[Game Review] Woodebox

General:
I’m a puzzle gamer at heart, so the promise of multiple types of puzzles in one game makes me instantly giddy. Woodebox breaks free of just giving you wood-themed Tangram-style puzzles and branches out to a handful of different types of shape-fitting puzzles to shake things up a bit. The basic premise of the game is to fill the dark area on the screen with the given pieces. This is done by dragging each piece to the proper place and fitting them all in the space. A few levels into the game you’ll get to your first “maze” style level where it’s less about fitting the pieces in the correct way and more about navigating the board correctly. Later on you’ll get to multi-touch type levels where pieces automatically move back into place to block your path. All this variety keeps the game constantly interesting and refreshing, and I never found myself getting bored with finding out what the next level was going to hold.

I played the game mainly on my Galaxy Nexus running AOKP build 31 (Android 4.0.4), but I also tried it out on my HTC G2 running Android 4.0.3. Running on the Galaxy Nexus there was noticeable input lag, and although this never detracted from my enjoyment of the game, it definitely performs better on a device that has a better GPU performance to screen resolution ratio (hint: this means NOT the Galaxy Nexus).

Graphics:
The game’s assets were clearly made for a lower resolution device than the Galaxy Nexus, and although it didn’t look exceptionally crisp on my smaller-screened and lower resolution G2, the graphics certainly do the job. You won’t find any flash or anything that’s going to make you say “wow” here, but there’s really no reason to distract you from the excellent puzzles by providing that stuff either. Still a slight resolution bump on the assets would make the game more visually appealing for sure.

Sound:
Unless both my phones were broken, there’s no sound at all here. No music, sound effects or anything else like that. Now I personally never play a phone game with sound on so this didn’t affect me in the least bit, but it’s certainly worth noting.

Playability
As was said before there was a fair amount of input lag on the Galaxy Nexus vs the G2, but since there’s a million Android devices out there with different hardware we can forgive this slight annoyance since it really doesn’t affect playability. You’ll find that you’ll just be using the touch screen for input, and the game makes great use of multi-touch in some stages by making you hold pieces in one spot while dragging others around the board. My only regular annoyance with the controls were on the levels where you have to rotate pieces to fit them into the hole; for whatever reason the game requires you to have ample space around the object in order to rotate it, and since some spaces in the game are very small you have to put the piece in just the right place to be able to rotate it. I could understand this in a narrow corridor where there’s obviously no room to “rotate” the object, but this happened more than once in a large area just because the piece was up against a wall.

Wrap Up
Having a free version is one of the best things about Android gaming, and this game doesn’t disappoint in that area. Having the option to banish ads forever for a mere $0.99 is also fantastic if you prefer that option. Both options make this 72-level puzzler well worth the price of admission, and I would definitely recommend this game to you puzzle lovers out there. I probably wouldn’t play back through any level more than once, especially since there’s no score or time of any kind on the level to beat. The developer has already updated the game once with 9 additional levels, so there’s always the possibility of more levels and or a sequel if it does well, I assume.

Play Store Link Free Version

Play Store link paid version

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Nick Sutrich

Sr Editor at Android Does

As a kid Nick started gaming on the NES at the age of 5. He built his first PC when he was 12, and has been a technology nut ever since. He’s a network administrator now, and has been an Android junkie since getting his G2 in October 2010. He enjoys tweaking both PCs and phones, and loves to be the go-to guy for all things technology related.

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