Block builder a bit to confined

Few things make me feel happier than getting a new game to the table – one made of wood where you get to move pieces around. There is a tactile joy in the game play that is a hard to put into words – but to put it simply I like it.

So Qubik hit the table with an expectation of enjoying it simply based on the fact the game pieces are all chunky wooden cubes – but well-made cubes at that with rounded corners, and with the varying colours of the pieces it looks very nice.

The rules of Qubik – from designer Preeda Pitianusorn -- are super simple. Players take turns to place a cube into a 3x3x3 space until a player creates a straight line of one colour to win. The player has two cubes pulled from a common bag to chose from, pulling a new one after each placement.

It suggests a typical game of Qubik takes around 5-15 minutes, although it seems to tilt heavily toward the shorter end of the spectrum.

It is interesting Qubik can be played by one-to-seven players. The Meeple Guild only gets higher numbers out for role playing so we have not challenged Qubik with lots of players, but with a maximum cube size of 27, with seven players you are not likely to get many turns, and I’d think games might end before the later players get a second turn. The sweet spot, like many games is likely three or four players.

There are three modes of play casual, competitive, and solo. The first two are rather similar and frankly all games are competitive in general.

As a solo effort Qubik is more ‘puzzly’ in nature, but it is a nice feature in a small package game.

On Board Game Geek it was noted, “Qubik is a combination of the classic Tic-Tac-Toe and the Rubik’s Cube” which is quite an apt description.

Now Qubik is not a game in contention to top a list of great games, but it plays quick and in combination with its compact size is a solid coffee break option that will look good on the table to attract interest.

And of course you do get to stack those nice wooden cubes which is a bonus too.

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