Kickle Cubicle

Kickle Cubicle

NES - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Irem Publisher Irem Published 1988-06-?? Platforms Arcade, NES Genres Action, Active puzzle, Maze, Puzzle Themes Cartoon Distribution Commercial

Kickle Cubicle is an action puzzle video game developed and published by Irem, initially for the arcade in Japan in June 1988, and later on the Nintendo Entertainment System on 1990-06-29. The NES port was essentially the same game with stages that were smaller in size, but greater in number. The arcade game appears to feature large monsters and gods, but the NES port had its story reworked so that the Wicked Wizard King has turned the four lands into ice and captured four princesses who need to be rescued by Kickle. Kickle — who is always drawn as a boy in the game's promotional art, but appears in-game as a snowman — has the ability to spit icy breath which can freeze weaker enemies into blocks which can be kicked across the ice and into the water to build paths. Kickle can also grow a solid column of ice to create stopping points for kicked ice or block enemies from advancing. Larger enemies can be frozen and shattered, and some are immune to his ice all together. Using these abilities, Kickle must build paths to the dream bags in the stage and collect them all to help the kidnapped people escape.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes. NES main game and bonus stages, no hints.
Finished	Main game: 2021-03-20, bonus stages 2021-03-27.

I never played Kickle Cubicle on the NES when it was popular. Instead, I remember playing a ROM of it in the late 1990s using NESticle. I was immediately impressed by the visuals and game play style, but I suspected that the game would be very long and require a lot of skill and repetition to master it, and, at the time, I didn't feel like putting that much effort into it. Over the next 20 years, I would occasionally start it up, play a few levels, and then get bored and put it down again, but, in 2021, I was on a long streak of finishing games, so I picked this one up again to see how it handled continuing after a game over. Seeing that it appeared to have infinite continues, I actually tried to finish the game, and I beat the main game and bonus stages without any hints, but a whole lotta game overs. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised by the game, and my appreciation for it grew even more.

Review

7	6	7	6	6

Best Version: NES

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game art is fantastic. It's some of the best cartoon art on the platform with the characters and backgrounds being well-drawn and vibrant.
• The puzzles, particularly later in the game, get especially devious and require you to play around with them for a fair amount of time before their solution becomes apparent. On more than one puzzle, I just stared at the game board for a very long time failing to see how it could possibly be beaten, and, when I finally did solve the puzzle, it was very satisfying.
• The level designers really exploited everything there was to do with the game's engine. Rather than having subsequent puzzles become harder versions of earlier puzzles (which is a problem for most puzzle games), the game requires you to learn new techniques even late in the game. The designers also did a good job of making the layout of the map give you a hint toward its solution.
• The music is very fitting for the game.
• For a game as hard as this is, it's nice that the NES port gives you infinite continues. I initially didn't like the idea that there is very little drawback, even allowing you to continue on the same screen, but, some of the later levels are so difficult, many players will give up even with infinite attempts, so expecting the player to also do it without dying would be cruel.
• The NES port has a good manual.
• Kickle's trip, while walking up to the king in the ending sequence of the NES port, is hilarious.

Bad

• Some of the early stages drag on a bit and don't grow in difficulty fast enough which caused me to lose interest in the game multiple times.
• In the NES port, the difficulty explodes in Toy Land, and some stages are pretty unfair. Not the cerebral ones which require a lot of forethought, but those based solely on avoiding a swarm of invincible monsters. These become particularly nasty in the bonus stages where you have to solve several difficult puzzle elements while being constantly chased by enemies.
• The interesting bosses from the arcade original (like the lizard) are replaced in the NES port with several bosses that are all nearly identical. I would have preferred the originals, or, at the very least, more variation.
• While they were busy reworking the story for the NES, couldn't the designers have come up with something more interesting than saving four princesses?
• The title, both in English and Japanese, doesn't really fit with the game's setting. There is nothing about ice or the fact that you're a sentient snowman.

Ugly

• Nothing.

Media

Box Art

I haven't been able to find any Japanese arcade art other than a flyer. Each console release uses the same art. Kickle flies on a balloon over a grid with the game's monsters angrily gawking at him, and the different palaces are visible. The cartoon is professionally done and fits the game nicely.

• 

  The Japanese box has good lettering. I don't care for the simple white border or the screen shot, but this is still my favorite cover.

• 

  The US box tilts the art and replaces the Japanese lettering with rainbow letter balloons. I like the new logo, but I don't care for the white and green half-finished grid.

• 

  The European box uses the US logo, but straightens the art and uses a fading green and white checker pattern. It's a bit much.

Documentation

• 

  US manual.

• 

  Japanese arcade ad.

• 

  USA NES ad. Just awful!

• 

  Clean arcade flyer art.

• 

  Clean NES box art.

• 

  US Logo.

Fan Art

• 

  Fan art by Kitten-Burrito.

Videos

Longplay - Arcade.

Longplay - NES.

Play Online

Famicom, NES (Europe), NES (USA)

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	The arcade original has no females, but the NES adds several princess to each world and other female NPCs, but none are important.
Bechdel test?	Fail	The women never talk to each other.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	All the human characters are white.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Credits

Role	Staff
Game Design	Hiroya Kita
Program	Kenji Nishi (Total Director), Moichi Matsumoto (Leader), Yukiya Kidani, Mitsuya Wataya, Yoshinori Tanaka
Graphics	Manchan (Give Me Yome), Kama Yamakazi, Kiyoshi Wataya, Miki Hiraga
Sound (Arcade)	Fan, Noriboz, Sclap
Obstacler	Gomasuri, Kazuchan Jr9cle, Book Bridge, Mama Sugako
High Score Names	Hiroya Kita (as ♥♥♥Hirogon♥♥♥), ♂♂Dandy Harry♂♂, ⚠⚠⚠Mantaro⚠⚠⚠, Miikun♥♥Junchan, ♥Yoshi⛔⛔⛔Kazue♥, ⛉⛉Hirorin♥♥, ☺Mori♥Mamichan☺, ♀♀ Daisuki♥ ♀♀, ☺☺☺Watasan☺☺☺, Mickey
Music and Sound Effects (NES)	Masahiko Ishida

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Kickle Cubicle
Japanese	迷宮島	Meikyu Jima	Labyrinth Island

• MAME code: kikcubic

Links