Last updated on January 17th, 2026 at 12:46 am
Boxed In – Entertainment Game Review
Boxed In is a Entertainment/Casual/Puzzle game from Dennis Mengelt, first launched in 6th May 2009.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 613+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Boxed In Stand Out
Embark on an interstellar journey as a cunning robotic explorer in this stellar puzzle adventure! Enter a universe filled with mind-bending challenges, where pushing boxes takes on a whole new dimension. With each level set against a mesmerizing space backdrop, prepare to launch your strategic thinking into orbit!
As a clever robot, you'll navigate through hundreds of meticulously designed cosmic puzzles. Push, collect, and outmaneuver the ever-changing configurations of boxes while aiming for the elusive exit. But remember, true mastery lies in acquiring all the gear items scattered throughout the celestial maze.
Beware the colorful forcefields that dot your cosmic path! These ethereal barriers demand ingenious solutions. Locate matching floor switches and cleverly employ your box-pushing skills to unlock the way forward. It's a cosmic dance of strategy and logic, where triumph awaits the astute explorer.
With its stellar visuals, captivating gameplay, and endless cosmic challenges, Boxed In takes puzzle-solving to new frontiers. Prepare to be astounded by the infinite possibilities in this celestial realm. Strap in, activate your circuits, and let the cosmic puzzle adventure begin!
"This game will improve the way your brain thinks. (5/5)" – Becket's Guide to Phone Apps Magazine
Features:
• Easy to pick up and play anytime!
• Play hundreds of handcrafted puzzles!
• Create and share your own puzzles!
• Play even more puzzles created by the community!
• Optional player rankings let you compete!
• Original music by Jyri Luukkonen!
• Many hours of gameplay!
This Entertainment game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Boxed In is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 27th July 2023
Recent improvements include:
Improved UI to better accommodate various displays
Download & Availability
Boxed In is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
We played the original version of the game and loved it. Recently reinstalled it. But now between the 3D graphics and the horrendous flashing white light (and gray character that is hard to see) we are going to have to pass. If you have a seizure disorder or a head injury, stay away from the light! There should be a warning about it. Miss the original.
2025 Review: What??? Decided to replay one of our fav games & am stunned that any developer, much less Dennis, looked at this game, had a moment, & decided: This game needs -Blinding, flashing lights (TV shows issue warnings) -A tiny dark character for users to search for (really?) before play can begin and that looks like a tick one might find on a pet -Destination squares that can be difficult to identify -and an Undue button that works sporadically To be fair, we dont recall a badly needed Undue button originally, so we guess this sporadically functional one counts as an improvement. Am curious to know who designed the modernized version of this game that has no resemblance to the quality of the original. Same dev name on this appbut is it? (And Pushy still updates & is still fabulous.) ORIGINAL REVIEW years ago: LOVE this game. Worth every penny! Dev wrote on Twitter that Boxed In 2 is at Apple for approval. Can't wait for more of this FABULOUS game. This app is fun, challenging, and well designed. First-class. (Pushy is another great one.) BOXED IN is worth more than charged. RECOMMENDED.
Cleverly crafted, sokoban like puzzle maze game but different and more complex than sokoban. Whats really exciting is a level editor including mazes designed by others. Im not sure but creating a suitably difficult maze yet still retain an air of possibility might be more difficult than solving others mazes. At least Im having trouble creating even one maze that can be called challenging or interesting. This is really a superbly designed, addictive puzzle. We often stay up all hours because it is so hard to stop. Fees are reasonable (we believe in supporting well made apps we use): to eliminate ads, buy new levels (or complete current levels for more), unlimited undo function and others. One can do a lot for free which is a great gift from the game maker. Thank you!!! Highly recommended.
We bought this game several years ago and loved it. The graphics were simple, but attractive, and the gameplay was fun. On a whim, we decided to play it again after a very long time. The new graphics are ANNOYING. Its a basic puzzle game; 3D graphics are unnecessary. The flashing lights and moving backgrounds are incredibly distracting. Also, the dragging around of the character is not at all smooth. You cant see it under your thumb as you move it, and it seems to easily move further than intended. Our memory from before was that you could do a single tap on the spot you want it to move to. Much easier and simpler. Annoying.
