Cube Life: Island Survival

*"Imagine being stranded on a beautiful deserted island... All of life's necessities: Food, water, shelter - all of your everyday needs are now gone, and it's up to you to survive. Cannibals and wild animals will not make it any easier for you. You'll need to explore, build, and craft to stay alive. Do you think you have what it takes? Find out in Cube Life: Island Survival!"*
**Cube Life: Island Survival** is an action/adventure cube-based sandbox game, released exclusively for the Wii U Console on June 4, 2015.

## Development

Cypronia, the developers of *Cube Life: Island Survival*, first announced the game in January of 2015. They stated that players on Xbox One and PS4 all had *Minecraft*, but Wii U users (at the time) didn't. They said that Wii U users "Deserve something special of their own." And that "Nintendo Fans This Is For You" In their first commercial for the game. From the start Cypronia promised to update the game, adding new features based on fan feedback, a Promise they made well on. *Cube Life: Island Survival* had three large updates, each of which radically changed the way the game was played. Cypronia announced each of the updates before they were released, and always gave some projection of the release date. These projections, however, always turned out to be at least 3 months off. Cypronia's explanation for this was usually because they had difficulty getting past Nintendo's quality moderators.

### Version 1.1

Version 1.1 was a massive update, It added many of the modern features that define the game such as Multiplayer, pets, 3rd person views and a larger map. It also introduced the Scorpion Queen boss. it was released on December 22, 2015

### Version 1.2

Version 1.2 was another landmark update that brought new features to the game that fans had asked for for a long time, such as a redesigned Cannibal AI. It also brought about the Kraken and Cannibal Boss. It was released July 7, 2016.

### Version 1.3

Version 1.3 was the last update for the Wii U version of the game. Its major feature was the new Skin Editor, but the rest was mostly bug fixes and additional items. It was released April 5, 2017.

### Version 1.4

Version 1.4 was the version in between Wii U and Steam/PS4/Switch versions which was released for Google Play (Android Devices). it was released August 2018.

### Version 1.5

Version 1.5 was technically a whole new game (also known as *Cube Life: Island Survival 2018*). It ported *Cube Life: Island Survival* to Steam and added a whole bunch of new features, most notably its graphics overhaul. It marked the end of the Wii U version, and the beginning of a new career on other platforms.

### Version 1.6

Version 1.6 was announced 5 days prior to its release on April 26, 2018, and features were developed as Cypronia asked/answered questions on the Steam community. It contained several adjustments fans asked for, including an increase in Tool durability, a decrease in Boar leather required to craft a Bed, tweaks to the way Ladders are crafted, a sprite upgrade for the GUI and several items (making them 16-bit) and improved water visibility. It redid the inventory system, allowing for improved item stacking and allowing the number keys to be used to select items. It added a search feature in the crafting GUI, inspired by a search bar feature suggested by a Steam User, it allows the user to click on an item to see all related recipes in either the Crafting table, Backpack or Furnace. v1.6 also changed the bird-call Soundtrack.

#### Version 1.6.1

Version 1.6.1 was a minor update, released on April 27, 2018. It allowed the game to support the Japanese language. Introduced a bug where bloom could not be turned on/off.

#### Version 1.6.2

Version 1.6.2 was a minor update, released on May 3, 2018. It added support for the Spanish language. It also corrected a bug where bloom could not be deactivated, made adjustments to item durability, fixed a bug with rafts, and added new designs for Cannibals and Natives.

#### Version 1.6.3

Version 1.6.3 was a minor update that added the Russian language and fixed some bugs.

#### Version 1.6.4

Version 1.6.4 added a promo link displaying the latest news in the bottom left corner. It also redid some armor.

#### Version 1.6.5

Version 1.6.5 was a medium sized update that added a lot of new content to Creative Mode, specifically the ability to instantly create "primitives" and trees.

#### Version 1.6.6

Version 1.6.6 was a game-changing update that introduced the farming mechanic and brought a MAC version to the Steam store. Also made many changes to creative mode.

#### Version 1.6.7

Version 1.6.7 fixed many bugs related to TNT and explosions.

#### Version 1.6.8

Version 1.6.8 enhanced creative mode, adding hollow prefabs and fixing bugs.

