connects to these dots, then plugs in, via USB, to charge. I couldn't get it to charge from my computer and needed to plug it into a wall socket to get the cube to light up and charge. The GoCube also comes with a stand, so you can charge it while it's in the stand, and a little bag to fit the cube and charger into, for on-the-go use.
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When it comes to charging the GoCube, it's hard to tell if it is charging. In the app, you can see how charged it is, and for me, the cube either took quite some time to charge or is having trouble charging. I looked up how to fix this and it requires resetting the device by pulling a cube face off, which I physically cannot do. I have broken a nail trying, so I do wish that was less challenging!
GoCube App
The GoCube App first has you sync your cube, which is quite simple. From there, you can then select if you are a total cube-solving noob or someone who actually knows what they are doing. If you are clueless like me, the app then takes you through a few tutorials that show you what different letters mean and how to move and unsolve the cube.These instructions are really easy to follow and the app being able to see exactly what your cube looks like in your hand, and correct you, is very helpful for those who are learning!
After learning, you are prompted (quite early on!) to challenge others at solving your GoCube, which links you up with another user and gives you a string of annotations on how you should move your cube. This actually gave me letters I had not experienced before, so I lost and went back to the tutorial.
From there, I started to see that the app didn't display my cube 100 per cent correctly, so I struggled to continue. I think this might be my user error, but I struggled to figure out how to alert the app that I had messed up and needed it to re-sync to the colours of the sides of the cubes.
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GoCube Mini-Games
Regardless of how solved your GoCube is, you can play a bunch of different mini-games. Simon Says is done in a way that allows you to practice the annotation that you need to learn to battle others and the rhythm game has very interesting visuals to where to move the cube. I think these mini-games are a good addition and give you a bit of a break from solving your cube and instead focus on your cube being an interesting controller. There are a bunch of different levels to unlock, providing a lot of content.GoCube review - "Rubik's cube fun"
If you have a slight interest in Rubik's cubes and want something that can both teach you and challenge you, the GoCube is a good choice. I just wish the cube stayed synced and the charging made more sense to me. I do like the tutorials and the mini-games though.
Jupiter Hadley
Jupiter is a prolific indie game journalist with a focus on smaller indie gems. She covers thousands of game jams and indie games on her YouTube channel, letting every game have a moment in the spotlight. She runs indiegamejams.com, a calendar of all of the game jams going on in the world, and judges many jams and events. You can find her on Twitter as @Jupiter_Hadley