Run Box Run

Genre: Platformer

Players: 2-8 Competitive (Online)

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Review:

Run Box Run is a multiplayer-focused online-only Platformer released on mobile devices in 2014 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2022. This game comes from Atooi, a developer better known for great games like Xeodrifter and the Mutant Mudds series. With that kind of pedigree, this game just has to be great, right? Right?

Well, no. Run Box Run is about as boring and unimaginative as you get in this genre. The gameplay has players racing along a course to an end goal, trying to get as many diamond-shaped “donuts” as possible along the way. The simple gameplay lacks any sort of nuance – just move left and right and jump, that’s it.Making things even worse, this game features pretty poor, floaty controls that make turning on a dime impossible. These matches are supposedly interspersed with rounds of trivia questions, but after playing through multiple boring, tedious Platforming stages, I didn’t encounter a single one.

The graphics here work, but are extremely plain. You just have simple 2D shapes against flat-colored backgrounds. It doesn’t look visually bad, but there’s very little about it that’s memorable. Add to this a variety of different pre-made phrases these characters can say when you tap a shoulder button and… yeah, that’s it.

I should also note that this game is online-only, despite that I see no reason it couldn’t work in split-screen mode locally. What’s worse, the online lobbies appear to be abandoned, meaning this game is absolutely unplayable unless you can rope a friend into buying it too.

You should be a better friend than that – don’t buy this game and certainly don’t drag a friend into it with you. I was terribly disappointed by Run Box Run. Not only is this an all-around terrible Platformer that’s light on options with a dead online community, but it’s a game coming from a developer who has made some fantastic Platformers, a developer who should know better than this. But now at least you know better – don’t buy this game.

tl;dr – Run Box Run is an online-only, multiplayer-focused Platformer, but it’s such a plain, boring, tedious, and feature-poor game that it’s no wonder the online lobbies are dead. The only way you’ll be able to play this game is to trick a friend into buying it to play with you. You have plenty of better games on Nintendo Switch, get one of those instead.

Grade: D

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2022 Game Awards:

Winner:

Most Disappointing – Developer Atooi has released nothing but great game after great game on Nintendo Switch… until now. It’s not like this was some big experimental title either, it was just a Platformer, right in Atooi’s wheelhouse… and they still messed it up, releasing a bland game with terrible controls dependent on dead online multiplayer. Some developers shoot for the moon and miss, but Atooi was basically shooting fish in a barrel and still missed. Pathetic.

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