Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest

aka: Cubivore: Survival of the Fittest, Doubutsu Banchou
Moby ID: 11346
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Description official descriptions

Cubivore is a "Call of the Wild" brought to an interactive media. Gento Matsumotos serene and surreal portrait of wilderness lost then civilization reverting (or progressing) to wilderness. Of course, the most obvious thing about Cubivore would be the graphics. 99% of all scenery and creatures in the game are made of cubes, rectangles, or squares. Even water ripples away from a falling step in squares. Blood pools in squares upon the ground and even the moon and sun appear as cubes in the sky.

As you move through the game you will eat prey (Or sometimes outfight a predator) To gain new forms and power. The more forms you gain the more wilderness goes back to the land (This wilderness has recently been stolen by a rather nasty Killer cubivore). Naturally, it is your goal to dethrone this killer of the wild and set your self up as king of the beast, thus filling the land once again with wilderness.

Spellings

  • 動物番長 - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Credits (GameCube version)

27 People · View all

Remix Beast
Gerneral Programming Beast
Programming Beast
Secretly the Real Programming Beast
Reforming Beast
Event Beast
Love & Peace Beast
Design Beast
Map Beast
Raw-Meat Beast
Scenery Beast
Helping Hand Beast
Product Managment Beast
Technical Coordination Beast
Editing Beast
QA Beast
Marketing Beast
See-Through Beast
Project Lead Beast
Intellectual Beast
Atlus Beast
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 75% (based on 13 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 17 ratings with 1 reviews)

It's Hip to be Square (I'm so sorry)

The Good
Cubivore is on weird game. The thing is, I like weird. Especially if it's quirky to boot. From the steady evolution of your creature to the square-shaped ripples that form when you move through water. This game had me before it even came out. Imagine my surprise when I found out that it's not only fairly lengthy, but also deeper than it originally appeared. Allow me to clarify.

When you eat a piece of meat from another creature, that meat's color is then transferred to your body. Depending on different color combinations (of which there are a ton once you have a four-piece body or more), your creature will evolve into different forms. Once you've evolved into a form, you can set it to a kind of quick change button. Up to four of these forms can be stored, so you can have one for speed, one for combat and so on. Once I found out that there was a book of creature forms that needed filling out, the replay value shot through the roof for me.

The Bad
I'm always biased towards the weird games, but Cubivore does have a few issues. For one, it was obviously slated for an N64 release. The graphics are certainly well below what the Gamecube is capable of. The camera is also troublesome at times. It's not horrible, but it does make seeing the area around you tough in certain situations. The music and sound effects are also obviously holdovers from its N64 origins, which is too bad because it could have really added more personality to the game.

The Bottom Line
As I've mentioned, Cubivore is weird. That's probably the one word that best describes it. It also reminds me a lot of E.V.O, except that it takes place entirely on land.

If you like your games a little off the beaten path, as I do, Cubivore is one that should not be missed. Plus any game that lets you poop on command is worth a look at the very least.

GameCube · by Robstein (199) · 2007

Trivia

Development

This game was originally planned for the N64DD however the game was held back and released on the GameCube. For a time before the GameCube release it was planned as an N64 cartridge game.

Title translation

The translation of the Japanese title in English is Animal Leader.

Toys

A series of toys produced by Medicom by the name of Seton has had two series released in Japan as of 2003. These toys are small Cubiovre with interchangeable body parts to mimic the evolution of the game critters.

Information also contributed by Sciere

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  • MobyGames ID: 11346
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Opipeuter.

Additional contributors: Joshua J. Slone, formercontrib, LordRM, Patrick Bregger.

Game added December 18, 2003. Last modified February 22, 2023.