The Gube - 3D Rubik's Cube

The Rubik’s Cube is one of those iconic products of the modern age that everyone professes to loving but few could actually say they ever really understood. Speaking from personal experience I can state right now that in my entire life I have never ‘solved’ a Rubik’s Cube – despite owning so many of the damned things that I could probably construct a sizeable tribute sculpture out of them.

By my reckoning that makes me the perfect person to review The Gube, a digital representation of Ernő Rubik epically infuriating plaything.

Ignoring the fact that there are indigenous tribes deep in the heart of the Amazon that know what the ultimate objective of a Rubik’s Cube is, here follows a quick rundown of what the heck it’s all about.

You’re given a cube (with six sides, obviously) which has nine squares on each face. Each of these squares is one of six different colours: white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow. Each face is able to move independently which allows you to rearrange the position of the coloured squares with the aim of making each of the cube’s six sides the same shade.

Like all devilishly addictive puzzles, the concept may seem straightforward but the execution is mind-bendingly complex. Because each face is connected, rotating one side will obviously have a knock-on effect elsewhere, and getting your head around which moves to make requires patience, superhuman forward-thinking and copious amounts of worryingly strong alcohol.

(Ok, maybe not the last one.)

In a nutshell, The Gube is a Rubik’s Cube inside your mobile phone. Interacting with the cube itself is a matter of swiping your digit across the touchscreen; to rotate the cube horizontally, you swipe from left to right (or vice versa). Vertical orientation is handled by swiping up or down.

To rotate one of the faces you have to select it with your finger and then motion in the direction you wish it to spin. It’s a wonderfully intuitive control system that makes the most of the G1’s gloriously responsive capacitive touchscreen.

Naturally, because this is a digital version of the famous puzzle it offers features that would be impossible with the real-world edition. For example, you can undo your last 100 moves by pressing the phone’s ‘back’ button, which means if you bodge up by taking the wrong route, you can return to a more promising position where the solution seemed to be close at hand.

Serious ‘Rubik’ fans (essentially the semi-elite band of people that can actually say they’ve solved one in their lifetimes) usually like to time their performance against the clock, so they’ll undoubtedly be pleased to know that The Gube features its own built-in stopwatch that meticulously quantifies your progress – or lack of, as the case may be.

Aside from a few cosmetic options (you can make the 3D cube look a bit snazzier by turning on dynamic lighting, for instance) and control variables (sensitivity, finger size, the speed at which the cube’s faces rotate) there’s really not much else to report. This is a Rubik’s Cube on your mobile – which, ironically, is the key issue with the whole thing.

While we’ve already established that I’m no expert on solving this most famous of puzzles, I do know that the Rubik’s Cube is a particularly tactile experience and that’s why it continues to both baffle and entertain legions of people after all these years.

You simply cannot replace the feeling of holding the cube in your sweaty palms as you swear like a sailor after spending the last three hours unsuccessfully trying to get within spitting distance of the solution. And failing miserably.

For all its authenticity, features and admittedly pretty 3D visuals, The Gube sadly lacks the ‘touchy-feely’ aspect that is so intrinsic to the appeal of the puzzle. You’ll be surprised at how lifeless it can feel without having that familiar six-sided lump of plastic in your fingertips.

Naturally, there’s the argument that while the Rubik’s Cube is compact enough to effortlessly slide into your rucksack, you’ll struggle to store one in your pocket unless you wear trousers from the MC Hammer school of fashion, and in that respect you could insist that The Gube serves a purpose – certainly, it's probably the next best thing.

However, this feels like a solution in search of a problem. Ultimately, do we really need a virtual adaptation of the Rubik’s Cube when the real thing is so portable and such a joy to use?