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Goodbye! BoxBoy! is the third and final entry in Hal Laboratory’s BoxBoy line. As you can expect, it involves using the special ability of our hero, Qbby, to create boxes to solve puzzles in each levels. Sometimes, said boxes even have rocket, teleporting, bomb, or remote control abilities. All that is absolutely great. But, they aren’t what really helps sell this installment and make it shine. Those would be the amiibo-specific costumes and extras. You wouldn’t think amiibos would make a big deal in such a game. After all, it’s a solid puzzler. Yet, they work so well here. These cameos and incentives help make this BoxBoy quite possibly the best BoxBoy.
Here’s how the Kirby amiibo functionality works with Goodbye! BoxBoy!. The Kirby, King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Waddle Dee amiibo are all compatible with the game. When you scan them in from the menu, a costume is permanently unlocked for each amiibo’s character. These can be equipped any time Qbby is outside of a world, allowing you to switch up his look. So yay, Qbby gets to be Kirby, King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Waddle Dee.
Except, it goes beyond just a standard visual change for the character himself. Each of these Kirby costumes has special touches that change some minor elements of Goodbye! BoxBoy!. Each one doesn’t spew standard boxes. They’re star boxes like the ones seen throughout the Kirby series. They’re bright and colorful, standing out against the black and white world. The Kirby music is also present. Should any of these characters fall, you’ll hear the Kirby death jingle that signifies his own demise in his games. It’s a nice way of really leaning hard into the cameo and really making scanning in these amiibo worth it. In fact, I like to think their inclusion helps highlight the platforming elements of the BoxBoy series. It’s easy to just think of them as puzzle games, but seeing Kirby and his crew there really calls attention to how active Qbby can be.
But, it isn’t just the Kirby series amiibo that makes Goodbye! BoxBoy! better. The Game Boy filter is another delight. After scanning in a Qbby amiibo once, you gain permanent access to this theme. It adds new tones and shading to the game. You don’t really realize how well the BoxBoy series would lend itself to this aesthetic until it happens. Once its there, the Game Boy tones seem to accent the beauty in this minimalistic game. The simplicity is really on display and you can appreciate how many details come through in Goodbye! BoxBoy!’s design.
I also found Goodbye! BoyBoy!’s Game Boy filter helped with another problem I’ve noticed in BoxBoy games. Have you ever played a game, come upon an area with a lot of black, and suddenly realized the whites just didn’t seem as white and bright anymore? With the Game Boy effect, that doesn’t happen. The game just generally looks better, even though it doesn’t have the slight color accents we get to enjoy in the standard Goodbye! BoxBoy! appearance.
The Qbby amiibo also unlocks a Qucy costume. She’s one of the other BoxPeople constantly accompanying Qbby. Her costume may not look especially striking. We’ve gotten outfits that give our hero a ponytail or other frills more notable than her signature bow. What’s special about Qucy is that she gives people access to free hints. Typically, you need to offer up Play Coins to get a tip regarding a puzzle. With Qucy, you can get as many as you want without dipping into your stash. While I didn’t honestly find any Goodbye! BoxBoy! puzzles challenging enough to use the feature beyond the, “hey, let’s test this out and see what it does phase,” I do appreciate that it is there for people who might have trouble with the game.
With Goodbye! BoxBoy!, amiibo compatibility ends up doing some pretty great things. It lets us play as Kirby characters, complete with an added dose of Dream Land aesthetic. They help us better appreciate the elements of a BoxBoy game as a result, due to the way it makes us think about the game. It helps us remember the Game Boy years and see how well this game’s simplicity carries across styles. It even makes the game a little more accessible, for younger gamers or people unaccustomed to its puzzles. The amiibo really do help make a difference, which is something you wouldn’t expect.
Goodbye! BoxBoy! is now available on the Nintendo 3DS in Japan. A worldwide release has yet to be announced.