This puzzle game is so cool! We played the original back when we were a kid, and now our thinking is allowing us to much more easily complete the in-game levels. Unfortunately, after finishing some of the Pack 1 levels, the game begins to freeze for a teeny bit before displaying the dancing robot finish (that is an absolutely hilarious upgrade to the game, by the way). However, the freezing started to happen every time we moved the robot into the goal square. That is a big problem. After finishing Level 25, the game freezes completely and we have to reload it, and it shows that we had not completed Level 25. We tried over ten times, repeatedly completing Level 25, but the game froze completely every time. PLEASE FIX THIS. Until you fix the freezing, Im gonna have to put the game down for a bit. But other than that, 5 stars.
This game is a perfect mix of puzzle and game play. Very addictive.
We enjoyed the game until we got to Pack 1, Level 30. At that point after successfully solving the puzzle the game locks up. Unfortunately we are then stopped from going to the next level, thus permanently killing the game. Since the game has not been updated for more than a year, we expect it is a dead issue.
We love this game. We go back every few months to solve all over again. The only problem is when we get to boxed in 2 #47 it never lets us go on to #48. We have passed this level 100 times and it wont progress to the next level. All 3 boxed in games worked flawlessly with the old version.
Miss the old game. The new graphics look very dated and arent an upgrade at all. Pity. We liked this game and want to support the dev.
We have been playing this game since it was released, but lately the game stalls as soon as we complete a level. Love the simple design of very complex puzzles, but the game gets stuck everytime we try to play now.
This is a pretty decent puzzle game that is ruined by ads in between each level (20-25 second ads). It would be good if the ads were related to the game youre playing.
We have always loved this game. Like others we dont care for the flashing lights but still fun. BUT it sticks. We have done pack 2 level 20 multiple times but it sticks at the end and wont let us move to the next level. Bummed that we have delete the game we suppose.
Love the game enough to pay to remove the ads but as Ive made progress, when the bot hits the exit, the entire game freezes upwards of 15 minutes before we can get to the next level. Sometime we even have to replay the same level as it doesnt remember we finished it from the freeze. Can you fix this.
We bought this app or at least a version called Boxed In but now Im suffering through ads. Developer website is useless.
Installed on our iPad Pro and its challenging but it freezes every time we complete a round. Sometimes we need to re-complete the same round many times so itll move on to the next.
This game worked great until latest IOS update. (13.5.1) Crashes after finishing a level and trying to go to the next. Please fix.
WAS a great game BEFORE the developers made drastic changes. Change is good when improvements enhance the game….not the case here.
Great game, have played it for years but the developers abandoned us, every time we finish a level it crashes and won't update our progress. PLEASE FIX THIS GAME.
We loved the old game, but the graphics on the new one are horrible. We closed the game because of the horrible flashing beacon. Please fix this mess and go back to the old graphics.
The game has been slow to close a level for a few days, but today it will not close this level and is completely locked. The only way to close the game is to abort the app. That has been effective for the last few levels but now it simply opens with the same level complete. Playing on an iPad Air, iPad OS 13.5.1.
Ive had this app ever since it was a $0.99 app. In fact, still have BI2 and BI3 on our 32-bit iPad 4. When this one was the only one updated, we didnt think much about it other than we could now run it on our 64-bit iPhone. The most recent updates have introduced nasty ad-ware that masks itself as some Indian girl trying to call through some Gaga chat app that wants to be installed. Whoa! In coming here to complain, we now see the app is free. Well, we paid for this app. We dont want ad-ware, especially this kind of crap. If Dennis Mengelt is still the author then its sad youve bought into this business model. If your company got sold to some job shop that just hijacks games with ad-ware then thats too bad too. Either way, get rid of this crap now, or the app goes into the trash.
A completely rip off of "Shove it" from the 16-bit Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.
