''Boxyboy'', ''Sōkoban World'' in Japan, is a

puzzle video game Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion. H ...

released for the

Turbografx-16 The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC, NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth genera ...

home video game console, published by

NEC is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It prov ...

in 1990. This game is an adaptation of

Sokoban is a puzzle video game in which the player pushes boxes around in a warehouse, trying to get them to storage locations. The game was designed in 1981 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, and first published in December 1982. Gameplay The game is played on a ...

, released on several home computers in the United States and Japan in the 1980s, including the

NEC PC-8801 The , commonly shortened to PC-88, are a brand of Zilog Z80-based 8-bit home computers released by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1981 and primarily sold in Japan. The PC-8800 series sold extremely well and became one of the three major Japane ...

and

IBM-PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

and compatibles. In this game, the player must push crates or boxes around a warehouse, trying to get them to the proper storage location.

Gameplay

In this game, the player takes control of a warehouse worker in a

top-down view A variety of Computer graphics, computer graphic techniques have been used to display video game content throughout the history of video games. The predominance of individual techniques have evolved over time, primarily due to Graphics hardware, ...

perspective on the warehouse floor. The player uses the direction pad on the controller to move the character in 4 directions. The goal of each stage is to get each box to the storage area, indicated by a dot on the screen, without getting boxes stuck against walls or other boxes. The player character can only push boxes forward and cannot pull boxes back. If the player makes a mistake, the action can be undone by pressing the II button the Turbopad controller. Holding the I button while pressing the directional pad will make the character move faster. The game takes place across 5 worlds, each consisting of 20 stages. The worlds include America (stages 1-20), Egypt (stages 21-41), China (stages 41-60), South Pole (stages 61-80), and Japan (stages 81-100). However, there are also stages hidden throughout the game. In each world, the player takes control of a different character. When the player successfully completes a stage, a password is shown on screen. The player can replay each stage selecting "password" from the title screen and entering the stage's corresponding password. This game also allows players to create their own warehouse puzzles in "Construction" mode. In this mode, the player can select walls, blocks, or other parts and organize them into a custom level. These custom levels can be saved, but due to storage limitations, only 3 stages can be saved at a time. Also, if the player has a

TurboGrafx-CD The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, thoug ...

or TurboBooster-Plus, the player can save their progress at anytime after stage 20 to the backup memory in either of those accessories.

Development

''Sokoban'' was created in 1981 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi. The first commercial game was published in December 1982 by

Thinking Rabbit was a software house based in Takarazuka, Japan, best known for being the original publishers of ''Sokoban''. Falcon, a company which former president Hiroyuki Imabayashi is currently involved in, owns the trademark and copyright to Thinking ...

, a

software house A software company is a company whose primary products are various forms of software, software technology, distribution, and software product development. They make up the software industry. Types There are a number of different types of softw ...

based in Takarazuka,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Due to the game's widespread success in Japan, the game was eventually ported to

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

, and

Apple II computers An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

in 1988 by Spectrum HoloByte. This game is one of many that

ported from their

8-bit In computer architecture, 8-bit Integer (computer science), integers or other Data (computing), data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet (computing), octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) arc ...

line of home computers to the

PC Engine The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, though ...

in Japan under the name ''Sōkoban World.'' Eventually the game made its way to the

in the United States under the name Boxyboy in 1990.

Reception

One reviewer gave praise to this game's graphics and simplistic gameplay. However, he was critical of the games music, preferring to turn the music off. In the end this reviewer rated the game at 4 out of 10 as "something you can skip," citing that only thing players can do in this game is move boxes. Retrogamer.net review Paul Driscoll recommended Boxyboy to puzzle game enthusiasts but theorized that other players would not enjoy this game. The game currently has a 3 out of 5 star rating on

GameFAQs GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. The site has a databa ...

, rating it at "Fair."{{Cite web, title=Boxyboy for TurboGrafx-16 - GameFAQs, url=https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/tg16/579586-boxyboy, access-date=2020-12-28, website=gamefaqs.gamespot.com

References

Puzzle video games TurboGrafx-16 games TurboGrafx-16-only games 1990 video games Video games developed in Japan