Cube Life: Island Survival

Cube Life: Island Survival is an indie open world sandbox survival video game developed and published by Cypronia. It was released for Wii U in June 2015. An HD remake was released for Steam in April 2018, for Android and iOS in August 2018, and for Nintendo Switch in December 2020.

Cube Life: Island Survival
Artwork of the HD remake
Developer(s)Cypronia
Publisher(s)Cypronia
Platform(s)Wii U, Android, Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
ReleaseWii U
  • NA: June 4, 2015
  • EU: June 25, 2015
  • JP: February 3, 2016
Steam
  • WW: April 20, 2018
Android
  • WW: August 8, 2018
Switch
  • WW: December 26, 2020
PS4, XOne
  • WW: TBA
Genre(s)Open world, sandbox, survival
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer[lower-alpha 1]

The game was one of the first sandbox video games released for the Wii U. This has been seen as a niche in the market and is sometimes regarded as one of the main reasons for its relatively large success for an indie Minecraft clone.[1][2]

Gameplay

Cube Life: Island Survival features three game modes: Survival Mode, Creative Mode, and Multiplayer Mode.

In Survival Mode, you play a male person named Barry who is stranded on a desert island after a shipwreck. Now it is up to the player to maintain Barry's health and to explore the game world, which consists of several islands, in order to eventually kill the various bosses, such as a giant spider. At night, cannibals appear whose aim is to kill the player. Experience is gained for almost every action in the game (running, fighting, adding and removing blocks, etc.). If you have gained enough experience, your player level increases. The game also contains an Internet ranking list on which the players with the highest levels are listed. In contrast to Minecraft, the game world is not generated randomly, but rather given by the developers; each player starts on the same island. The game world is more than four times the size of Minecraft: Wii U Edition.

In Creative Mode, the player has access to all objects except items in the game and can create his own maps with them and, since version 1.2, share them with other players.

In the local multiplayer mode, two players can compete against each other in different modes such as Deathmatch, Tower Defense and Co-op and create maps together in creative mode.

Development

Background

Mojang's popular sandbox title Minecraft, which saw its first console outing on the Xbox 360 in 2012, was not officially announced for the Wii U until December 2015. Prior to this, Microsoft wholly acquired Mojang in September 2014, and at the time Minecraft was already either available or announced for most major platforms except Nintendo's. Following the acquisition, many gaming news outlets expressed skepticism that Minecraft would arrive on any Nintendo platform, let alone Wii U. However, later that same month, startup developer Nexis Games announced their own sandbox title UCraft for the Wii U.[3] According to Nintendo Life, UCraft is regarded as very similar in both graphical aesthetic and gameplay to Minecraft, and likely "could fulfil a key gap in the market on the Wii U."[3] Due to Nexis Games' poor track record, and following the sketchy development of UCraft,[4] other indie developers decided to follow suit and release their own iterations of Minecraft-inspired titles for Nintendo platforms. One of those developers was Cypronia.

Announcement and release

Cypronia announced Cube Life: Island Survival in January 2015 with a release date later that year, promising that the "goal is [to] create the best block building open-world sandbox game for Nintendo platforms."[5] Cypronia emphasized they would continue to update the game throughout 2015 and beyond, improving the game based on consumer feedback via Miiverse, Facebook, Twitter and various online community forums, such as on their official website.[5] Cypronia was keen on distancing Cube Life: Island Survival from being defined as a Minecraft clone.[5]

In May 2015, Cypronia announced the game would be available in both North America and Europe the following month. Cypronia CEO Stefan Pavelka was confident that their title has a lot to offer, claiming, "If we compare the game to competitors, other Wii U games of that genre, we will offer much more fun and greater value, either by means of lower price or by providing more content and features."[6] The game had a promotional discount during launch period.[7][8]

Updates

In Version 1.1, local multiplayer mode was added.[9] Version 1.2 made it possible to share maps from Creative Mode with other players and also added new areas, animals, pets, defeatable game antagonists and a smarter AI for the cannibals.[8] In addition, the world was enlarged from 2,880 x 2,880 to 3,520 x 3,520 blocks.[8] With Version 1.3, a skin editor and a sorting by friends in the internet ranking list was added.[10]

HD remake

With Cube Life: Island Survival becoming very popular on the Wii U, Cypronia announced Cube Life: Island Survival HD, which they described as a special edition of the original game. Though the original game did run in full 1080p HD, the remaster would be in 4K (except for the Nintendo Switch version). The HD remake does not include the Internet ranking list or multiplayer mode.

