Boxboy! Review

Sometimes there are just games you have to rave about. Ones that not much other people will know about, Boxboy is one of these cases for me. Being released during the last Nintendo Direct on the first of April, being cheap, Eshop only, you can be forgiven for not knowing what game I am talking about, but rest assured, it is a puzzle gem and well worth a look.

If you look at Boxboy at first, you see everything you need to know. The graphics are simple yet styled; the music is simple and suitable. The game itself proposes a very interesting game to play through. You are a box with legs, arm and even eyes. This box has to make it through one side of a level to the other to progress. The obstacles that you need to pass are the kicker here, ledges, small tunnels, gaps to jump, all formulating a series of puzzles. To pass the puzzles, you hold in the Y button and grow boxes in the direction you want and use the boxes you have grown to pass the puzzles in various ways.

The puzzles are varied and interesting, hard but easy when you have them figured out. There can be feelings of ‘this is impossible’, soon replaced by, ‘well that was it, now I see!’ The sense of relief and achievement that you get can be quite gratifying. You don’t just get thrown into things as well, every time there is a new gameplay element, it gets explained showing you a video of what you need to do in its purest form. However when you get into the game proper, things become second nature for you anyway.

As you can tell, simplicity is key to the design here, but not to the whole game, later on challenges test you timing, your decision-making, using all the techniques you have learned previously. When you have finished the game you are glad to have put the time in for sure. I would reckon the content is about the ten-hour mark, there are a lot of different game modes, lots of levels and world to try. Maybe once you are done, there isn’t much to replay for, unless you need to unlock some costumes for the BoxBoy (which are funny and can alter the game too).

The best thing for me with this one has to be the short levels leading up to a pick up and play standard with this game. With babies or on the bus, I can’t really budget my time like the average Joe, I need to have games I can pick and put down without huge cut scenes or levels. This makes games like Xenoblade Chronicals 3D a tough option for me, even Mario Kart 8 can be a tough one for me if my wee boy is crying and needs me. The pick up and play factor is strong with this one, like Smash Bros or even Pazuru, this is always a factor I think of when looking at games nowadays.

Everything considered, yes I would recommend this one to every one. I think it is criminally underpriced when you consider what you get for what you pay. Intricate design slick retro graphics, a new IP (something they say Nintendo cannot do!) and basically a game full of charm!

The challenge is easy and difficult at points. Everything about it is engaging fun, HAL Laboratories has a long history of making great fun games and this just prove, by keeping it simple they can keep up with the best of the generation! Give this a try if you want a platform puzzle game with a lot to like.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Nintendo 3DS code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.