How Co-op Re-contextualizes Puzzle Games

For the past few console generations, HAL Laboratory has been relegated by Nintendo to being “the Kirby studio.” However, on the relative down-low they’ve also helmed BoxBoy, a series of small-scope minimalist puzzle games.

BoxBoy revolves around Qbby, a sentient block who conjures up strings of non-sentient blocks that protrude from his body. By various means you use these blocks to maneuver through platformer puzzles riddled with dangers. It’s a charming formula, but across three 3DS entries it became clear that the game was repeating itself.

It’s for this reason that BoxBoy’s first foray onto the Switch is so exciting as with it came a new co-op campaign. While this feature was sold on the back of the split Joy-con form factor, the real intrigue for me was how the addition of a second character would re-contextualize established level design tenants.

The co-op campaign takes mechanics found elsewhere but has you approach them in new capacities made possible by the addition of a second character. At their best, the levels give characters disproportionate abilities or creates goals that only one of the pair can fulfill (such as flipping a character-specific switch). In other words, the co-op campaign thrives off asymmetric design.

Let’s take a look at an example where the characters working in tandem provides unique gameplay challenges:

The first goal: how do you get Qucy across the gap while also protecting her from the deadly laser and setting her up to be able to reach a switch only she can activate? The above setup checks all three boxes: Qbby will use his ability to propel boxes forward to transport her while her L-shaped box formation serves the dual purpose of guarding her from the laser and latching her onto the ledge. (Pressing the Y button allows her to collapse up to the red-bordered box seen below.)

Perfect! She now flips the switch and opens the door, giving access to a blue button that will activate the bridge (and the crown collectible, which in this level is easier to acquire than usual). But, new problem: Qbby’s three-block limit doesn’t afford him the ability to reach it…

So, Qucy returns the favor and shoots a three-blocker back in his direction. By proxy of already being ground-ridden, Qbby naturally blocks its trajectory from sliding underneath the ledge where it’d be rendered useless.

[This is good design because the player likely already made this error the first time they sent Qucy across the gap; they’ll then have realized she had to jump off the at the right time in order to latch onto the ledge. My persuasion is that you shouldn’t set a player up to make the same mistake twice in a row when they just solved a similar puzzle. This is frustrating at worst and of no intellectual value at best.]

Qbby uses Qucy’s blocks as a launch pad and makes his way up to the bridge-activating button, keeping it pressed by making a two block column. Yet there’s still a conundrum: If Qbby creates a block protect himself from the laser, it will destroy the column and the bridge will be no more. Thus teamwork yet again comes into play.

Since her blocks are no longer necessary, Qucy creates a blockade above her and moves across the bridge, jumping on top of Qbby. He can then walk them to the exit pain-free under her protection.

This level perfectly exemplifies the ways in which BoxBoy+BoxGirl breathes new life into a series now four entries old. The moment-to-moment gameplay asks the player to think about how two moving pieces can compliment one another and gives newfound depth to old mechanics. Restrictions are the core of any puzzle game and as outlined above, the addition of Qucy opens the floodgates for more while also opening up new options for the players. If Qbby was alone then he’d have never been able to cross the bridge — a restriction of the level design. Qucy can save him by becoming his umbrella — a new option for the player. This balance makes the player feel more powerful while also having that enhanced power feel tested to greater lengths, in turn making overcoming the designer’s challenges that much more rewarding. A game that fails to strike this balance becomes either too easy or too frustrating.

[An aside: The co-op campaign allows for both multiplayer and single-player, with the latter having you swap between controlling Qbby and Qucy at a button press. It’s a tad clunky yet my preferred way of playing; I like being the only brain in (digital) town!]

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