Games Only I Played - Kickle Cubicle

From the E/N Elite 3 Archives...

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Hey guys, its Lizard Breath with another post coming your way. Anyway, I have unofficially declared this, to quote Avianna, "The Web Site for the Grown Up Geek." I am just waiting for 5iN to squash that idea or say "yeah...that kicks ass."

Anyway, I hope I can start something here about games only YOU played. You know, the game that you are pretty damn sure no one else in their right mind has ever heard of. However, it is your gem.

Back in the days of the NES, my brother received the game, Kickle Cubicle, as your stereotypical "Grandma gift." Well, six months after the gift had collected dust, my brother and I finally popped this sucker in.I am thoroughly convinced that in the 1980s, video game programmers dropped acid and then designed a game. As you can tell by the cover, this game is very much an acid trip.

As far as describing the game mechanics, I am lazy asshole. If you are familiar with Lolo, then you have an idea. However, for specifics, I am going to quote a review I found on Gamefaqs.com:

"The big innovation lies in the fact that Kickle must ironically rely on the enemies themselves to beat each stage until he has to face an always-tough boss. By spitting ice-balls, Kickle transforms the regular enemies into bricks and he may then use those to reach the red bags. These ice-balls also enable Kickle to dispose of most other fiends as he just needs to turn them into ice before kicking them. Other than killing enemies, the kicking option turns into a creating-pillars one when there are no enemies around which allows Kickle to trap enemies. "

It is an overhead puzzle game that will keep you hooked for hours if you don't watch it. My own father once spent an entire Sunday on Kickle. I think what hooked us all in was repetitive music that is now clouding my head again (AHH!). You will spend hours trying to figure out where to freeze the enemies and push the blocks to collect the Teddy Bears to beat the level (why? I don't fucking know, its an NES game!).

Well, I am too lazy of an asshole to desscribe some of the acid trips, so here are random quotes I found around the internet to describe them. I didn't write this. If you want credit, e-mail me and I'll give where credit is due or remove it at your request:

"Kickle Cubicle, our ten-year-old hero, lives in a world of turmoil. His homeland, the Fantasy Kingdom, has been encased in ice by the Wicked Wizard King, a snowman-esque villain who wears a bucket on his head. The four palaces overlooking the Kingdom have been seized by his minions, and most of the loyal subjects are shoved into magic bags, never to be released. What's a boy to do? Luckily, in this arctic nightmare, Kickle has been given the amazing powers to freeze living beings with his breath, and magically craft ice cylinders with his hands. He straps himself to a balloon, travels through the ice floes, and freezes his enemies to use as weapons and stepping stones in the ice. It’s all for the sake of rescuing the inhabitants of the Fantasy Kingdom, which are mostly comprised of corn, tomatoes, cakes, along with other edible individuals. "

"A clue comes to us just two levels into the game in the form of a bearded, bespectacled corn-on-the-cob who approaches our hero and informs him that the Wizard King has usurped the Fantasy Kingdom throne and has confined the innocent denizens of the world to these islands of bitter cold and despair."

The great thing is that I am pretty much the only person I knew in my surrounding area that has both: A. Heard of this game and B. Constantly raves about it and puts it up there with Tetris, Dr. Mario, & Yoshi's Cookie. Hey, Grandma gifts aren't always a bad thing.

No matter what, they just don't make games like this anymore. Now I don't know if this is due to mandatory drug testing by the corporations or not, that's not my field. However, I think the world can use some addicting LSD puzzlers again.

If you got the time, I highly recommend downloading an emulator and this rom. You may or may not regret it!

Also, to the rest of you E/N Eliters...I want to hear about the games that no one else has really heard of but you!