The Cub

The Cub is a fascinating romp through post-apocalyptic Earth. Balancing dark themes with delightful levity, the game finds a way to showcase both the best and worst of humanity with biting wit, vivid visuals, and impeccably implemented audio. It’s all let down somewhat by gameplay sequences that can’t maintain the same quality as the game’s other elements. However, even with that rather big caveat, The Cub still manages to present a lovely package worth opening.

Drawing inspiration from the greatest age of video game platformers—the 16-bit era—The Cub creates an atmospheric world that is a joy to traverse. The somewhat stiff controls and the basic level design can't take away the charm built by the gorgeous visuals and the juicy story, which is told through a cheeky radio broadcast—from Mars!

Despite The Cub’s basic platforming, with clunky trial and error, its slightly bizarre world, cool and varied music, and great visual design make it worth playing.

Despite the good story, The Cub is just an average platform with movements and jumps that can feel stiff at times.

The Cub is a halfway successful adventure. It has lost the elegance of the narrative of Golf Club: Wasteland and the uniqueness of an alienating gameplay that made the radio alone the narrative tool of a game where, in fact, you played mini-golf. It remains a fitting story about the conditions our Earth is in and what we must do to safeguard and protect it, but the timid attempts to propose almost alternative paths and some puzzles are not enough to save stale sections of stealth and escapes. The Cub is still a pleasant game to spend a few hours on and be amazed by the wonderful moments given by the radio, but not much more.