Sunny Side Up: Cubed is a Video Game by developer Arc.fish for the WOW Cube gaming system, released in March 2023.
Along the WOW Cube, three types of objects are displayed: Weather patterns, Flowers, and empty spaces. The Weather patterns (mainly Suns and Clouds) affect whether nearby Flowers bloom or wilt. The goal is to arrange the Cube in such a way that all the Flowers Bloom.
This game provides examples of:
- All There in the Manual: While the game does contain an explanation at the start of each level on game mechanics, this explanation is limited by the size of the screens on the Cube. There's also no way to pause the explanations. As such it's much easier to read the online Manual (a Miraheze Wiki) instead.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Several:
- Aside from changing appearance when Blooming and Wilting, Flowers also change brightness depending on whether they have an equal amount of Shade and Sunlight, or a greater amount of Shade.
- Suns and Sunflowers affected by the Narcissus get an icon on them to indicate this. Likewise, Flowers affected by Harsh Sunlight also get a corresponding icon.
- The game includes a QR code which leads directly to the online Manual, which also contains hints for each Level.
- A Winner Is You: The game ends with some vague messages about how "Spring arrived thanks to you" followed by pictures of all the flowers saying "Thank you!", before it cuts to the credits.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Blooming Flowers have a green background, while wilting Flowers have a brown background. Additionally, empty spaces contain grass which is also colored green regardless of how much Light they have, to make it easier for the player to focus on the brown colored Wilting Flowers.
- Creative Closing Credits: The credits are shown across each side of the Cube. In addition, as the game was a one-man/woman job, most of the credits are just the creator in different wigs/clothes/make-up.
- Face–Heel Turn: Throughout most of the game, the Suns and Sunflowers help you to bloom Flowers. When the Harsh Sun is introduced however, the Suns and Sunflowers make blooming flowers more difficult instead.
- Heel–Face Turn: Throughout most of the game, the Clouds and Nightshades constantly hinder you in blooming flowers other than Bromeliads, and the Narcissus prevents other flowers from using Sunlight. When the Harsh Sun is introduced however, Clouds, Nightshades and Narcissus suddenly help the player to bloom Flowers close to the Harsh Sun.
- Nintendo Hard: The levels start out easy, with each level having plenty of different possible solutions. With the introduction of the Narcissus, the complexity increases drastically, as only a handful of positions will work. However, the introduction of the Harsh Sun pushes the difficulty into Nintendo Hard territory, as now it's almost impossible to beat the Level unless you create the intended arrangement.
- No Plot? No Problem!: Unlike its counterpart for Mobile and Nintendo Switch, the Cubed version doesn't have any plot or justification for why you are trying to bloom these flowers.
- Puzzle Game: The game consists of twisting the Rubik's Cube-like WOW Cube to create an arrangement where all Flowers are Blooming.
- Retraux: The soundtrack consists only of old-school sounding midis.
- Sunny Sunflower Disposition: When in Bloom, the Sunflowers in this game actually spread Sunlight, which allows nearby flowers to bloom as well.
- Towering Flower: The Titan Arum is the largest flowers in the world, represented in this game by occupying four spaces instead of the normal one.
