Colour Cubes Specialty Games
Colour Cubes is a unique arcade game from IGT-subsidiary Specialty Games, that plays out on a 7x7 grid of brightly-coloured squares, awarding prizes as groups of the same kind are collected in win-meters to the side. It’s fast-playing game, that manages to be very simple in concept, but quite exciting in practice, as players are given a certain number of turns to collect enough of each colour.
Like all online slots from Speciality Games, it’s fair and reliable, with a decent average return on wagers, plus it’s a mobile-optimised slot, so you can play across smartphones, tablet computers and PC’s just as easily. It’s not really a slot machine, as there are no reels spinning, or paylines to bet on, but it’s got some similarities, such as bonus symbols and extra ways to win.
There’s no real theme here either, as all we see is the grid, the 6 levels of the win-meter and a colourful background picture that sees the squares stretching off into the distance. It’s a simple design that perfectly compliments the simple nature of the Colour Cubes video slot (which for the sake of simplicity, we’ll keep calling a slot machine.)
Squaring up to Colour Cubes
There are free Colour Cubes video slot games available and this could be a good way to get used to the concept, but it’s pretty simply really, and gamblers should have it worked out in no time. Bet sizes are set using ‘+’ and ‘-‘ buttons, raising stakes from a low limit of 1.00, to a maximum of 10.00, but no matter how much is wagered, players get 10 turns at winning a prize.
The 7x7 grid is filled with randomly dispersed colour blocks, around which there’s a metal-effect frame. Clicking ‘Go’ causes a single horizontal, and single vertical bolt of energy to cross from one side of this frame to the other, moving around a little until they stop.
Where the lines cross is the important bit, as whichever square is at the intersection gets zapped, along with any connected horizontal and vertical squares of the same colour. These are then transferred across to the win-meter, in the relevant colour section, building up over the 10 turns until hopefully, at least 1 colour section is filled up.
Win-Meter Values
All symbols carry the same value, but while it’s relatively easy to collect 6 red squares over the 10 turns for a prize of 1x the stake, it gets increasingly difficult to fill up other sections of the meter. You will need 7 orange squares to win 4x the triggering stake, 8 yellows, which will equal a prize of 15x, 9 green squares for a win of 40x the bet, 10 of the blues for a nice 500x reward, and the best outcome is to collect 11 of the purple squares, for a massive prize equal to 10,000x the stake.
All cubes that are part of a winning combination will disappear as they move across to the win-meter, which leaves spaces for any above to drop down in to, and new cubes will fall from above to create a new mix of symbols on the grid, similar to the Tumbling Reels, or Cascading Reels that various slot machine developers use in their games.
Another similarity to slot machines is the way that there are more of the lower-value symbols in play than high-value ones, but also like many slot games, there’s special symbols that trigger bonus features.
Blowing Up Winnings
If you pinpoint a bomb symbol, there’s an explosion and all cubes surrounding it, of any colour, will be collected, while a special star symbol pays out a random instant win whenever the lines of energy cross over it. Although only a couple of each are likely to be seen in any grid of 49 cubes, it’s often enough to get a few extra cubes collected, or instant wins over the course of 10 turns.
Other Arcade-Style Games
While Colour Cubes is unique in the Speciality Games online casino range, there’s plenty of other arcade-type games available, with many online casinos having whole sections dedicated to these popular titles.
If you want a game with similar abstract symbols and the same system of winning combinations disappearing to be replaced by new symbols, then the classic Bejeweled Cascades could fit the bill. It’s part of the Blueprint Gaming range, and is of course, based on the famous game where the aim is to line up jewels of matching colours, but there’s also free spins with increasing multipliers, wild jewels and a mini-game where you pick instant-win prizes from a grid.
The Verdict on Colour Cubes
Although there’s a simple style, and not much of a theme, this is an exciting game to play. Anticipation builds as the 10 turns count down, and the bars of the win-meters begin to fill up, especially if you start to see some of the higher-paying colours filling a section.
We found that the bonus symbols were selected quite frequently, so you should get some instant wins to cash out with the star icon, or get bombs going off on a reliable basis.
