Bye-Bye BoxBoy!

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Bye-Bye BoxBoy! Is a family-friendly Puzzle-Platformer released on Nintendo 3DS in 2017. This is the third game in the BoxBoy! Series, though unlike what the title insinuates it is not the final game for the character, with BoxBoy! + BoxGirl later being released on Nintendo Switch. This game follows much the same formula as the other games in the series, featuring the titular BoxBoy (his actual name is apparently Qbby), who can grow boxes out of his body and use them to hit switches, create bridges and staircases, and shield himself from danger. This game takes the concept of the prior game, which was built around giving your character a new ability to create two sets of boxes instead of just one, and decides to up the ante by giving you a whole multitude of new abilities, with different ones becoming available in different levels.

One level may have you creating exploding blocks, while another may have you escorting a “BoxBaby” to the exit. This game seems to have been created with the idea of letting the series’ designers cut loose with various creative ideas, and the result is that this game has more variety than any other game in the series.

This game also has probably the best pacing of any game in the series, with the game seeming to be in a rush to refresh players on the basics of playing through the game so it can get to the interesting new stuff as quickly as possible. That’s not to say that the game is more interested in its gimmicks than its gameplay, though – the puzzle design here is excellent, perhaps the best in the series.

This game once again has a simple, straightforward presentation, but now rather than being a mostly monochrome game, you have color-coded backgrounds depicting abstract landscapes with floating geometric shapes. It’s a great way to expand on the visual style of the series without losing the simplicity they’re known for. As always, BoxBoy himself is literally a featureless box with eyes and noodly appendages, with decent animation to lend him some personality. These visuals are backed by a catchy synthesized soundtrack that is, once again, possibly the best in the series.

Is Bye-Bye BoxBoy! a game that will blow anyone’s minds? No. But it is still an exceptional Puzzle game, and in many ways I feel like it is a pinnacle of the series, and for its low $5 price tag this should be considered a must-have for Puzzle fans. Do not miss this game before the Nintendo 3DS eShop closes in March 2023!

tl;dr – Bye-Bye BoxBoy!, like its predecessors, is a minimalist Puzzle-Platformer starring a character who can grow boxes out from his body to help him get past obstacles and solve puzzles. This game takes the series’ usual formula and adds a ton of variety by having different levels offer different gameplay mechanics to shake things up, all with the series’ top-notch puzzle design. With its small $5 price tag, this is a must-have game for every Puzzle Game fan with a Nintendo 3DS.

Grade: B+

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