Kickle Cubicle is a 1990 action-puzzle game developed by Irem for the NES. Players take on the role of Kickle, a hero tasked with saving the Fantasy Kingdom from the Wicked Wizard King. Using his freezing breath, Kickle must turn enemies into blocks of ice to solve intricate, single-screen puzzles across four distinct elemental lands.
How to Play
Your objective in each level is to collect all the red Dream Bags. The controls use the standard NES layout: move Kickle with the arrow keys, press Z to use your freezing breath, and X to kick. When you freeze an enemy, it turns into an ice block. You can then kick these blocks so they slide across the screen to defeat other enemies or drop into the water to build bridges. Pressing Enter acts as Start, and Shift acts as Select.
Tips
- You can create an ice pillar on an empty tile directly in front of you by using your freezing breath. This pillar acts as a stopper, letting you precisely position sliding ice blocks without them falling into the water or sliding too far.
- Pay attention to springboards on the map; kicking an ice block into one will bounce it in the direction the springboard is facing, which is the key to solving many of the game’s later puzzles.
- Unlike most puzzle games, each world ends with a boss fight. You cannot freeze the bosses directly; instead, you must freeze the smaller enemies they spawn and kick the ice blocks back to deal damage.
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