Cut Your Way Through Particle Mayhem In Box It!

Box It! (Free) by C2C Apps LLC is a strategy game that involves getting closer and closer to a solution until you pass the minimum requirement. Other games that are structured this way include Curvebot and Hundreds, both of which require you to fill something to a certain amount in order to pass a level. Both Curvebot and Hundreds are games that come with high levels of tension, which translates to excitement, and Box It! does the same.

In Box It!, each level takes place on a flat board with many small particles moving throughout the space at different speeds and in different directions, bouncing off of each other, walls, and obstacles. The small ball that you're in charge of dashes around the perimeter, with the swipe of your thumb determining its direction. You can swipe in the opposite direction to made it go that way, or you can flick it across the board to divide the area into sections.

The goal in Box It! is to box off 70 percent of the board, which will mark the completion of each of the 270 levels. This is done by making your ball charge across the board before its path has the chance to be destroyed by another ball. If you successfully make a cut across the board in any direction, the area that has less balls will become boxed off, thus increasing the percent of the board you have filled. If your path becomes disabled by other balls three times on the same level, you will have to start over again.

Each level also has its share of power-up balls that are floating around in it. By boxing off these balls, you can gain special powers like faster traveling speed, the slowing down of other balls, or the ability to temporarily freeze the board. I found that most levels had a decent amount of power-ups bouncing around within them, but more can be purchased via in-app purchasing.

Although Box It! may look, at first glance, like an overly-basic game that is trying too hard to fit in with iOS 7, it requires an intimidating amount of strategizing skills very early on in the game. As I have mentioned, it is similar to Curvebot, which was a long-time favorite of mine, so fans of that game should like Box It! too. With the fast-paced nature of Box It!, the inclusion of power-ups, and the level of strategy required to play the game, it can become quite a time killer – which is obviously a good thing about any game.

Of course, one of the best things about Box It! is that it is available as a universal download in the App Store for free, so it will cost you nothing to try it.