Wait, what’s that? Shouldn’t I be talking about my own projects here? I probably should, but in absence of much to report and a lack of motivation to devote what time I can find outside of my webcomic to working on my projects over at Lanschilandia Games, you may be seeing the occasional review from me.
Today’s subject is Sokoban Online, a free browser game by Uphill Studio LLC. The game can be played here. Let’s kick it off then, shall we?
So, what is it?
Sokoban is a puzzle game published in 1982 by Thinking Rabbit about pushing boxes onto goal fields. It’s spawned probably thousands of clones and variations and hundreds of thousands of Sokoban puzzles can be found on the internet. My own game, Soko Banish, is obviously a clone as well at its core.
How does this one hold up?
Sokoban Online, as the name would indicate, is an online adaptation of the classic game. It can be played directly in a browser and registering an account enables it to keep track of solved levels, scores and more.
Levels can also be built and shared, either using the classic Sokoban tiles by themselves or in combination with a number of new puzzle elements that more-or-less fit into the game concept. This easy online level sharing and playing is perhaps the game’s strongest point, being neatly integrated with the website and player accounts. There’s a limit of how many levels can be shared, after which a small fee is required to unlock more space, but prices are reasonable at only a dollar for 100 slots (which most people never seem to fill, according to site statistics). Everything else is completely free, save for a few purely optical replacements for the player character graphics (there are two included with a free account).
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| One of over 100,000 puzzles in Sokoban Online. |
After a quick optional sign-up process, what sticks out is the number of levels available – over 100,000 as of writing this review. Now, these of course weren’t all made for Sokoban Online, but include conversions of multitudes of puzzles scattered around the internet (and other Sokoban games), grouped by author. Added to that are the new levels, created by players and staff. Even after solving hundreds of puzzles, the statistics on the main page still tease with a completion percentage of less than 1% that will most likely never reach 100. Overwhelmed yet?
You very well may be, because browsing this database isn’t always easy. After finishing a short tutorial and official “lessons”, you are largely on your own in trying to find something that interests you, which can be difficult, as browsing is basic and there is no search. Nothing can be sorted (it’s always by alphabet), no tags and almost no filtering, ratings are basic and so under-utilised they may as well not exist, descriptions are sparse at best. There are a few ways to get “recommendations”, but they don’t seem to be personalised and finding puzzles of a particular style, size or difficulty is impossible if you don’t already know where to look. Even finding most of the staff-made levels is tricky (hint: look for “Jeffrey” in the directory for community-built puzzles). A help tab currently offers some outdated info, including links to sections that no longer exist.
The game itself is decently realised, if very basic. Arrow keys to move, U to undo, R to restart. No mouse controls, but the mouse is used for site navigation (including going to the next puzzle), so the player has to switch back and forth a lot. There is also a full-screen mode, but it doesn’t remain active when the puzzle changes. The new elements are nice to have, but a mixed bag – some fit quite well, like the grey blocks and holes straight from “Sokonex”, while others, like the magnets, feel unnecessary or too complex. There is also a bug involving icy floors and the undo function that makes boxes disappear. Levels can play quite differently depending on which of the new elements they use (if any), so it would have been great to have a filter for that.
What seems like more of a curse than a blessing is the game’s competitive focus. When you solve a puzzle, the site saves the number of steps you took – not just for yourself, but it’s also shared publicly, whether you want it to be or not. This score may then appear on the level’s leaderboard, where the first three places are awarded with trophy badges and “EXP” displayed on the account. While it’s all optional, the omnipresence of this aspect around the site creates pressure to solve levels in the fewest steps possible (and some are specifically built to be hard to optimise rather than hard to solve), which limits the feeling of accomplishment from solving the puzzles. Planning an optimal solution manually is hard to impossible, and Sokoban Online with its lack of features makes it a pain in the box, requiring many restarts and memorising your steps because the game won’t do it for you. Adding to that, the availability of automatic move optimisers means that the top score on almost all (classic) levels is the absolute lowest amount of steps possible, so unless you want to waste time with external tools or a lot of trial and error, expect the game to continuously taunt you with the “invisible” trophies you’re earning.
So, is it worth checking out?
Definitely, for its online approach alone – and there’s no harm, after all, as it’s free and runs in the browser. It also makes for an easily accessible way to try out a whole bunch of classic Sokoban puzzles without downloading them (if you can find the sort you’re looking for), and new elements can introduce interesting challenges in the levels that utilise them well. For comfort and quality-of-life features while playing classic Sokoban, there are certainly better and much more customisable options available, though as a completely web-based clone with account integration and online level sharing, Sokoban Online is still worth a look.