BoxBoy! is a game that subverts your expectations. The game looks like it belongs on the original Game Boy, but even there it wouldn't seem visually inspired, and the initial puzzles are almost off-puttingly simplistic. However, this black and white platforming game about an anthropomorphic box offers up new challenges in such rapid succession that you quickly progress from smirking condescension over its simplicity to satisfying consternation caused by its more elaborate creations.

The puzzles, particularly in the beginning, can be finished in less than a minute, but this actually works in the game's favor. Like

Early on, you run into these optional collectibles as part of making your way normally through each stage; in later levels, the crowns are purposefully placed in a way that requires careful box management. The solution to solving some of the more devious level layouts would only come to me after putting the game away for several hours and coming back with a fresh mind. Suddenly, the answer would stand out as ridiculously obvious, but I not only felt like a genius for figuring out combinations of moving, extending, and retracting boxes, but I also learned valuable lessons for overcoming later stages.

Your basic abilities never change, although you're eventually able to summon more than one set of blocks, and the unlockable costumes you earn by collecting crowns and beating levels are almost purely cosmetic, outside of a lone, late-game bunny costume. But that simplicity is what keeps the game exciting and the puzzles fresh. There are no obstacles that you need to come back to after you unlock a new ability or upgrade; from the moment you start the game, you have everything you need to solve every puzzle: your wits.