A little while back, HAL Laboratory – the team behind the charming Kirby games – delivered with a unique property known as BoxBoy, combining puzzle solving with simple black-and-white design, creating a unique 3DS experience as a result. Now, the team is back with a whole new follow-up, and, surprise, it stacks up just as well.
In BoxBoxBoy, you’re back in control of Qbby, a box that gets around by using blocks in a series of stages, all connected to his person. He can use simple tricks to get around obstacles, like creating a staircase to climb up over a tough wall, or creating a bridge across an otherwise uncrossable gap.
This time around, you’re able to create two strings of boxes compared to just one. This comes in really useful when it comes to solving more complex puzzles, like blocking harmful beams, reaching higher-up platforms to activate switches (or collect the crown scattered across each stage) or build a ladder to reach an even higher platform.
While this may sound complicated to players, we’re happy to report that BoxBoxBoy follows the same simplistic logic as the original game. Sure, the new squares provide an additional challenge, but nothing that players can’t overcome. In fact, you may surprisingly go back into stages just to complete them in better time, or pick up collectibles that you missed the first time around (crowns don’t last long on these stages).
What’s more, BoxBoxBoy offers additional challenge after you complete the main game, with extra levels that force you to do a little more thinking. Consider it HAL’s take on the New Game +, but with plenty of boxes to play around with.
Although BoxBoxBoy doesn’t have much difference in décor from the original game, HAL did a superb job with keeping the level design fresh, as well as challenging. What’s more, you can unlock plenty of cool new characters as you go along (including, yes, the female Qbby). The graphics are, again, simple, but pretty wonderful for the design, and the music has its own level of charm that can’t be beat.
There’s not much to the game once you beat every level, but we can assure you that it’ll take some time to get this done. And even then, you’re not always guaranteed 100 percent completion unless you go through some levels a few times – the sign of true dedication for a game. No real complaints there. On top of that, there are some unlockable goodies, like the crowns and a few comics, that make the journey worthwhile. That’s a tremendous value for a game that’ll only run you $5.
If you didn’t care for the original BoxBoy, there’s very little here that may convince you to make a return – it’s pretty much more of the same. But, just as the first game did, BoxBoxBoy has a level of charm that’s sure to infatuate veterans of the genre and young players alike. It certainly stacks up to a good time to us.
