Super Retro BoxBot Review
Developer - Joseph Holliday, Publisher - Doc Holliday Games LLC
1990s-style puzzle gameplay inspired by the DOS classics Block-man and Loader Larry.
Super Retro BoxBot is sure to entertain and challenge you through its hand-crafted levels! You can also create your very own challenges with the included level editor!
Put your puzzle-solving skills to the test!
Super Retro BoxBots is a charming, 2D side-scrolling puzzle adventure, where you are the main robot hunting for keys to escape each level.
Featuring a whopping 66 intricate levels, mixing 50 main levels and 16 collectable bonus levels, you can be sure that your brain will feel challenged.
The levels are not at all easy, but what's a puzzle game if it does not also get progressively harder?
SR-BB brings back the classic box loader from Load Larry and Block-man, if you are old enough to remember the games that is!
Gameplay
With no tutorial in sight, you can rest assured as the control scheme is always placed on the left-hand side of the screen. It's convenient and intuitive to see it there, and while it does fully support controllers, including the PlayStation ones, your control scheme will be shown as XBOX controls.
Playing through 23 levels, in over an hour, I can honestly say that the challenge was welcomed, some were easy whilst others required that little extra brain power, not that I mind it, I do like a good puzzle every so often.
To be able to get close to halfway through is a feat for me at least, as SR-BB features 50 developer-made levels, that are masterfully crafted, as well as 16 bonus levels that you can collect throughout each level.
You'll be able to tell if you can collect a bonus or not by seeing the bonus icon in a level, be warned though, you must collect the bonus to claim it and finish the level, you can't collect it and leave... I tried...
Each level has also a timer, which you can use for a high score for completing it the fastest, unsure of the rewards for doing so other than bragging rights, as I was never quick enough to be able to!
The main objective of the game is to retrieve the key and leave through the exit, whilst solving the way forward by moving boxes or stacking them, thankfully, there are some tools that you can use in case you do mess up.
These tools allow you to; Undo a move for up to how many moves you want to take, level restart in case you get stuck or find that your idea didn't work, and save/load which can be a massive life-saver, this means that you save a position, and an outlined ghost version is saved until you load again.
These tools are super useful, and I advise you to take full advantage of them.
There are some dangers, elevators will send you to the next, and floors may be missing which is intentional I might add.
Be careful with the movement, as you can't "look" in a direction, which can be annoying in certain situations.
Graphics are visually appealing, especially for something as simple as this, though there is not much in the way of music besides the main menu.
Though, you know what they say! Less is better, and SR-BB delivers it in a simple puzzle format.
On top of all of this, you can even create your levels, with a massive and generous amount of 50 levels, you may even upload your creations to ModDB. The specifically designed level editor doesn't have much in its features, but the endless possibilities of your mind can make wonders.
Final Thoughts
Considering that I expected something else when I claimed this game, it turned out to be better than I originally thought. The complex and intricate design of each level is astounding.
My brain still hurts from it.
My best advice is to use the walls by lifting the box and making it hit the wall, and use the elevators to your advantage, plan at least 5 moves like in Chess, finally always make sure that you leave a single space on the ground and collect your boxes from the top of the piles..
The amount of times I had to back-trace myself because I took from the bottom was just... Crazy.
Rating
I would rate this a 4
It is simple, it is challenging, my only thing about this game is that it gets hard quickly, plus there are no explanations on objectives like the elevators... These are self-explanatory, but how were we supposed to "know" that blocking an elevator closes it from both sides...
(5 being the absolute best)
Links
0 
