Girabox

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1, Online Leaderboards

.

Review:

(Note: This game is included in Puzzle Games Bundle (5 in 1) Vol. 2, along with Colorful Colore, Guards, One Person Story, and Tardy)

Girabox is a family-friendly Puzzle game released on PC, mobile devices, and Nintendo Switch in 2020. This game has players shifting gravity to move a box to a goal in various levels.

The presentation in this game is pretty bland and featureless. The game uses simple boxy shapes in just a few shades. You could argue this design is minimalist, but it lacks the personality to be seen as particularly artistic. These bland visuals are backed by an equally bland subdued soundtrack, and I do mean bland – while many Puzzle games aim for relaxing music, Girabox’s soundtrack is barely there, and feels far too gloomy to be considered relaxing.

The gameplay, on the other hand, isn’t too bad. Players can only opt to shift the screen (and also gravity) 90 degrees to the left or right, and only using this mechanic the game manages to find clever ways to challenge the player and get them to think about how to pass the various challenges they face.

Having said that, this game isn’t truly inspired, and it’s fairly short, so don’t expect a monumental experience. However, at the same rate, it sells for a mere $2.50, and this bite-size price for a bite-size experience isn’t all that bad.

Also, on a final note, Girabox does have touchscreen controls, although they are completely unnecessary – the game controls just fine with standard gamepad controls. I suppose it’s nice that at least players are given the option.

In the end, Girabox is an okay Puzzle game, but not a very impactful one. It’s clever but not too clever, short but cheap, and the presentation aims for “simple” but overshoots it to become “boring”. All in all, not a bad game, but at best a brief distraction for fans of Puzzle games until they get their hands on something more substantial.

tl;dr – Girabox is an okay but forgettable family-friendly Puzzle game that has you shifting gravity to move a box to a goal. It’s a serviceable entry in the genre, but not especially noteworthy or memorable, and the presentation is extraordinarily bland. Unless you’re a fan of the genre looking for a brief distraction, this one isn’t worth your time.

Grade: C

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