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COMPLETE: Lyle in Cube Sector
Sep. 6th, 2020 03:18 pmWe finished this one up a short while ago, but this past week can best be described as... whewf, so this writeup fell through the cracks.
A long time ago, long enough to be in "at least the Internet Archive still remembers" territory, there was BogoZone. The product of that special kind of "silly zany comix from a silly zany kid who hates school" phase that you tend to see from time to time (and might have had one yourself, don't lie,) it resonated with me for two reasons:
1) I was in the exact age/mindset where I was into this; those comics were great back then. (And yes, I admit, I still at least smile at a few of them even now.)
2) This is the person who made Lyle in Cube Sector.
Given its origins, Lyle in Cube Sector is a shockingly good early 2000s indie Metroidvania game. Like, seriously, when I was (what I assume to be) that age, I made Adventure of Sam. This author made an early hit indie darling of a game that still holds up remarkably well today.
You are Lyle. Some evil shadowy cloaked figure kidnapped your cat. You set out on a rescue mission in the Cube Sector. You have the power to jump and... that's literally it at first, but the first powerup you find is the Super Mario Bros. 2-like power to lift and throw cubes, thus giving you a way to fight back against enemies, including that stationary one who was blocking the way through that one passage leading further onward. This game follows the classic Metroidvania format wherein upgrades give you the power to access new areas which hold upgrades which let you access new areas which hold more upgrades, only everything is cubes. Your double-jump power comes in the form of throwing a held cube straight down and getting a Mario World Yoshi sacrifice jump-style boost off of it, which makes you feel pretty unstoppable until you hit areas that exploit your crippling weakness to "what if there aren't actually any throwable cubes in this room." Then you get the power to summon phantom cubes at will and the fun really begins. In addition to the main/major powerups, hidden throughout the Cube Sector are 10 HP orbs (each one gives you another max hit point) and 10 CP orbs (useless at first, but eventually you find a machine that collects them and spits out even more powerups for 3, 7, and 10 orbs turned in, and I'm pretty sure the 7-orb reward is mandatory to reach the final area.)
In addition to the fun and engaging gameplay, this game has among the all-time best keygen music in any game we've personally experienced. Listen to this or this and one quickly gets a sense of what makes the Cube Sector such a delight to navigate. It also has what I would describe as a sweet-spot level of personality to it: the tight gameplay does a lot to rein in the author's wilder lolrandom moments, but every now and then you'll see a particular enemy design (or like, literally any part of the end credits after you beat the game) and be reminded that yes, this is still absolutely the same mind that brought us Free Cow.
(Not that I mind that, either, though! I mean, Free Cow #15 is the source of this icon which I still use to this day. But, you know, YMMV.)
Anyway, there are one, maybe two rough patches (the Breakout boss is not fun and putting it right at the end of the longest checkpoint-free march in the game is mean, and this game sure could have used some map markers for the HP/CP orbs because a couple are kind of hard to find,) but they don't even come close to tarnishing the overall experience. I loved this game back in the day, and I still love it now. I will probably love it again next time I get the urge to revisit it, too.
A long time ago, long enough to be in "at least the Internet Archive still remembers" territory, there was BogoZone. The product of that special kind of "silly zany comix from a silly zany kid who hates school" phase that you tend to see from time to time (and might have had one yourself, don't lie,) it resonated with me for two reasons:
1) I was in the exact age/mindset where I was into this; those comics were great back then. (And yes, I admit, I still at least smile at a few of them even now.)
2) This is the person who made Lyle in Cube Sector.
Given its origins, Lyle in Cube Sector is a shockingly good early 2000s indie Metroidvania game. Like, seriously, when I was (what I assume to be) that age, I made Adventure of Sam. This author made an early hit indie darling of a game that still holds up remarkably well today.
You are Lyle. Some evil shadowy cloaked figure kidnapped your cat. You set out on a rescue mission in the Cube Sector. You have the power to jump and... that's literally it at first, but the first powerup you find is the Super Mario Bros. 2-like power to lift and throw cubes, thus giving you a way to fight back against enemies, including that stationary one who was blocking the way through that one passage leading further onward. This game follows the classic Metroidvania format wherein upgrades give you the power to access new areas which hold upgrades which let you access new areas which hold more upgrades, only everything is cubes. Your double-jump power comes in the form of throwing a held cube straight down and getting a Mario World Yoshi sacrifice jump-style boost off of it, which makes you feel pretty unstoppable until you hit areas that exploit your crippling weakness to "what if there aren't actually any throwable cubes in this room." Then you get the power to summon phantom cubes at will and the fun really begins. In addition to the main/major powerups, hidden throughout the Cube Sector are 10 HP orbs (each one gives you another max hit point) and 10 CP orbs (useless at first, but eventually you find a machine that collects them and spits out even more powerups for 3, 7, and 10 orbs turned in, and I'm pretty sure the 7-orb reward is mandatory to reach the final area.)
In addition to the fun and engaging gameplay, this game has among the all-time best keygen music in any game we've personally experienced. Listen to this or this and one quickly gets a sense of what makes the Cube Sector such a delight to navigate. It also has what I would describe as a sweet-spot level of personality to it: the tight gameplay does a lot to rein in the author's wilder lolrandom moments, but every now and then you'll see a particular enemy design (or like, literally any part of the end credits after you beat the game) and be reminded that yes, this is still absolutely the same mind that brought us Free Cow.
(Not that I mind that, either, though! I mean, Free Cow #15 is the source of this icon which I still use to this day. But, you know, YMMV.)
Anyway, there are one, maybe two rough patches (the Breakout boss is not fun and putting it right at the end of the longest checkpoint-free march in the game is mean, and this game sure could have used some map markers for the HP/CP orbs because a couple are kind of hard to find,) but they don't even come close to tarnishing the overall experience. I loved this game back in the day, and I still love it now. I will probably love it again next time I get the urge to revisit it, too.