Review by: Jason McMaster

In Death by Cube, you play a robot killing waves of other robots. Your name is Leo and you have to go reboot the robot heroine. You have, however, lost your memory and know nothing of the world you currently inhabit. All you have to go on is that there are a lot of other robots trying to kill you and you don't want that to happen.

In its most base elements, Death by Cube is a shooter. You fire waves of lasers with the right thumb stick to destroy wave after wave of evil robots. Each part of the game is introduced via level challenges that must be completed to open up the next part. There are also extra challenges to be completed per level for extra points, but they’re not necessary to move forward.

Other than using the stick to fire a million lasers, you can also use the triggers to either charge and stun robots or collect their shots and fire them back. This is pretty handy when you need to get somewhere fast or there's a wall of munitions coming at you. On top of those moves, you can also buy several different robot bodies with special abilities. You earn the points to buy these upgrades by completing levels and extra challenges. Not only do the upgrades make the game easier on certain levels but, honestly, I'm not sure if it's possible to beat some of the levels without them.

Most levels in Death by Cube are straight-up shooting levels where the only goal is to outlive the enemies, but there's also base defense. In this type of game, you either have to destroy the enemy base or keep yours from being destroyed. Naturally, there's a suit to help with base levels as well!

With any game that requires loads of shooting and massive amounts of enemies coming out of everywhere, there's going to be a good bit of frustration. These games are rarely designed to be forgiving and Death by Cube is no exception. The different power-ups you can buy will certainly kick a lot of butt in certain situations, but it gets kind of old having to save up and buy something special just to survive a level.

In the end, Death by Cube is a decent, cheap arcade shooter for any fan who needs a quick fix. The action is very frantic and the challenge level will certainly keep you playing for a while. Well, that is if you don't lose your cool and throw the controller through a window.