PN Review: BOXBOY! (3DS)

BOXBOY! is a cute and charming platformer that heavily relies on its attributes. By possessing a linear stage design and simple premise, any form of entertainment had in BOXBOY! is shortly lived and unfortunately burns out rather quickly. With only five hours of gameplay, you would think this adventure is short and sweet, but it’s actually three hours too long. BOXBOY! is held back by its excessive eagerness to provide entertainment to the player and obviously states the fact by over-saturating the game with over 100 levels; when in-fact 50 levels would have been suffice. BOXBOY! is a decent videogame to play. It’s full of potential but hardly does anything with it.

As a Nintendo 3DS game, you would think this software takes advantage of the systems touch-screen and 3D functionality. However, both of those qualities are absent in BOXBOY!, which is kind of a bummer and seems to be a missed opportunity. Instead, the player is secluded to using the Nintendo 3DS Circle-Pad and face buttons for traversal and manipulating puzzle pieces. That’s about it and there really isn’t much to it.

The individual is given an allotted number of blocks to use. After giving the puzzle some thought, the player must then build a platform that aids their adventure towards the end of a stage. Now repeat that process over 100 times. Yikes.

BOXBOY! has flaws, but it also has a few things that keeps the player interested; even if it’s only for a short period of time. For example, at the end of each stage the player is given coins and may purchase bonus songs and character aesthetics. While this may seem like a great incentive at first, it eventually becomes your only inspiration to continue playing the game. Who wants to unlock a Wizard costume or a Super Hero cape? I do! I think. It was nice to unlock such items at first but I would have preferred unlockable character abilities instead of playing dress-up. I’m not asking for a jet-pack or rocket-launcher, but it would certainly be fun to have some kind of diversity in regards to how the character reacts and becomes involved with their surroundings; instead of the typical, climb, build, jump and repeat.

Verdict

BOXBOY! is a cute and charming videogame, but it wasn’t cute and charming enough to keep me interested and coming back for more. Although I do appreciate the fact that BOXBOY! is a five hour experience, only two out of the five hours spent with this title happened to be enjoyable and pleasant. Unfortunately, the ladder-half of the videogame felt tacked-on and repetitive; which making the experience short and sweet would have been more impactful than stretching it out for far too long. BOXBOY! is best compared to a television sitcom that continuously drags out, season after season, and fails to end gracefully. This videogame is full of potential, but unfortunately doesn’t know what to do with it.