There have been quite a few quirky combinations of Google Maps and gaming since the service debuted in February of 2005. Unfortunately, most of these mash-ups aren't very good or entertaining: They're typically driving simulators that use top-down views from Google Maps as the background for some kind of simulated car race, one that allows players to drive overtop buildings and scenery in some strange, digital version of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Where's the game in that?
Google's now jumped into the gaming fray itself with its new Cube game, which places players on a giant, six-panel cube whose faces spin when generating each of eight new levels. No, you're not competing in some grand survival game within a giant Cube (like the movie). Rather, players are instead given a series of tasks that all require you to tilt the cube, Labyrinth-style, to move your marker to a number of targets – all real-life locations.
And while the game is pretty basic, in that you're really only trying to direct a tiny ball around a maze of buildings, roadblocks, trash cans and other obstacles, Google does manage to throw a few extras into its half-marketing, half-entertainment Cube. On one mission, for example, Google slaps a simulated traffic layer over the map – very similar to the information you'd otherwise find within Google's actual Maps application. Moving through congested roads slows your little marker/ marble down and moving through "green" traffic lets you roll along at your normal pace.
The problem? It's a lot faster to just push right through to your target in a straight line on the corresponding map, traffic be damned.
We're not going to pull any punches: Google's Cube game is a fun little timewaster, but it's nothing that you need take extremely seriously. That said, someone seems to have completed all eight maps in the short time of 2:45 (Google tracks just how long it takes you to complete the map and the game, should you need something to brag about across the various social networks you frequent.)
While a leaderboard, additional challenges, or even a multiplayer overlay to compare your progress against others simultaneously playing the game would all have been fun features, perhaps we'll see those – and larger or more complicated maps – in some kind of Cube II sequel.
Until then, have fun navigating!
For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).
