Cubivores gameplay is an
action-adventure game with a few
role-playing video game elements in it. The purpose of
Cubivore is to kill the Killer Cubivore and its cronies. To accomplish this, the player's Cubivore must go through several
mutations, through several lifetimes ("laps") and generations of "offspring". Upon attaining 100 mutations, the Cubivore can become powerful enough to produce an offspring capable of fighting the Killer Cubivore. Thus,
Cubivore is a game that is meant to somewhat represent
natural selection. The combat in the game is simple but strategic and often fast-paced. When facing another Cubivore, the player's job is to attack it, weaken it, and finally kill it by tearing off its limbs. Cubivores are able to attack, jump, run, evade (i.e. walk backwards), and block. Much of the combat consists of trying to learn the enemy's attack patterns and hitting a weak point. Once the enemy has been subdued, it becomes a battle of wills when the Cubivore clamps down the opponent and attempts to tear off its limbs. Upon eating a limb, the Cubivore heals itself a bit, absorbs the color of that limb, and mutates if possible. Finally, some boss monsters have a special limb called "Raw Meat", which grants special abilities when consumed.
Mutation The core of
Cubivore is its complex mutation system based on color, intensity, and limbs. There are five colors of Cubivore, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. • Yellowbrate: very slow, but has the best attack and defense and blocking capabilities; they tend to resemble
horses,
zebras,
hippopatomi and various hoofed animals. • Redapeds: have the best jumping ability and tend to resemble
birds, however, their attack strength is lower than average. • Bluocytes: have the best attack range but slightly lower defense; they tend to resemble
frogs,
snakes and various reptiles. • Purpials: can walk backwards and turn around very quickly, sometimes faster than their normal speed; they tend to resemble
rabbits,
monkeys and other miscellaneous
mammals. • Greyodons: have the best running capability and only Yellobrates have higher attack power, and have balanced statistics; they tend to resemble
dogs,
wolves and other canines. Intensity refers to the color type and combination. The more intense a color is the stronger the Cubivore. The levels of intensity in increasing order are Pale, "PaleDark", Dark, Clash, and Rage. PaleDark refers to any combination of Pale and Dark limbs of the same color. Clash refers to a specific combination of Rage panels. For example, Clash Yellow consists of any combination of Rage Yellow and Rage Red. Less essential than mutations are limbs. Limbs are lost when torn off in combat, resulting in a mutation of whatever has torn off the appendage. A Cubivore with missing limbs can regain them by eating limbs from other Cubivores. Every generation of a Cubivore will have one more limb than its parent generation. Each limb can hold one color, one Raw Meat, and allows the Cubivore to attack stronger enemies. For example, a Cubivore with one limb can attack one with up to two limbs, while a Cubivore with two limbs can attack one with up to three limbs. Much of the game's strategy comes from deciding how to mutate. Because much of the game's emphasis is on attaining as many mutations as possible, the player will want to try to discover how to obtain certain colors in certain levels, rather than simply eating everything. The player also has to worry about tearing the right limbs off enemies and not eating too many. The Cubivore is given an option to "take a Doo" and expunge unwanted color panels from his system if necessary or to use the "Diet Plan" technique to only eat one color panel off an enemy. There 30 possible mutations of each color type, for a total of 150. Once a player has attained all 150 mutations, they are taken to
Shangri-la, a place of eternal rest for Cubivores.
Mating Another large focus of
Cubivore is on its
mating system. At certain points in the game, a Cubivore will face a boss it simply cannot beat, since it does not have enough limbs to attack it successfully. Thus, a Cubivore sees fit to enter a "Love Tunnel", whereupon it can mate with females and inhabit a new generation of Cubivore, now with an additional limb. As the player's Cubivore attains more mutations, he will find more females willing to mate with him, thus giving the option for more variety of offspring. Once the two have mated, the player is given the option of selecting from the pool of possible offspring (although many females may be willing to mate with the Cubivore, the number that give birth is random, unless the Cubivore has collected over 100 hearts for that cycle, at which point all females will give birth). Any offspring selected will be stored into the "EZ Mutate" catalog, allowing a player to switch to that mutation via the D-pad anytime when they have that amount of limbs. Any offspring chosen that are not already in the catalog of overall mutations, separate from the "EZ Mutate" catalog, will be added. == History ==