STRAWBERRY CUBES 1.0

Horror comes in many different different flavors. The conventional horror would have there be some horrifying monsters popping up out of nowhere to kill you. Others serve to unnerve you and keep you on your toes by showing you a creature briefly and having them stay out of view for the remainder of the game. Then, there are games that unnerve you with pure sound design and insanely uncomfortable environments. STRAWBERRY CUBES falls firmly in the last category. If it sounds interesting, then you should use this Starwberry Cubes download.

To install STRAWBERRY CUBES, simply unzip the archive and run the executable and you're good to go.

It's almost impossible to talk about the insanity that this game is. There's no structure, no explanations, no logical flow to anything. You'll definitely want to read the readme as the controls aren't explained and you get new abilities but aren't told what the buttons to use them are.

The game will start off with a nice and familiar title screen, which is about the only thing that is nice and familiar to be found in this game. You spawn in a room with three paths and absolutely no clue on what any of the paths do. Taking any of them will have the room change, and eventually you'll get back to the first room. There are, however, new holes and new ways to traverse the area.

There seems to be no discernable pattern to how these rooms change - only that they do and that you'll have to work with it. This game is also intentionally glitchy. In fact, the entire gameplay seems to be based around glitches. In most games, having knowledge of glitches lets you use it to your advantage, but in this game, it's absolutely essential to moving forward.

For example, here are also occasionally flashes of numbers amongst a rapid flashing graphic that, when you press it, will teleport you there. Other times, it will attach numbers to you, the player, including astericks. If you punch those numbers in, the game will change in some way. Or sometimes, maybe nothing happens at all. It's mind boggling. It rewards observation and gives you a ton of content if you're paying close attention. Other times, you'll have to intentionally walk through walls to progress.

You can also just randomly hit keys on your keyboard, something that the game actually encourages you to do. For example, at one point, hitting the letter G will lead you back to a certain room. Hitting V will let you change the game's aesthetics, but nothing else actually changes. And sometimes, pressing semicolon will produce a chicken that poops out lasers out of its butt. You should give this game a shot with this Strawberry Cubes download.

Other times, hitting certain keys will just randomly warp you to hidden rooms, across the screen, or simply spawn cryptic messages. One of the most noticeable powers that appeared was the ability to spawn endless frogs on the screen that will eventually force your game - and maybe your computer - to crash through sheer quantity and absolutely tank your framerate.

The graphics are intentionally glitchy, and the music is less about music and more ambient, distorted sounds similar to any you'd find in a horror game. That, coupled with the fact that the game will sometimes go dead silent at seemingly random, gives a constant, unnerving feel to the whole thing.

This may be the only game that I've ever played where I can safely say I have no idea what's going on. I have yet to locate a rhyme or reason to it, and I doubt I' ever will unless I take a deep dive into the code. It feels like just a constant randomization of a ton of different factors that is impossible to predict. But does that make it a bad game? It does manage to stay being engaging despite the amount of confusing things going on, something that I personally think is a small miracle.

Overall, if you love finding new things in a game and bask in a horror atmosphere, then you should use this Strawberry Cubes download.