### Version 1.7

Version 1.7 further expanded creative mode, adding kitchen appliances and also fixing more bugs.

#### Version 1.7.1

Version 1.7.1 added support for ultra wide formats!

### Version 1.8

Version 1.8 further optimized the game for lower end PCs and added support for up to five save slots as opposed to just one.

#### Version 1.8.1

Version 1.8.1 improved NPC AI and added more creative mode functionality.

### Future updates

The developers are currently working on integrating Steam Cloud save into the game. They continue to work on balancing items and redoing mob textures and item sprites. While nothing has yet been confirmed, Cypronia has stated that they are considering several features, such as save backups and a new survival mode with procedural generation.

## ​Release

### Wii U

*Cube Life: Island Survival* was released to the Nintendo e'Shop on June 4, 2015. During the first few weeks of its release the game was 50% off. (It normally costs $7.99) The game was wildly popular on Wii U, due to the fact that it filled the market vacuum Minecraft left behind on the platform. In fact, the sales were so good that some believe *Cube Life: Island Survival* is partly responsible for the release of Minecraft: Wii U edition one year later. A free demo was available, giving players a preview of the gameplay. Cypronia later offered *Cube Life: Island Survival* customers a limited time discount on their *Rubik's Cube* and *Cube Life: Pixel Action Heroes*, games for Wii U, as well as offering "Zombie Brigade" for free during the first week of its release. Cypronia promised to give existing Wii U customers the Newer "2018" version for free. However, when the game released 1 year later, this had been forgotten.

### Steam

*Cube Life: Island Survival* was released on Steam at $14.99 with little fanfare. (Cypronia didn't officially announce it on Twitter until more than a week after the fact). During the first week of its release the game was marked 20% off, and a handful of people who had entered in the lottery were given the game for free.

### Android Version

In 2019 Cypronia unexpectedly released an Android version of the game with no announcement. It is available only on Google Play.

## Gameplay

*Cube Life: Island Survival* borrows much of its Gameplay from *Minecraft*, as it is meant to be a *Minecraft* substitute on Wii U. However, it has a much greater emphasis on the "Survival" mechanics, with a unique Food, Water, and Health system. Players would take on the role of Barry, the lone survivor of a shipwreck. Barry would have to move from island to island, taking resources in order to craft better Armor and build better shelters. At night, Cannibals would come out and try to kill Barry. As Barry killed enemies and gathered resources, he would level up. The Higher Barry's level, the more powerful the Cannibals would become.

The game also has a Creative Mode, where the player has access to unlimited resources, many of which were not in the Survival Mode of the game. As of Version 1.1, two players could play in the Creative Mode at the same time (with Player one on the Wii U gamepad, and Player two on the TV) in order to build together.

There is also Multiplayer arcade-style games, such as Deathmatch and Tower Defense modes, as well as an online leaderboard for Survival Mode. Later, Cypronia took even greater advantage of the Wii U gamepad by adding a built in Skin Editor.

In the Steam version of the game, the multiplayer modes have been removed, but the skin editor has been retained. Survival mode has been greatly enhanced over the course of several updates, and future updates will likely add more content to the Steam version while the Wii U version is now considered obsolete.

## ​Reception

### Wii U

*Cube Life: Island Survival* recieved mixed to positive reviews, with Metacritic giving it a 55% rating. Nintendo Life gave the game a solid 7, praising the game as "the best sandbox game on Wii U yet," while FNintendo said that "it does not go far enough to become a significant title in the Wii U's library." They did, however, express interest in future updates, as Cypronia had promised to correct several of the faults FNintendo found with the game.

### Steam

*Cube Life: Island Survival* went largely unnoticed on Steam, with a little over 1000 users in its group. It has received mostly positive customer reviews, looking at an 8 star rating during the first weeks of its release, and then dropping to seven stars later on. Critics have not yet reviewed this new version, though many look forward to the Switch version. There is one user Metacritic for this game, and it is positive.

### Android

The Android version of CLIS was positively recieved, winning the title of "3rd best game from Slovakia" in the 4ka Android Code 2019.

## ​Trivia

* The world in *Cube Life: Island Survival* is more than 4x larger than the world in *Minecraft: Wii U Edition*, though there are large load times in between Maps, each of which is about 1/3 the size of a *Minecraft: Wii U Edition* world.