Use Boxwomen

By: Lorne Whiting

On: June 23rd, 2009

Use Boxmen is a platformer/puzzle game by Greg “Greg-Anims” Sergeant, who is a hyper-active pink squid.

Squids may not be ’ballin’’, you may be certain of that, but the game is pretty fun, kinda similar in style to the Karoshi games, the principal concept being that you sacrifice your friends in order to acquire the shiny white box (Greg possibly using this symbol to evoke thoughts on racism?). The game gets pretty frustrating in the last couple levels, relying more on timing than puzzle-solving, but overall it’s a good game and the inter-level blurbs are pretty charming; they got me all hot and bothered.

I do prefer the WIP title the game had, ‘Use Friends’ more than the final ‘Use Boxmen’.

Posted in Action, Browser Games, Freeware, Platformers, Puzzle | Tags: Anims, Greg

Ezuku

Really wonderful, although I’m currently stuck. Nice concept, clean graphics, clever narrator; this really made my day.
http://wherecouldtom.be Tom Sennett

This game is fly, and people should play it.
Lorne Whiting

Tom Sennett is fly, and people should play him, for being such a positive influence on our commentarium.
Paul Eres

pretty fly for a box guy
skaldicpoet9

Sometimes pie? When are these times?
cm

They could have built that path with half the boxes and killed half as many people.
Ezuku

Thought the exact same thing actually. Could have skipped level 10 then, which needed a pretty lame solution.
Dusty Spur

The facial expressions are so amazingly charming.
Ezuku

The way they run, fall, etc, is very cute. Especially how boxman has different animations to his friends.
Oops!

I read “Use Boxwomen” at first. Should I worry?
Xotes

No, I see the same, laddie. You aren’t losing it, don’t worry.
PaperbagBoy

It has a very good idea and a cool look, but some of the puzzles aren’t very good and jumping on thin pillars is just stupid when you slide at landing.
daftmouse

loved it till got to eleventh level, I knew what I was supposed to do but it seemed like my timing was always off by a split second. Always strange when such a charming and peaceful game suddenly turns into a beast of aggravation, while maintaining that charming look and sound.
Vanguard

I thought it was fun. The only levels where I felt that it was more about timing than puzzle solving were the ones where you have to power the machine to move the platform up before your “friend” gets under it, and the one where you have to race him before he presses the switches.
fuxter

why the women? boxwomen, hm… even better!
fuxter

2 Oops! see the title of the article!
etc.

dammit i hate the last level
krizzl0r

i read boxwomen too oO
well i dont really like how suddenly the difficulty is above monstahard. but in every other aspect very cuddly :D
thewreck

i really loved the game up until the level with the invisible platform… thats when i just hit alt+f4… why do games do this to you? slowly invite you to a world of charming puzzles and lovable characters, and then when you least expect it, they stick a tedious trial and error dagger in your back… whyyy??
etc.

IT”S BECAUSE HIS LAAST NAMWE IS SARGENT.

HE”S A SOLDIER BY HEART>
Quetz

I spent forever trying to figure out the solution to 11 thinking the most obvious solution wouldn’t work because it didn’t the first time! Gah! I spent more on 11 than the rest of the game put together.
googoogjoob

>”the principal concept being that you sacrifice your friends in order to acquire the shiny white box (Greg possibly using this symbol to evoke thoughts on racism?)”

*Seriously?*
Daniel

The music makes me think of the show Doug
Use Reason

The question has to be asked, why are the orange guys friends with boxman at all? He treats them like crap. He gets them killed. Why do they respect him at all?
Flamebait

I like the concept, but I stopped playing at the invisible level. There’s nothing even vaguely fun there.
Chris.R

I second the “invisible level is not fun” statement. I just have to decide if I want to see the rest of the levels badly enough to bother.
gamecreator

Awwww. It’s always sad when a game could have been great but it stabs itself in the guts during the second half.
Scott

needing timing for a game, whats up with that?
Scott

also the invisible one is easy. they give you tons of boxmen to find the path, takes like 15 seconds
krizzl0r

wait a minute! the post is titled boxWOMEN. took me a while.
Flamebait

Okay, I steeled myself to get through the invisible level (these things happen when I have nothing to play), and it isn’t that hard. But the entire game pretty much falls flat. It becomes more a matter of perfect execution of a sequence of actions than a puzzle game. Which would be fine, but you have to tediously set up the entire system every attempt.

I love the soulful tunes in the soundtrack though.