Cube is the next game in a growing line of solid puzzle titles for the PSP. Like Mercury, Lumines or Practical Intelligence Quotient, Cube makes an effort to use the handheld's power as much as possible.

Cube has a simple overall feel to it. From the block-filled levels to the simple design of the obstacles and enemies, this game's visuals aren't overly complex, but they don't need to be either. Each area has a theme, which is mostly dictated by the color scheme and pattern on the platform's blocks. These slight variations between zones adds enough differences to keep you from feeling like you are looking at the same thing over and over again.

The game's audio seems to be pretty good. Though it is really low key, it gives you just enough stimulation to keep you going. I would have probably preferred the tunes to be a bit faster-paced, but in a puzzle game, if you have to go one way or the other, slower is the safer bet.

Cube has a few different gameplay modes, but they all pretty much come down to the same basic system. You attempt to roll a block down a series of platforms to a glowing gold square. The quicker you get to the end, the better your score. Like similar games, there are various obstacles that can block your progress. These hindrances come in the form of barriers, fans, roaming or stationary bombs and even A.I. controlled enemies that will hurt you if you come in contact with them.

One of the more interesting differences between this game and others (like Mercury for example) is that you can't really fall off of the platform. If you roll over the edge, the level merely rotates so that that edge is now the top. This effect makes you feel "stuck" to the level and really adds a new dimension to getting around obstacles. If a barrier is blocking your path and you can't reach the switch to lower it, go along the side and pass it up.

There are several special blocks that show up in the game as well. These are break-away blocks that disappear after you cross them, clone blocks that let you place another block ahead of you for filling in gaps and movable arrows that redirect roaming bombs into destructible blocks. All of this sounds a bit overwhelming, but Cube does a pretty good job of introducing them all to you in the training levels and slowing putting them into the regular levels.

There are three gameplay modes: Single Player, Two Player and Level Editor. The first one takes you through about 50 levels across 10 zones. Each zone has five levels and there are three zones for each difficulty setting (Easy, Medium, Hard) and a 10th zone for bonus levels that are unlocked by collecting keys within each level in a certain time limit.

Two Player Mode lets you hook up with another player either via Ad Hoc or across the Internet to play one of four types of games: Collect, Co-op, Battle and Race. Collect sees which player can round up the most keys before the clock reaches zero, while Co-op lets the two players work together and roll on top of each other (if necessary) to get to the exit as fast as possible. Battle mode pits the two players against each other in a room full of arrows and bombs. The player that gets blasted the most loses. Then there is the Race mode - here the two players will attempt to reach the exit square as fast as possible. An interesting twist, as far as games of this style go, is that both players are on the same board (instead of just a ghost of the other player) and moving blocks in order to get to the finish might hinder the other player and slow him/her down slightly.

The final mode, Level Editor, is always a nice addition to puzzle games. Here you can design your own maze and move them to your friend's PSP so he/she can play through it. The editor itself is pretty simple, but a reminder to any future level-designers out there, you need to think about all sides of the maze you are building. You don't want the level to look really hard, but all the user has to do is roll to the bottom-side of the platform and go straight to the exit.

Cube has four sets of levels that are accessed from the hub world. These correspond to each of the three difficulty settings and the training levels. For the most part, I felt like the three groups' difficulty was pretty dead on. There were some levels in the Medium section that I felt were easier than the later levels in the Easy section, as well as some that were harder than first levels in the Hard section. But overall, each area's complexity seemed to fit where the developers had put it.

I would definitely recommend going through the training levels first, though. There are enough variations of obstacles and kinds of blocks in this game that, without the added tutorials, many players might feel a bit overwhelmed.

The only real mechanic in Cube that is worth mentioning as a problem is only a minor annoyance. The issue comes about when two separate mechanics clash. The first is the game's auto-save feature, which occurs after finishing a level. The second is the between-level Menu. As soon as you get to the finish line, a Menu pops up asking if you want to progress to the next level, restart this level or go back to the hub world.

The problem comes in the fact that you can't actually select a Menu option until the auto-save is done and it seems the auto-save doesn't start until after the Menu has been up for a second or so. Until I realized that I couldn't actually select "Next Level" until the auto-save icon flashed across the screen, I felt like I had to hit the (X) button several times. The way I see it, the developers had two options. 1) Display an Auto-save screen before showing the Menu, thus making it seem like there were more loading screens or 2) Do what they did and blend the two screens. Unfortunately, after seeing how the second option turned out, I think I would have liked the first choice better.

Overall, Cube is a pretty good and solid puzzle game. The levels get pretty challenging about halfway through the Medium setting, but the game never really feels unbeatable. This is definitely a good game for puzzle fans, but other gamer's might not want to put in the time or effort.