Koala

I don’t think any game fell for me harder than Block Koala.

When I first opened Block Koala, I was ecstatic! It’s a sokoban game! I love sokoban! Unfortunately, it seems I forgot the unfortunate truth. Not every sokoban game is Void Stranger. Most are not.

Koala

This is a pretty standard sokoban title, with the twist of a few unique mechanics. Basically, blocks are weighted, and they can only push other blocks if they’re of a greater or equal weight. You can push blocks onto one blocks to add to them, which will help you push heavier blocks you need out of the way. There are a few other unique mechanics down the way too, like a clone movement guy, and blue blocks that can ONLY be pushed by other blocks, but other than that, pretty bog standard.

Koala

If there’s not much in terms of mechanics, a sokoban title lives or dies on its good level design. And the level design here is… okay. It’s okay. Not very interesting. And there’s SO MUCH OF IT. This is one of the longest games in the entire collection, at a whopping FIFTY levels. I liked it for the first ten or so and the last 40 were honestly mostly boring. A LOT of what the levels are is what I call “big loops”, where you just loop shit around over and over. It’s a common sokoban thing but it doesn’t GOTTA be. Y’know, Void Stranger.

I might be a little spoiled by Void Stranger being so good.

It feels soooo long by the end. A video of perfect level clears and nothing else is an hour and twenty minutes, so you can guess how long it’d take someone to beat it trying to actually solve the damn puzzles.

It’s cute and charming, sure. The weight mechanic is kinda interesting but honestly a little confusing at first, it takes trial and error to learn how it works, cause y’know, no manuals or in game instructions. And it has a level editor feature which is real impressive for this era, but eh, I can’t be bothered.

One of the more interesting things about this game is the backstory that LX Systems is STILL trying desperately to get people interested in their games in other ways. There was a level design contest for this, which is pretty neat.

6/10