On April 20, 2018 at 17:57:05 UTC, Cube Life: Island Survival HD made its way into the Steam store under the same name as the original game.[11] On 27 June 2018, the game was also made available for MacOS.[12] On August 8, 2018 the game was also released on Android and iOS for their primary app stores Google Play and Apple App Store as a free-to-play title with in-app purchases.[13] The game was scheduled to be released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2019,[14][15][16] although it was not released then. It was released on December 26, 2020 on Nintendo Switch via the Nintendo eShop.[17] Versions for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have not been released yet.

Reception

Due to the nature of its block-building, open world gameplay, and its graphic style, the game was noted for being a clone of the 2011 game Minecraft.[1][5][20][21][22][2][23][24]

The game briefly reached number 1 in the European charts, number 2 in the US charts and number 3 in the Japan charts on the Nintendo eShop.[25]

Nintendo Life gave the game a 7/10, praising the game's new ideas but criticizing the long load times.[19]

Notes
  1. Only the Wii U version has multiplayer.

References
  1. "Cypronia reveal Minecraft-inspired Cube Life: Island Survival". Nintendo Insider. 2015-01-20. Archived from the original on 2021-08-01. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  2. "Die 10 dreistesten Videospielklone: Kann man hier noch von Inspiration sprechen?". Gameswelt (in German). 2020-03-07. Archived from the original on 2020-09-20. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  3. Whitehead, Thomas (September 30, 2014). "Nexis Games is Developing U Craft, a Minecraft Clone, for the eShop". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on November 10, 2014. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  4. Whitehead, Thomas (May 18, 2015). "UCraft is a Wii U Exclusive Once Again". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  5. Calvert, Darren (January 19, 2015). "Cube Life: Island Survival is Another Minecraft-Inspired Title Heading to the Wii U eShop". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on January 19, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  6. @NE_Brian, Brian (November 4, 2016). "Cube Life Island Survival HD Heading to Switch". Nintendo Everything. Archived from the original on November 5, 2016. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
  7. McFerran, Damien (May 21, 2015). "Minecraft Clone Cube Life: Island Survival Confirmed For June Release, Launch Discount Revealed". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on May 22, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  8. "Cube Life: Island Survival Climbs the eShop Charts in Japan". Nintendo Life. 2016-02-12. Archived from the original on 2020-11-26. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  9. "Cube Life: Island Survival update adding local multiplayer and more". Nintendo Everything. 2015-07-10. Archived from the original on 2019-02-22. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  10. "Cube Life: Island Survival Archives". Nintendo Everything. Archived from the original on 2021-06-22. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
  11. "Cube Life: Island Survival · AppID: 760800". SteamDB. Archived from the original on 2020-10-31. Retrieved 2020-10-28.
  12. "Steam :: Cube Life: Island Survival :: Cube Life Patch v1.6.6. Mac version available!". steamcommunity.com. 2018-06-26. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  13. "Cube Life: Island Survival - Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  14. "Cube Life: Island Survival [Switch]". www.cypronia.com. Archived from the original on 2020-12-14. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  15. "Cube Life: Island Survival [PS4]". www.cypronia.com. Archived from the original on 2021-02-05. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  16. "Cube Life: Island Survival [XB1]". www.cypronia.com. Archived from the original on 2021-12-12. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  17. "Cube Life: Island Survival". Nintendo of Europe GmbH (in German). Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  18. "Cube Life: Island Survival for Wii U Reviews - Metacritic". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  19. Vogel, Mitch (11 June 2015). "Cube Life: Island Survival review". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on 6 July 2015. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
  20. "Cube Life: Island Survival News & Rumors | N4G". n4g.com. Archived from the original on 2016-11-08. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  21. "Cube Life: Island Survival Trailer Released | Switch Player". 2016-12-30. Archived from the original on 2020-11-26. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  22. "Cube Life: Island Survival for PS4, Wii-U, PC, Switch, PS5 Reviews". OpenCritic. Archived from the original on 2020-12-04. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  23. "Cube Life: Island Survival - Crafting Adventure kommt für die PS4". PlayStation Info (in German). 2016-11-07. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  24. Steppberger, Ulrich (2015-07-24). "Cube Life: Survival Island - im Test (Wii U)". MANIAC.de (in German). Archived from the original on 2022-11-29. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  25. "Cube Life: Island Survival - SpieLexikon.de". spielexikon.de (in German). Archived from the original on 2021-01-09. Retrieved 2021-01-08.
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