Box Align is a puzzle game and if you don’t know that I like puzzle games by now, you’re clearly not very good at solving puzzles. Don’t worry, you can go run some cold water on that sick burn I just gave you before you read on.
Box Align tasks you with lining up three or more boxes to “poof” them out of existence across ninety-nine levels, while steadily introducing new box types and different ideas to keep you on your toes. There’s the standard coloured box, the rainbow box which matches with anything, the bomb box that blows up and clears an area around it, the mystery box which transforms when matched, and the cage box which needs to be matched twice to remove it. Clear the level and you can continue onto the next one.
And there you have the whole game summed up in a single paragraph. It’s not the most complex of puzzle games, but that does make for a more relaxing experience which allows you to zone out and just play the game for a bit. It does mean that it grew stale quickly in a review setting though, as I often binge a game so I can move onto the next one. I only played this in shorter bursts to prevent the onset of boredom.
I did encounter quite a few technical difficulties and bugs in the Switch version too, which is disappointing since it’s such a simple game aesthetically and mechanically. I found that in some levels the game would freeze when I tried certain moves, only allowing me to repeatedly bring up the restart and pause screens and nothing else. I also discovered a glitch where immediately selecting restart after placing a block skipped levels entirely. Great for speed-runs, but not if you just want to try again and accidentally find yourself progressing when you may have missed a key fundamental somewhere.
All of this is rendered insignificant though when I bring up the fact that there is no undo option… For a game all about relaxation and zen, it sure liked frustrating me every-time I had to restart entirely cause there’s NO UNDO OPTION. You can restart at any point so you’re halfway there already, just implement an undo button please! And another thing, there’s no hint option available for if you become completely stuck as I did on one particular level. I had to resort to the internet to continue in the end, cause there’s no in-game way to skip and come back later, or ask it to perform a correct move to set you on the right track. If you’re stuck, you’re stuck. Deal with it.
Anyway, Box Align is OK. It’s definitely worth the very low asking price and is a good little puzzle game. It’s not going to rock the world, but it doesn’t need to; it does what it promises and provides a simple little game about matching boxes. I just wish it had a bit more polishing time before it was slapped on the Switch.
A digital copy of Box Align for Switch was provided by the developer.
Check out Box Align on Switch here: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/box-align-switch
