Cube Life: Island Survival Logo.
- "Imagine being stranded on a beautiful deserted island... All of life's necessities: Food, water, shelter - all of your everyday needs are now gone, and it's up to you to survive. Cannibals and wild animals will not make it any easier for you. You'll need to explore, build, and craft to stay alive. Do you think you have what it takes? Find out in Cube Life: Island Survival!"
Cube Life: Island Survival is an action/adventure cube-based sandbox game. Released exclusively for the Wii U Console on June 4, 2015.
Development
Cube Life Island Survival - Official Teaser 1 Wii U
First trailer for Cube Life: Island Survival
Cypronia, the developers of Cube Life: Island Survival, first announced the game in January of 2015. They stated that players on Xbox One and PS4 all had Minecraft, but Wii U users (at the time) didn't. They said that Wii U users "Deserve something special of their own." And that "Nintendo Fans This Is For You" In their first commercial for the game. From the start Cypronia promised to update the game, adding new features based on fan feedback, a Promise they made well on. Cube Life: Island Survival had three large updates, each of which radically changed the way the game was played. Cypronia announced each of the updates before they were released, and allways gave some projection of the release date. These projections, however, always turned out to be at least 3 months off. Cypronia's explanation for this was usually because they had difficulty getting past Nintendo's quality moderators.
Version 1.1
Cube Life Island Survival - Update v1.1 - Official TEASER Wii U
This massive upgrade, released on November 20, 2015, added many of the modern features that define the game. It added Multiplayer, pets, 3rd person views and a larger map. It introduced the Scorpion Queen.
Version 1.2
Version 1.2 was another landmark update that brought new features to the game that fans had asked for for a long time, such as a redesigned Cannibal AI. It also brought about Cube Life's signature Kraken and Cannibal bosses. It was released July 7, 2016.
Version 1.3
Version 1.3 was the last update for the Wii U version of the game. Its major feature was the new Skin Editor, but the rest was mostly bug fixes and additional items. It was released May 4, 2017.
Cube Life Island Survival 2018 - The Official Trailer (Steam PS4 Nintendo Switch)
Version 1.5
This version was technically a whole new game (also known as Cube Life: Island Survival 2018). It ported Cube Life: Island Survival to Steam and added a whole bunch of new features, most notably its graphics overhaul. It marked the end of the Wii U version, and the beginning of a new career on other platforms.
Version 1.6
This patch was announced 5 days prior to its release on April 26, 2018, and features were developed as Cypronia asked/answered questions on the Steam community. It contained several adjustments fans asked for, including an increase in Tool durability, a decrease in Boar leather required to craft a Bed, tweaks to the way Ladders are crafted, a sprite upgrade for the GUI and several items (making them 16-bit) and improved water visibility. It redid the inventory system, allowing for improved item stacking and allowing the number keys to be used to select items. It added a search feature in the crafting GUI, inspired by a search bar feature suggested by a Steam User, it allows the user to click on an item to see all related recipes in either the Crafting table, Backpack or Furnace. v1.6 also changed the bird-call Soundtrack.
Version 1.6.1
This minor update, released on April 27, 2018, allowed the game to support the Japanese language. Introduced a bug where bloom could not be turned on/off.
Version 1.6.2
This minor update, released on May 3, 2018, addded support for the Spanish language. It also corrected a bug where bloom could not be deactivated, made adjustments to item durability, fixed a bug with rafts, and added new designs for Cannibals and Natives.
Version 1.6.3
Another minor update that added the Russian language and fixed some bugs.
Version 1.6.4
A patch that added a promo link displaying the latest news in the bottom left corner. Also redid some armor.
Version 1.6.5
A medium sized update that added a lot of new content to Creative Mode, specifically the ability to instantly create "primitives" and trees.
Version 1.6.6
A game changing update that introduced the farming mechanic and brought a MAC version to the Steam store. Also made many changes to creative mode.
Future
The developers are currently working on integrating Steam Cloud save into the game. They continue to work on balancing items and redoing mob textures and item sprites. While nothing has yet been confirmed, Cypronia has stated that they are considering several features, such as save backups and a new survival mode with procedural generation.
Release
Wii U
Cube Life: Island Survival was released to the Nintendo e'Shop on June 4, 2015. During the first few weeks of its release the game was 50% off. (It normally costs $7.99) The game was wildly popular on Wii U, due to the fact that it filled the market vacuum Minecraft left behind on the platform. In fact, the sales were so good that some believe Cube Life: Island Survival is partly responsible for the release of Minecraft: Wii U edition one year later. A free demo was available, giving players a preview of the gameplay. Cypronia later offered Cube Life: Island Survival customers a limited time discount on their "Rubiks Cube" and "Cube Life: Pixel Action Heroes," games for Wii U, as well as offering "Zombie Brigade" for free during the first week of its release. Cypronia promised to give existing Wii U customers the Newer "2018" version for free. However, when the game released 1 year later, this had been forgotten.
Steam
Cube Life: Island Survival was released on Steam at $14.99 with little fanfare. (Cypronia didn't officially announce it on Twitter until more than a week after the fact). During the first week of its release the game was marked 20% off, and a handful of people who had entered in the lottery were given the game for free.
Gameplay
Cube Life: Island Survival borrowed much of its Gameplay from Minecraft, as it was meant to be a Minecraft Substitute on Wii U. However, it had a much greater emphasis on the "Survival" Mechanics, with a unique, Food, Water and Health system. Players would take on the role of "Barry," the lone survivor of a shipwreck. Barry would have to move from island to island, taking resources in order to craft better armor and build better shelters. At night, Cannibals would come out and try to kill Barry. As Barry killed enemies and gathered resources, he would level up. The Higher Barry's level, the more powerful the Cannibals would become.
The game also had a "Creative Mode," where the player had unlimited resources, many of which were not in the Survival Mode of the game. As of v1.1, two players could play in the Creative Mode at the same time (Player one on the Wii U gamepad, Player two on the TV) in order to build together.
There were also Multiplayer Arcade Style Games, such as "Deathmatch" and "Tower Defense" modes, as well as an online leaderboard for Survival Mode. Later, Cypronia took even greater advantage of the Wii U gamepad by adding a built in Skin Editor.
Reception
Wii U
Cube Life Island Survival recieved mixed to positive reviews, with Metacritic giving it a 55% rating. Nintendo Life gave the game a solid 7, praising the game as "the best sandbox game on Wii U yet," while FNintendo said that "it does not go far enough to become a significant title in the Wii U's library." They did, however, express interest in future updates, as Cypronia had promised to correct several of the faults FNintendo found with the game.
Steam
Cube Life: Island Survival went largely unnoticed on Steam, with a little over 1000 users in its group. It has received mostly positive customer reviews, looking at an 8 star rating during the first weeks of its release, and then dropping to seven stars later on. Critics have not yet reviewed this new version, though many look forward to the Switch version. There is one user Metacritic for this game, and it is positive.
Trivia
- The world in Cube Life: Island Survival is more than 4x larger than the world in Minecraft: Wii U Edition, though there are large load times in between Maps, each of which is about 1/3 the size of a Minecraft: Wii U Edition world.
Gallery
Cube Life Island Survival - Official TRAILER Wii U-0