Kuba – Review

Kuba
Company: Patch Products
Estimated Price: $30.00
http://www.patchproducts.com

I’m a sucker for a new and exciting game, especially
something that’s either a new concept or an existing game
(board or video) that has been made fresh and new. So, when I first read about Kuba, I was somewhat excited. Here was a board game turned video game which I was hoping would fill my cravings for something new and different, while yet retaining some of the features I enjoyed from the board game version.

In Kuba, your goal is to knock either seven red marbles off the board before your opponent or completely knock your opponent off the board. If it sounds simple, you’re both right and wrong!

You can play either against the computer or a carbon-based opponent (human). It would be great if this game was actually “Internet Playable” as the CD cover suggests, but that’s only true for the Windows version. Why Patch software could not make the Mac version playable over either the Internet or Modem is beyond my comprehension. There is absolutely no multi-player option if you’re on a Mac. I find the tagline “Internet Playable” on the box and CD cover to be both insulting and false advertising. Sure, it’s “Internet Playable” if you’re on a lame Windows machine, but not on a Mac. Of course, you will not learn of this seemingly small oversight until after you’ve taken the game home, opened the box, and read the manual. Networking Mac games is much easier than it is to network a PC game, so I see no reason why this game was released half-finished. There is a patch on-line for Kuba that promises to fix the problem, and it does. Of course, it would be nice if they could have released the game in full working order.

The actual game play is quite fun, though at times the rules make no sense. I can push a foe, he can push back, but I cannot push him again. Makes no sense. But beyond that, the game play is both entertaining and fun. It’s the sort of game that makes you say aloud “Duh! I should have seen that one coming!”

One aspect I do not like is that when you finish a game it takes three steps to start a new game. You always see the “Victory” screen after every game, but you have to click the screen to get rid of it. Then you have to click “New Game” and go back through a setup process to simply start a new game… even if you use the same settings!

Kuba must be run at 256 colors, but unlike most well-developed games, Kuba is not able to switch your monitor colors for you. Therefore if you use your monitor at anything higher than that setting, you must manually change to 256 colors every time you play. This is not a difficult thing for a programmer to develop in their software, but Patch Software didn’t bother going the extra distance to make the game that much better.

All in all, Kuba was an entertaining and challenging game, though I lost interest in it after a dozen times playing or so. I am also somewhat disappointed that Patch Software released this game with as many flaws as they did. I would like to play the game on a PC and see if game play is any better.

MacMice Rating: 2

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Tim Robertson
publisher@mymac.com

Websites mentioned:
http://www.patchproducts.com