Kickle Cubicle (1990) NES Game Review

Kickle Cubicle ・ 迷宮島
Developed by: Nanao
Published by: Irem (JP, NA, EU)
Release date: June 29, 1990 (JP) | September 1990 (NA) | Some time in 1990 (EU)

In Kickle Cubicle, you play as a little marshmallow guy floating onto islands with a balloon strapped to your back, chatting with sentient foodstuffs in the Antarctic. It’s a quintessential “weird 80’s Japanese game” down to its very bones, and that immediately filled me with joy. They don’t make ’em like this anymore.

Kickle Cubicle is an action puzzle game; the type where your character runs around stages and pushes blocks around to reach the end of a level while avoiding enemies. Think loosely along the lines of Adventures of Lolo, Mendel Palace, or Sokoban. The eponymous Kickle Cubicle is named as such for the way he Kicks Ice Cubes across the ice-slicked islands. When a cube hits the water, it turns into a piece of land for you to tramp across with your little red booties, which is the way one makes progress throughout the aptly named Fantasy Land. All of this Cube Kicking done by Kickle Cubicle happens to be the main mechanic of the game. It’s like he was put on this earth and given that very name to one day kick those cubes and save the world. When destiny calls you for your hyper-specific talents, what’s a fun little guy to do but answer?

Quick sidebar. Kickle is such an adorable looking character. This is also home to what may be the cutest final boss in NES history (not pictured in this review, spoilers and all). How are the Japanese so good at coming up with squishy looking, big-headed lil’ dudes you just want as a keychain or something? Must be something in the water over there.

Anyway, the game gets more complex as it goes on – the environment itself needs to be used to steer the blocks in the direction you want them to go, or stands in your way so you have to think a little harder about it. The goal is to collect all of the red bags in a stage, which are typically out of your reach, which is where the ice blocks come in. The manual says these bags hold the captive citizens of Fantasy Land. I love this kind of thing. At the risk of repeating myself, they really don’t make ’em like this anymore.

You’ll likely never spend more than a few minutes on a single level of Kickle, unlike some of the head-scratchers you’ll bump up against in, say, Solomon’s Key. Continues are unlimited and every level has a password, so the only thing stopping a player from beating Kickle Cubicle is simply the fact that they don’t want to. In fact, one of the only negatives I can say about Kickle is that the difficulty is non-existent as far as puzzle games go. It’s a short, simple and sweet ride. But some days you want to kick (heh) back with a game that isn’t gonna bust your brain and relax, right? I do, anyway. A lot of the time I don’t have the mental energy to even consider tackling difficult darlings like Battletoads or Silver Surfer or whatever. It’s nice to go with the flow of something well designed, and float along for the ride.

And that’s Kickle Cubicle. An adorable puzzling romp that’s as solid as the ice you’ll find yourself kickin’ around like a soccer ball. Most important of all: it’s fun, plain and simple. If this style of puzzler is even remotely your cup of tea, you’ll find yourself in good hands here. Check it out!

Final score: