Game Review: Cube Surfer (Mobile – Free to Play)

After only a few minutes of playing Cube Surfer it is easy to see why it has stayed near the top of the free to play charts for some time. It’s fun, challenging and addictive with more longevity than most offerings from the free to play market.

This review is for version 2.1.2.

Exactly as it sounds, Cube Surfer has your tiny character standing on a cube as it shoots around a track. With obstacles needing to be overcome, you must direct your cube into other cubes laying about to increase your height. Something that is necessary as it’s your cube height that will get you past obstacles.

Only find yourself riding 3 cubes but the next obstacle is 4 cubes high? It’s self explanatory what happens next. However if you find yourself surfing enough, you’ll find yourself sailing over the obstacle. Albeit with less cubes as the obstacle takes out the amount needed to overcome it.

Do this, all while picking up pink diamonds to reach the end and for the chance for a massive diamond haul should you have been able to hold on to enough cubes to reach it.

Spoiler: the answer is no in early levels and very, very difficult later.

The trick is to spend some of your hard-wanted diamonds on upgrading your starting cubes. Upgrading that section will give you instant height but the diamond cost increases each time. To put it into context, this player has upgraded it to level 3 and now has 4 cubes to surf on from the start. To upgrade it to level 4 will cost 7000 diamonds and an average attempt will net you 50-100 depending on skill.

The trick to earning diamonds is to upgrade your ‘offline earnings’ which will net you diamonds for doing nothing! How fun.

The thing is though, Cube Surfer is fun and very addictive. You’ll constantly want to have just one more go. There’s also longevity too as you can spend diamonds to unlock different skins for the cubes. It’s not much but it’s a reason to keep coming back!

What isn’t a reason to keep coming back is the lack of variety in levels and the ads. Of course the ads. After all, it’s a free to play game and if that wasn’t a big enough hint, it’s a Voodoo game.

Yes, the ads are constant and incessant. It’s an expected evil and a constant source of frustration and a constant distraction. Worth putting up with to play this game though? That’s going to be down to the individual and how much tolerance they have. Most people will likely have very little even if Cube Surfer is a good game.