Video Game / Lyle in Cube Sector

Lyle In Cube Sector is a freeware PC metroidvania made in 2006 by Bogosoft that plays like a cross between Super Metroid and Super Mario Bros. 2.

You work with cubes. With the right upgrades, you can throw them at enemies, use them to propel yourself higher, and make them materialize in your hands. You must use these abilities skillfully in the cube sector to find your cat.

The original PC version is available for download here. There is also a Sega Genesis port that was released in 2024.

See also Corn Kidz 64, a Nintendo 64-styled platformer by the same developer that is billed as a successor to Lyle.

This work contains the following tropes:

• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The game autosaves any key items you collect, so they are not lost on a game over.
  • After a long corridor of enemies and hazards, the entrance to the final boss room contains a pair of respawning health and magic pickups.
  • One of the very few changes to gameplay in the Sega Genesis port is that it sets the early Boingo enemies to not spawn until Lyle has the ability to pick up cubes. Enemies are also more likely to drop healing pickups.
• Attack Reflector: If attacked from the front, the purple walkers will punch your thrown cubes back at you.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: The Big Bad kidnaps Lyle's cat to inexplicably use him as a source of power to undergo an One-Winged Angel transformation.
• Big Bad: Psychovyle is the main antagonist and Final Boss.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy:
  • Klobbur's arena's ceiling is made of blue cubes, one of which doesn't get destroyed when it lands, just so you can hit him with it.
  • Psychovyle's arena's floor crumbles every time he uses his super ground pound. He even runs directly into the electric beams that stun him.
• Boss Battle: There are only two bosses before encountering the Big Bad, who has two phases.
• Breaking Out: The second boss has a ceiling of blocks protecting him. You have to deflect his green ball to break them and hit him.
• Checkpoint Starvation: There aren't any. While there is a teleportation room next to the starting location, various areas and in particular the second and third boss are far, far away from any of these.
• Collision Damage: Wait for cubes to stop bouncing before you touch them. After one update, green cubes cannot harm Lyle unless they fall right on top of him.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The cubes come in various colors:
  • Blue ones are regular.
  • Blue ones that flash pink regenerate after being picked up.
  • Red ones are explosive.
  • Green ones do not break.
  • Gold ones release health and cube energy refills and extensions when thrown.
  • Big and orange ones are both heavy and explosive.
• Creator Cameo: Lyle's cat is named Keddums, after the author's real life cat.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The game's final update has modified physics to account for a change from 50 to 60 frames per second and adds the ability to throw blocks diagonally. The Sega Genesis port runs on 60fps while intentionally disregarding those changes.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Enemies all go out in explosive ways. Psychovyle's death explosion actually propels Lyle out of the pit the two fell in after the final boss fight.
• Double Jump: One ability allows Lyle to gain extra height by tossing blocks downwards. You need 7 red orbs to unlock the ability to produce phantom blocks fast enough to be able to fly around with them.
• Drought Level of Doom: The gauntlet before the last boss, although it has gold cubes containing CP-restoring powerups scattered about and two gold cubes with HP and CP powerups at the very end. If you enter the next room and immediately turn back, these will respawn.
• Early Game Hell: You cannot even attack enemies in the first few minutes of the game. The hellish difficulty only becomes more manageable when you defeat the first boss and gain the ability to summon your own blocks.
• Easter Egg: On the elevator room, take note of the block sticking out of the left wall between the middle and the bottom stops. Once you can block-jump fast enough to fly up there, you can find a hidden room with a TV that flashes random images every time it is struck with a block. Said images include a flashing Mario and Sadako coming out of her well.
• Excuse Plot: Psychovyle kidnaps Lyle's cat. Lyle wants to rescue his cat.
• Game-Over Man: Upon running out of HP, Lyle falls off the screen and onto a set of platforms. He stands up and looks around in confusion before a giant block with "GAME OVER" written on it squashes him and leaves him comically stuck there.
• The Goomba: The most basic enemy, a gray caterpillar, only moves left and right and has one hit point.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: Seven red orbs are required to unlock Video Game Flight and access to the final area. The last three are optional but halve the cost of phantom blocks, making the final boss significantly easier.
• Grimy Water: Green toxic waste will kill you instantly, as opposed to the red lava, which just does one point of damage.
• Ground Pound: Psychovyle uses these and does a particularly powerful one when you hit him.
• Heart Container: Green orbs extend your health meter.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The fate of the final boss, complete with blood gushing out of him in a game that otherwise has no graphic violence.
  CAUTION: LARGE POINTY THING
• Improbable Weapon User: The protagonist fights by tossing and kicking blocks.
• Item Get!: You get a brief description of what you can do with an item.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: Why can't Lyle climb over the blocks he would otherwise have to kick?
• Last Lousy Point: Out of the 10 red orbs, an easily missable one lies atop a tree in the top right corner of one of the 2x2 sandy rooms where a green orb can also be found.
• Made of Explodium: Red and orange boxes explode when thrown, damaging enemies more than other blocks do.
• Make My Monster Grow: When you enter Buggzy's boss room, he is small and stands on a bone. When it's time to fight him, he grows.
• Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: Defeated bosses explode repeatedly with a different effect from when normal enemies explode.
• Retraux: Uses 8-bit sprites and music.
• Rule of Three:
  • Once you get past his ceiling of bricks protecting him, Buggzy only takes three hits from your cubes.
  • After you feed the blue dog three eggs, he gives you a cube energy extension.
• Sequential Boss: The final battle has two distinct phases.
• Spikes of Doom: Clearly, spikes are harmful.
• Super-Strength: The Big Cube Lift upgrade gives Lyle the strength to lift giant blocks.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: Most of the bosses tend to have an attack that winds up biting them.
  • Klobbur would be invincible if he didn't ram the walls and drop a cube from the ceiling for you to kick/throw into him.
  • Buggzy is the Breakout boss mentioned above and would also be unhittable if he didn't shoot a bounceable green shot.
  • Psychovyle smashes the floor with enough force to damage it with the super ground pound he does when you hit him with a cube after stunning him. Even more ridiculous, he runs directly into the electric beams that stun him.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Don't attack the cow or the baby bird any more than is necessary to get their respective powerups. They fight back.
• Warm-Up Boss: Klobbur is the first and easiest boss. Finding him is actually more difficult than the fight itself.