A while back, the Feisty Kim was inspired by a television programme and purchased a Rubik’s Cube. I seem to recall the phrase “Well it can’t be that difficult” being deployed around that time. Unfortunately for our poor multicoloured cube of twistyness it lies abandoned, unfinished, it’s sides a vast array of different colours instead of the single shades it so longs for.

So given that we can’t even complete the “simple” task of arranging the sides of a wholly mechanical square to be all the same colour, how hard is the all-new Fentix Cube going to be? Billed as the ‘World’s first cubic touchscreen computer games platform’, the Fentix Cube is some sort of magical electronic cube which lights up and offers you multiple puzzles, which you play simply by touching the cube itself. It can also offer ‘ambient lighting themes’, whatever that means.

The video below shows the Fentix Cube being used to emulate the good old Rubik’s Cube (though the first few seconds seem to show the Fentix Cube can be used as a disco ball but with right angles). It looks fairly impressive to me, though I am intrigued as to exactly how much pressure you need to apply to perform actions with it. When you’re turning it over in your hands, is there a chance of accidentally touching one of it’s surfaces and causing a reaction? On the video it looks like you have to give it a fairly direct touch to move the blocks around, which I guess is by design.

As far as I can see, there’s no release date or price as yet announced, with all sales queries being directed to an e-mail address on inventor Andrew Fentem’s website. Presumably the Fentix Cube, Son of Rubik, will be tested thoroughly and I wouldn’t be overly surprised if it were to hit the shops just in time for Christmas.

Even though my previous experience with the Rubik’s Cube shows me to have the mind of a simple fool trapped inside the body of a simple fool, I’ll still probably buy a Fentix Cube, for no other reason than it lights up and makes pretty colours. Aah, that’s what the ambient lighting themes are… ooh, pretty…