Box Boy! + Box Girl!

released on Apr 26, 2019

"The fan-favorite puzzle series is back for the first time on Nintendo Switch with a brand new game! In addition to 270 new levels, two players can work as a team to solve puzzles in a new co-op mode. As a bonus, players who complete the game can access a new adventure starring Qudy."


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Fun puzzle game, the game finds a shocking number of ways to make new puzzles from such a basic concept. The game itself did not leave a memorable implant in my memory, which is my biggest complaint - it feels too much like its predecessor. As a first entry into the series, it is a really fun puzzle game.

Pinnacle of the Boxboy series. Fantastic and thought-provoking puzzle game.

After playing and loving the BoxBoy trilogy on 3DS years ago, I was incredibly hype when a Switch entry in the series was announced a couple years back. I bought it at once, and then immediately set it down for later. Under the impression that the entire game was co-op, I was waiting for someone to play it with to have a better time with it, and my partner visiting over spring break, it felt like the perfect time to finally get to it. It took us a bit over 7 hours to 100% the 3 stories the game has playing in English on real hardware.

Like the other BoxBoy games, BoxBoy + BoxGirl! is a story of the titular characters saving their world from an invasion of shadowy, erm, shadow blob things intent on ruining things on their cube-shaped planet. It’s all told with only gestures and looks, no words, making it great for players of any reading ability, although the puzzles are hard enough that I imagine young children would likely get a bit too frustrated trying to play the game the whole way through on their own. It’s a fun, serviceable story that does a great job of making the characters appeaing and facilitating the gameplay we’re really here for.

And that gameplay is BoxBoy at his boxy-est! With a limited number of blocks to use per stage if you want to hit the objective markers (or an infinite number if you just don’t care), BoxBoy and his friends try to go from point A to point B in each of these puzzle-platformer levels by extending blocks out from his body to make paths and get him places. Only one of the game’s three stories is actually co-op, sadly, but my partner and I solved this by just swapping off the controller level-by-level for the two single-player stories. And there’s a lot here! Well over 100 puzzles populate BoxBoy’s Switch outing, and coupled with a handful of new powers he can learn as well (not to mention tons of silly costumes to wear), they’re an absolute delight to go through.

The presentation is simple but very good in the way that the BoxBoy series has led us to expect. Very simple designs for our quadrangular heroes are nonetheless very appealing, and the same goes for the simple, monochromatic levels you explore. The music is also very fun, though not quite as memorable as HAL Labs often does for their Kirby game’s I’d say.

Verdict: Highly Recommended. If you’re a fan of puzzle platformers and you’ve got a Switch, this is absolutely not a game to miss out on. Even the 2-player levels can be played single-player, so while they’re absolutely better with a buddy, you don’t even need friends to enjoy all the boxy goodness. The masters at HAL have done it again, and I just hope that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of BoxBoy, or at the very least, I hope they keep it up with smaller, puzzle-focused games like this. They’ve made their prowess at designing puzzle games very clear, so whether it’s BoxBoy or something entirely different, my only compliant is that there just isn’t enough of it! X3

It was alright, but not a whole lot of motivation to play beyond the single-player campaign. Not a whole lot to say, enjoyed the earlier levels but it felt like it overstayed its welcome at times. Eh.

This review contains spoilers

I feel so silly tagging such a simplistic looking game with a spoiler warning, LOL. Anyways, I have mixed feelings about this one.

I'll start this review by saying this game is a prequel explaining how the world from the first game came to be lifeless/colorless. (Which is why I'm marking this as spoilers!) It's a case of "Same names same designs but still different characters" syndrome.

There's three different modes: A Tale for One, A Tale for Two (multiplayer), and A Tall Tale (tall boy mode). A Tale for One has two endings, but you're always going to get the bad one on your first playthrough, as you have to beat all at least once for what's considered the true ending. This bad ending is the actual true ending, as it ends on the same screen that the first game starts with: a dead box in an empty, colorless world, and a new one falls out of the sky and lands next to it.

Gameplay wise it's fantastic and overall the hardest in the series, as "You have _ boxes you can use before you can't collect the crowns anymore" got switched to box count and the crowns being seperate, so you have to manage both. You can't just collect the crowns then use as many boxes as you want afterwards. Being a prequel, almost all the old mechanics from the first three are gone, such as the stages where you lead the Spikys into traps. Because you have three seperate modes, there is no postgame. I played A Tale for Two by myself (you get Four Swords "play as one at a time" controls) so I can't comment on whether it was good or bad from a multiplayer standpoint. A Tall Tale let's you play as Qudy and you have to work with rectangular boxes instead of square boxes, and is probably the best mode of the three.

Like the last games, you have your extra stuff in the shop. Some of the translatations of the 4komas feel like the jokes got lost in translation. You also have the shop challenges akin to the first game. Instead of time attack/score attack, you have a set time to pop some ballons. Sometimes the balloons won't pop though? It's happened to me once or twice. The challenge theme from the first game also gets re-arranged here, albiet it's not nearly as anxiety inducing. Since this game has actual color and backgrounds, you don't get the fun inverted colors anymore like the first game. Since the costumes are part of a gacha now, you can get assists like jump or extra boxes from alternate items you can buy instead rather than them being tied to specific outfits.

Visually though it looks....bad. The visual simplicity is used in the original trilogy for a lonely atmosphere, accompanied by some empty sounding songs. The original 3DS trilogy didn't have crazy detailed aniamtions or anything, but the crunch of the 3DS screen and the pixels make it look a lot nicer. This game has fully colored backgrounds and really smooth animation. Too smooth, to the point it looks like a browser game. There's not many overworld animations either, which was one of my favorite parts of the original trilogy (especially the second one.) The costumes being parts from a gacha intead of full outfits also led them to being super stiffly animated as well, and it's kinda jarring. The mix of mostly black and white with some bits of color just looks kinda odd a lot of the time? I'm not sure how to explain it. It's a shame, because the backgrounds are extremely well done, especially in the final levels.

The music is great, and the musical style is also switched up a bit from the original trilogy. There's some motifs from the original trilogy used here and there, such as the Box Ship theme getting used in World Map 3 and the first game's title theme being used at the end of the credits theme. It's very "snappy" and, with the exception of the final level theme, doesn't feel as empty as the songs of the first three games.


I also feel like, despite being a prequel, it's not a good starting point for this series, and they're best played in release order. I dunno, it's just a bit too different from the others. I do like this one a lot though! It's just...kinda ugly. I wouldn't be surprised if this game was rushed..it really feels like it.