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Category: Puzzle game
Developer: Inkling Games
Minimum Requirements: iPhone OS 2.0
Compatibility: iPhone and iPod touch
File Size: 2.8 MB
Price: $0.99 (free “lite” version also available)
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 1.0

Cubit is a pure puzzle game. There is no score, no timer. If you get stuck on a level, you are free to advance to the next one. The only penalty is that you know you’re going to have to come back to it. And like all truly great puzzles, it’s simple, and maddening.

The game seems simple enough. In the beginning, you have a 9x9 square playing field. In it, you have a box, or boxes which you move around. Some squares on the playing field have numbers. Each box casts a “shadow,” if you will: when that shadow borders a square with a number on it, it lights up—but only if the number of boxes that border the number is exactly the same as the number: if two boxes border a square with the number 1, it goes dark.

The object is to align the boxes so that they align exactly with the numbers on the squares. You want all the numbers to light up: all the 1’s to be bordered by one box, all the 2’s to be bordered by two boxes. And like all great puzzles, it sounds simple until you try it (which you can do for free by downloading the free lite version of Cubit.

To help you out, you get three two-dimensional views of the playing field: from the front, top, and side, showing where your boxes are, and which numbered squares are being illuminated. The interface is a thing of beauty, you can rotate the playing field with a flick of the finger, allowing you to move the boxes on the X, Y, and Z axis.

You’ll start by thrashing around and simply trying boxes in every position until you stumble on the solution. But that stops working once you’re dealing with two or more boxes, and realizing that process of elimination could take you a very long time. And once you beat a level, you can brag about it by using the built-in post-to-Twitter feature.

Cubit is a pure mental exercise. It’ll take you a while to get your mind wrapped around the game mechanics, but once you do, you’ll come to appreciate how sinister the concept is as you pore over the level, and figure out why the move you just made isn’t illuminating the numbers as you thought you would. There is one word for games like this: fiendish. And I loves me some fiendish.