I love puzzle games. I love that I can play them on my Android and I love that there are so many puzzle games available on Google Play. Logic-based puzzle games are the best as my brain can use all of the exercise it can get. There’s always Sudoku and Unblock Me, which are classics, but here’s another classic that deserves recognition.
Once you see Move the Box, you’ll recognize it immediately if you’ve been a casual gamer for any period of time. It’s been praised for its ability to take the best parts of Cut the Rope and Bejewelled and simplified the mechanics down to pure basics. It’s easy to learn, fun to play, and satisfying to beat. If you love logic-based puzzles, you’ll love Move the Box.
Interface
The first impression that I get from this game is that it’s very casual and leisurely. The shiny buttons and the gentle artistic style lend very much towards a game that you can pick up and play for 10 minutes while bored or waiting for something else to finish - like laundry or dinner. As you might guess, it’s definitely a child-friendly game.
Move the Box has its own background music which I find calming. It really sets the mood for solving puzzles and it does help to relieve some of the frustration when you’re stuck on a puzzle.
Gameplay
Alright, so what is Move the Box? How exactly does it play? Quite simply, actually. You know those games where you slide or swap objects of different color in order to line 3-or-more of them in a row? And once you do, they disappear, allowing gravity to pull down the remaining objects? And the whole point is to clear the whole board?
Yeah, Move the Box is exactly like that. Instead of colored gems, like some games use, Move the Box uses different types of boxes that must be lined together in order to clear them. The catch is that you’re limited to a certain amount of turns per level, so you need to figure out how to cause a chain reaction so that they all clear.
Easy and simple, yet fun and addicting. Might I add that it can get frustrating when you try out some of the harder puzzles!
Lots Of Levels
Move the Box divides its levels into different “locations” where each location has 24 levels. It’s not explicitly written out but some of the locations are harder than others. Boston, for example, is the easiest. I breezed through the first 10 or so levels in less than a minute because it’s more of a tutorial in that regard.
The Free version of Move the Box comes with 6 locations for a total of 144 levels. That will be more than enough to keep you occupied for quite some time.
Options
While playing, you have a few options available to you. By pressing the Android Menu button, you can either: toggle the music on/off, toggle the sound effects on/off, return to the levels menu, undo your last move, or restart the entire puzzle.
And of course, Move the Box comes in a Pro version that grants a few additions on top of what the Free version already grants. The Pro version can be had for $0.99.
What does it grant? 48 new levels (which I assume are split into 2 separate locations) for a total of 192 playable levels. In addition, the Pro version has a new game mode called Arcade.
All in all, Move the Box is a remake of the traditional chain-reaction-clear-the-gems game archetype, but that’s all fine and dandy with me because it’s polished, fun, and entertaining. I enjoyed myself as I played and, if you like logic-based puzzles, you will too.