One small peek at Cubers: Arena, the new game published by Teyon Games, and you’ll quickly notice it’s not the most innovative or exciting of games. Yet another title with voxel-based graphics, clearly inspired by the likes of Minecraft. A sound department comprised of initially cute, but eventually annoying gibberish vocal clips inspired by Banjo-Kazooie and Animal Crossing. Not to mention a twin stick control scheme… but on a hack ‘n’ slash game? Well, at the very least this is something you don’t see every day.

Despite featuring the control scheme you’d find on your run-of-the-mill twin stick shooter, Cubers: Arena is inspired by the likes of Diablo, not Hotline Miami. It’s a close combat melee game, in which you fight waves of enemies in a small gladiator arena, with only a melee weapon, an optional shield, and a handful of equippable special attacks at your disposal. Beat a level and you’ll get a small sum of cash, upgrade points for your weapons, and experience points that will unlock new equipment for you to purchase.

There’s little else that can be said about Cubers: Arena because, honestly, what you see is what you get. Despite the sheer amount of unlockables at your disposal, every single level can be beaten with the same strategy: mindless button-mashing. You are constantly showered with health pickups, so the game barely punishes you for being reckless. The game would have been a lot more interesting if your character wasn’t so stupidly slow, even after collecting a temporary speed boosting pickup. There are some neat local co-op minigames, but they get stale after just a few rounds. You’ll basically just kill enemies over and over again, earning more resources to unlock new weapons to kill even stronger enemies, until you eventually get bored. Granted, it’s fun up until said point.

Cubers: Arena is fun and functional, with some interesting ideas and an acceptable level of replayability, but at the end of the day, it’s an uneventful game. You’ve seen the same boring art style on countless games before, you’ve heard the game Banjo-inspired gibberish on countless games before, and you’ve played dozens of similar hack ‘n’ slash games before. Besides the slow pace, nothing else in it is inherently bad. I even decided to replay some levels just because I wanted to turn my little ball of murder into the most overpowered gladiator in the arena. However, I doubt I will remember Cubers: Arena in a week or two.

 

Graphics: 6.0 The art style is quite cute, but we’ve seen countless voxel-based games being released over the past years, meaning that Cubers: Arena does not bring anything new to the table in this regard. Its resolution isn’t impressive at all, but it does look more pleasing to the eyes in portable mode.	Gameplay: 6.5 Even though it features the same control scheme from a twin-stick shooter, this game plays more like a mindless hack n’ slash endurance mode. It would have been a lot more interesting if your character wasn’t so slow, as there are some interesting customization ideas in here.
Sound: 5.5 The soundtrack isn’t exactly memorable, and the weird voice acting included in here got on my nerves quickly. It tries to emulate the funny gibberish from old Rare and Nintendo games, but to no avail.	Fun Factor: 6.5 There’s fun to be had in here, as each level is comprised of small waves that can be completed in just a handful of minutes. It suffers from a slow-paced gameplay and the fact it gets repetitive after a while, however.
Final Verdict: 6.5

Cubers: Arena is available now on PS4, Xbox One, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Cubers: Arena was provided by the publisher.