Rubik's Cube Relaxing:

In Brief:
Virtually everyone has come across a Rubiks cube at some point in their lives. I remember getting one back in the early 80's. We've been given a Rubik game previously on 14th March 20, 2008, called Rubicon HERE. This was one of the last games we got before the game giveaway stopped giving away games on a daily basis (until 2018, when Falcoware joined the team and has given away games most weekdays since).

Today's game, created using the Unity engine by Uniden (who have previously given us lots of jigsaw puzzles as well as other arcade games), opens in a window. The game has options to be able to create a cube with the six faces ranging from 2x2 to a 10x10 cube. The latter being virtually impossible to solve unless you have hundreds of hours to spare; (please see my conclusion for a reason why spending so much time trying to solve the larger puzzles is unlikely due to a limitation with the program); or work out a concise technique for completing the puzzle.

The original 3x3 Rubik Cube had the potential of between 239,500,800 to 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 move permutations depending on whether arrangements of the centres were allowed; and that's just for the 3x3 cube, so you can probably multiply the 3x3 permutations by trillions or even quadrillions for the larger cubes.

Apart from the different sizes of cube, you can also change the skin colour/design three times and select from ten different background images, as well as several different mainly soothing background music tracks.

To start playing, open up the Settings menu (via the settings icon in the top left of the window), select the size you wish to play (I advise starting with the original 3x3 cube, or even the simpler 2x2 cube; then, choose your background and music. Once you are set to go, click on the shuffle button to start the game, the default is set to 50 shuffles, but you can change the shuffle depth from just one shuffle to one hundred shuffles. The greater the number of shuffles you choose, the more mixed up the colours on each face will be and consequently the harder the puzzle will be to solve. :)

There are techniques, that I'm sure you can find on Google or watch one of the many You Tube speed run videos that show you various techniques for solving different sizes of the cube, that will help you solve the puzzle (if you get stuck or are at a loss as to what to do). If you find it virtually impossible to solve, or you run out of time (in the real world), you can automatically solve it by clicking on the Solve button.

When Rubrik's patent ran out in 2000, many Chinese and other toy manufactures flooded the market with many different versions of the puzzle. The classic version is the nine squares per side of the cube i.e. 3 x 3.


You can see a video of Rubik's Cube Relaxing HERE. You can also see some videos of how to solve a 3x3 Rubrik cube HERE (~11mins) & HERE (~10 mins), a 4x4 cube HERE & HERE , a 5x5 cube HERE & HERE and a 6x6 Cube HERE & HERE. You can also find tutorials for the other cube sizes up to 10 via You Tube. The world record for solving an 8x8 cube is 5mins 49.8 seconds. Wow! It takes me a lot longer just to solve a 3 x 3 cube, lol. Check out the following video of a young Chinese boy solving three classic 3x3 Rubik Cubes in 5 minutes while juggling them (yes really) HERE.

Controls:

Hold RMB = Move cube in 3D
Hold LMB = Move slice of the Cube
MMB = Zoom
Mouse pointer + LMB = change settings

Conclusion:
Rubik's Cube Relaxing is an excellent version of this famous puzzle and it's easy to play, with only a few mouse actions required to play the game. It's obviously not as tactile as the original puzzle and you wouldn't be able to do speed cubing as the mouse action is quite slow, but it does what a Rubik cube is supposed to do with respect to the movement of the blocks.

I still have a Rubik's cube somewhere in the attic; this may prompt me to dig it out. :)

I doubt most community members would be able to solve the large puzzles, though they are obviously possible as the videos on You Tube show. That said, unless you're an expert with the Rubik cube, the first three or four should keep you entertained for a long time, unless you find the puzzles frustrating. Check out You Tube for more visual clues as to how to solve a cube if you get stuck. There are hundreds of examples.

If you have difficulty moving the slices, change the sensitivity of your mouse (if you have a gaming mouse you'll find a button on the bottom of the mouse or one of the extra buttons on the side or next to the mouse wheel that allows you to change the mouse sensitivity. I initially found it almost impossible to move a slice in either direction until I turned my mouse sensitivity to maximum (an ambidextrous Razer Viper Ultralight mouse) I usually have mine set to low when I'm playing most games otherwise the mouse tends to wander all over the place with just a small movement of the mouse (ideal if you are playing FPS games using a shotgun. Sniper weapons need low sensitivity otherwise it's really hard to hit your target accurately).

My only complaints with this game are the lack of a save function and, when you close the game down, it resets all the settings to the original default settings. If you close the game down before you've completed the puzzle, you lose your progress, which makes it virtually impossible to solve any of the large puzzles especially anything over a 4x4 cube, unless you are clued up with the techniques for solving them or are willing to keep your computer on for many hours or even days without exiting the game.

Rubik's Cube Relaxing would be vastly improved if the two issues I've mentioned above were sorted and also include the ability to save your progress at any point, with multiple saves for the various cube sizes and the ability to create profiles for family and friends.

Notes on Security
I scanned a zipped copy of the installed game using the free version of Virus Total and the scan found zero hits from 61 antimalware engines. You can see the results of the installed games scan HERE