Scour the Xbox Store hard enough and you’ll discover a host of differing game experiences. Some will cost you the earth, others, just your time. More still are stupidly cheap, one-evening affairs that will have you gathering up Gamerscore and achievements like there is no tomorrow.
And many of those cheap Gamerscore-giving games seem to make the most of the Sokoban genre, leaving players to push boxes around, solve puzzles and – generally – have a reasonably good time in doing so.
That’s where Sokomage fits right in. This is not a game that is going to wow you. It’s not a game that is going to have you proclaiming gaming greatness. But it is a game that is going to shift some 2000 Gamerscore your way in around an hour or two, providing a decent evening’s worth of entertainment as it goes.
Sokomage from Afil Games is a Sokoban-styled puzzler. If you’re a veteran of the scene, you’ll know that entails moving a character around a set space, pushing boxes in order to allow safe passage through the maze that awaits. If you’re not particularly aware of the genre, then, you may well be surprised by how many are available, and how addictive that box-pushing is. There are tons of these games sitting across the Xbox – and other – digital storefronts.
Sokomage doesn’t ever really switch things up too much from the norm either. It has you playing as a little wizard, staff in hand, as they look to work their way through a variety of stages (thirty for you to make the most of) in search of magical enlightenment. Or at least something like that. In reality, there is no story or narrative to follow in Sokomage, instead leaving you to push your way through the single- and multi-screen levels that are in place. Basically, you’ll be found using that staff to smash away bushes and rocks, to ultimately reach a glowing crystal. Give it a tap and you’ll be whisked to the next stage, job to be repeated.
To test the mind a little, Sokomage plays with ice blocks. This is where the Sokoban-ness comes to the fore, as you whack these, sliding them across the screen, only stopping as they come to rest against a wall, bush or hole in the ground. Thankfully, every single hole that is in Sokomage is the exact same size for these ice blocks to slide into, creating new pathways for your wizard to traverse. And if things go wrong? Sokomage is a dab hand at allowing for some quick ‘undo’ moments and full level restarts.
Aside from some additional mechanics and slight change in stage themes as levels progress, there’s not much more to Sokomage than pushing those blocks in hope. And, it’s not particularly tricky either, at least not for us. Granted, we’ve played enough of these games over the years to be fairly well versed with how things work, but Sokomage does a decent job of building the difficulty nicely, with only the odd spike on specific levels.
Perhaps things would be different if your mind works in a way that doesn’t allow for you to grasp the action on display here, but mostly you’ll be picking up 2000 Gamerscore for completing the first 17 stages of Sokomage with relative ease. Whether there’s enough for you to then continue playing beyond the last ping of the achievements, right up to level 30 or not is anyone’s guess.
If you do continue, just make sure you mute Sokomage and stick on some audio of your own. Honestly, the repetitive nature of the backing audio is enough to make anyone go mad, even when it goes all ‘dark and distressing’ in the latter stages. It’s not a particularly attractive game either, the pixelated visuals doing the job required; nothing more, nothing less. But hey, as long as ice blocks look like ice blocks and bushes look like, um, bushes (they are bushes, right?!), then that is all which is required.
Ultimately, if you’ve a Sokoban itch that needs a scratch, Sokomage will be able to provide it. A cheap enough purchase with a level structure to suit, this is a fairly decent example of a box-pushing genre that has been done to death. Go in knowing that you won’t be wowed, and will be done with everything it offers in an evening, and you should well come away pleasantly surprised.
