Cubic Ninja uses the standard "princess in danger" setup to give you an excuse to go through the game's many puzzles. You play as CC, your basic ninja-cube that has surprisingly few moves to show off. Actually, besides four power-ups, all CC can do is slide around the level in the direction that you tilt your 3DS.
That's where the game's unique gameplay style comes in. Cubic Ninja touts itself as being a game you can play through without ever touching a button, and that is very much true. Much like some Marble Madness-styled games I've reviewed in the past, you indirectly control CC by tilting the level and letting him slide around. To make matters more interesting, you not only have the ability to slide back and forth across the level, but up and down and towards or away from the camera as well.
As a result, puzzles will have you making your handheld face in all kind of directions in order to get CC past the various traps and enemies you will find. Unfortunately, Cubic Ninja has some of the loosest controls I've seen in a long time. What should be simple tilts towards or away from you in order to slide him in the same axis as the camera end up having your 3DS almost completely face the floor or ceiling before he starts to slide. This is definitely an area that needs improvement if there is going to be a sequel.
As you might imagine, because of all of this tilting, there really isn't a way to keep you and your 3DS at that optimal distance and angle in order to maintain that iffy 3D experience, and that's why the developers decided to turn off that particular feature. It's a bit of a disappointment, but it's understandable.
They did give gamers a second control option though, and while this is turned on, the 3D viewing is also enabled. This other mode lets you use the Circle Pad to tilt the level instead of moving your 3DS around. While this mode definitely takes care of some of that loose-control feeling, it also doesn't feel quite right as far as seeing the level tilt and watching CC go sliding.
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Unfortunately, that isn't the biggest problem with this control setup. While I was easily able to tilt the level left, right, up and down, I could not figure out how to make the level tilt forward and backwards to make CC slide closer or further away from the camera. I tried every other button on the system and I got nothing. I looked through the manual and the most I got was a picture labeling each of the buttons. So, while the controls are more crisp with the Circle Pad and 3D is enabled, there is no way you can actually complete more than the most basic levels the game has to offer. At least, no way I could figure out.
