Somewhere, someone wanted a game that would combine skills used to Geometry Wars with your not-so-typical Bullet Hell style game. At this point, Death by Cube was born. This game was specifically made to make people throw their controllers, scream foul language, and still have a good time. I didn’t really think such a game existed, but despite the fact that many of the levels are completely impossible (at least for me), I can’t stop playing it. This is a game for the inner masochist, or the extreme shooter junkie that lives on stuff like Ikaruga.

You start off as Leo (Robot 037) who has no idea who or what he is aside from the fact that his world is filled with robots covered in red oil. By completing his world you get more of the story. I don’t think the story (or the fact that your are a robot inside a robot which is inside a ro- you get the idea) or anything is supposed to make much sense, which is why I mainly focus on the real star of the game; it’s challenge. You have three abilities at your disposal, each of which varies depending on your type of robot and the kinds of kills you do. First you have your shot, which works like Geometry Wars. Depending on your robot, this can be a single shot, a spread, or homing beams. To power this up you need to do Multi Kills. Then you have your Dash, this move confuses (stuns) enemies and in some cases is the only way to weaken then for an attack. To level this up you have to do a Multi Confusion dash. Finally you have your shield, which when activated catches enemy shots. Hold onto enemy shots for too long and you die, but if you aim yourself at enemies and release the shield it’ll toss all those collected shots out in a wave. To power this up, you need to be a Multi Catch. Each robots abilities power up in different ways but for the most part your shot will power up into a spread shot, your dash will give you a reverse shot, and shield will give you a homing shot. When you die, you lose all your abilities and start with whatever basic shot your robot has.

To get anywhere in this game, you need money. Money is gained by playing, but the big bucks come from winning in a particular stage. Getting a Bronze, Silver or Gold medal in a given stage rewards you with a good chunk of cash that can be spent buying additional robots, stages, or worlds. Each stage can be one of four objectives: Destroy all enemies, Survive, Protect bases, Destroy Enemies Bases. Sometimes just doing what the stage requires of you isn’t enough to get the high score and you need to figure out which robot is best suited for the mission. To complete a world, you need a Bronze in all stages, which is nice as I’m not sure I know anyone capable of getting gold in all stages. As I stated before, this games really draw is the mind numbing challenge (read: frustration) level.

If you have a love for games like Touhou Project and Geometry Wars and have a few spare controllers then by all means grab this game. If you are frustrated easily by games, or don’t like shooters then avoid at all costs. This game is for the hardcore shooter fan that can beat all of Cave’s titles without breaking a sweat. If you don’t know any of the shooters I’ve referenced within this review, then you can safely say this is not for you.