Puzzle Box Reviews

The hate for this game perplexes me. [LONG REVIEW DETECTED. PROCEED WITH CAUTION, TL;DR BELOW:] /// The two base modes are great, but the rest are a little unpolished. Don't buy this version of the game if you own a Nintendo Switch, buy Puzzle Box Maker on Switch instead. If you don't have a Switch, though, this game is worth it all the same. Let's talk about each mode the game has to offer; Classic mode has you scroll rightwards through a mural that's missing pieces. Using the mouse and/or WASD/Arrow keys, you need to drop each missing piece into the scrolling mural. Each color corresponds to a different WASD or arrow key, and one color is assigned to each M1 and M2 button; the colors assigned can be switched with the scroll wheel. This mode is fun, easy, intuitive and plays really well. It's polished, it feels good, it has very few issues aside from the mouse position being a little slippery at times. This can easily be fixed by lowering your DPI, though. Copycat mode is very similar to Classic mode, but the catch is that the mural is 100% incomplete, and you need to paint it in yourself. This mode also doesn't scroll, but you're judged based off accuracy and time, so you still need to work quickly. It controls the same as Classic though; WASD/Arrow Keys/Mouse to place colors, each piece needs to be dropped in before adding in the one above it. This mode is even better than Classic Mode, it may be even easier for some and I'd argue it's even more fun. After playing through enough levels in Copycat and Classic mode and collecting enough combo coins, you unlock new Action Modes that allow you to play through the murals in different ways. These modes are just as fun as Classic and Copycat on their own, but come with a few glaring issues; Claw mode has a number of polishing issues, but it's still pretty fun. You take control of a black Shadow Plättchen with a claw attached, your goal is to collect each of the six combo coins using the claw. Flying the claw into the coins will pick them up, and you can fly back to the entrance or opposite side of the level to access a portal. Pressing space in this area will collect the coin. There are ZeLeLis looking to stop you though, and flying into them will cause you to lose a life. Each life lost after the first will subtract one combo coin from your total after completing the level. The lack of polish comes into this mode with the claw itself. It gets stuck in the ground pretty easily, and constantly catches of ledges and corners. This isn't hard to get around, but it slows you down and interrupts the flow of the game quite a bit. If you're able to disregard that, though, this mode is still fun. Run Mode is the most polished Action mode in my opinion, also being arguably the most fun mode in the game. You take control of Roy the Running Marshmallow in an autorunner, running away from a giant shadow pillar and collecting combo coins. By clicking or pressing space, Roy will jump. Once airborne, you can jump up to three extra times, meaning you have access to a quadruple jump. Not every mural works well with this mode though, some have spots that are easy to die or get softlocked in, but I would argue that these just add to the challenge and make it more interesting. Boom Mode is my personal favorite mode, even though it is a little janky. You drop black Shadow Plättchen into a mural in an attempt to blow it to smithereens using only three Plättchen. The jank comes in with exactly how the destruction is calculated. In order to win all 10 Combo Coins, you need a 100% destruction score, but most of the time it's impossible to reach above 80%. The game seems to have a failsafe for this though; I've observed that destroying 75% of a mural will cause the game to destroy the rest of it for you, so in reality, you only need to reach about 75% destruction to win. This mode is really fun if you can calculate the perfect placement for each Plättchen, and the satisfaction of destroying everything is just so cathartic. And finally there's Kubi Mode. You take control of my favorite cubic video game hero, Kubi, on a quest to collect 21 Pixel Flies AND feed your dog, Pixo. There are obstacles here though, the evil Shadow Men will kill you and your dog upon contact. You can respawn, but your dog cannot. If you can collect 21 Pixel Flies, however, you become invincible, and coming into contact with Shadow Men will kill [i]them[/i] instead. This makes it really easy to feed Pixo, and taking a fed Pixo to the exit with all 21 Pixel Flies collected will grant you 10 combo coins for completion. This mode is fun, but it is by far the least polished. It doesn't control all too well, pressing S/Down Arrow to initiate a Super Jump will also drop Pixo. This makes it easy to let him down instead of throwing him, but also makes it impossible to Super Jump while holding him. The Pixel Flies are also supposed to spawn bombs after collecting enough of them, but most of the time the bombs just... don't spawn. Those issues aside, though, this mode isn't half bad. Looking past the gameplay, let's talk about the art direction and soundtrack; it's good. Yeah. That's it. It's good. The soundtrack has a lot of relaxing music for Copycat and Classic mode, and a number of tracks that are more intense to fit the other ones. The pixel art all looks nice, and the backgrounds and decoration of each level looks incredible. But here's the kicker; this game has since had a sequel made for it. Puzzle Box Maker released on Nintendo Switch in 2017, and was updated to have even more content and polish in 2020. For an extra five dollars, you get a game that's much more polished polished than this one, controls better, AND has a full-on Maker Mode so you can create and play your own murals, not to mention the ability to share your own content with the world. Puzzle Box Maker is far better and more fleshed-out than this game is, and for that reason I would recommend it more. So to cut a lengthy review short, this game is good in its own right, but there's a newer version that I would recommend more. If you don't have a Nintendo Switch or prefer PC that much more, I'll still tell you to get this game, but if you DO have one, it's honestly worth it to fork over the extra five bucks for an even better experience.