Just the right balance of solvable and pull-your-hair-out levels. This definitely exercises your brain and keeps you challenged.
No in app purchases and no ads. The Puzzle designs make you think it out. We find it relaxing and entertaining. Graphics are nothing special when compared to what is possible on this platform but for this genre our concern is more on gameplay which we think was well done. Good job Mr Mengelt.
This version is the first our husband and we have played so we have no clue why anyone is giving this update bad reviews. That being said, the graphics are fun, the levels delightfully challenging, we can play it together, no ads, we feel like were exercising our ancient brains, and we just mute the music. Whats not to like?! Much better than Candy Crush, those flying birds, Solitaire, etc…all those silly addictive games.
Wish Robot Guy was yellow or something that stood out more. Love the game otherwise.
Just want to mention that some issues mentioned in earlier reviews have been fixed: It IS possible to replay both finished levels and finished packs. And while the music and sound effects are indeed extremely annoying, you can turn them off. The only annoyance that cant be eliminated is the very bright exit light that starts flashing once all gears have been destroyed. Often the hardest part of a puzzle remains to be solved at that point and the flash is very distracting. YAlso, while the unlimited undo is well worth the extra dollar it costs, it doesnt work 100% of the time. What we like best about the new version are the many user-designed puzzles included for free. The quality varies but some are really good.
We enjoyed this game so much we played all 150 levels several times over the years. Now we enjoy creating the puzzles for others to play. Very challenging and interesting.
Like others, we find the changes to the UI made the puzzles less enjoyable. They are still nice puzzles itd be nice to have the old flat look come back in a future update maybe as an option.
We played the old versions of Boxed In (1-3) and was sufficiently challenged. We enjoy strategy and Puzzles and this game offers both, so after solving all the rounds, we would revisit the games every 4 to 6 months to see how quickly we could finish 50 rounds. Eventually, the game would not update and we finally decided to purchase the new version. This is still a great puzzle game, but we are truly irritated by the new graphics. The incessant flashing light to signify the door is open is absolutely irritating and we fail to understand why the robot is the same gray color as the boxes. Why not make him stand out with a distinct color? The 3D graphics have taken some adjusting too. We suspect the creator thought the game needed more pizzazz with the graphics, but we do wish he would at least tone down the flashing door and change the color of the robots as it detracts from enjoying the game. Otherwise, if you like puzzles, this is great game to challenge you.
Best Sokoban out there!!! Ive enjoyed your puzzles for years and now we are able to create some too. We were able to publish 2 (SoSavvy is the name) #3 and 4 do go to publish mode but we wait and wait for them to be complete. Please help.
We still have the old version. We still like the game but this new version- the graphics, the noise, the flashing light. We do not like that part of it. The old version was simple and so much fun to play. Im glad we kept the old version on our iPad.
Theres no point making a game 3D if that third dimension is never used for anything. We loved the original few Boxed In/Iced In games. They were fun and creative and visually clean and simple. This update adds a lot of unnecessary visual elements that dont help the game at all. Its difficult to see where the robot is to start and all the animations feel more like theyre done because they can, not because it will help anything. The game is better off going back to a clean 2D design and focusing on new levels and game elements.
Please, please, please provide a way to turn the music OFF!!! Its horrible and distracting.
Please update Boxed In 2 & 3 so they are up to date with the current OS. No need to junk them up with all the unnecessary new graphics like you did with this one, just make 2 & 3 compatible. Thanks.
But the graphics are awful now. No way to mute the sound. Flashing, distracting lights.
Some of the colored boxes are so faint we cant see them, or maybe they dont exist? For example, we dont see the blue box on level 14, also level 45. Please increase the color, otherwise the game is unplayable.
But really…. Why the huge upgrade…?? We used to LOVE this game. Its too annoying to play now. We gotta dig out an old phone, hopefully its still on there.
Please go back to the previous version. It was simple, fun, and challenging. While the "puzzle" element remains, every aspect of this 3D catastrophe is 10 steps backward.
Why, our ipads screen broke today. No problem it was our mini we have a new ipad pro and an iphone 7s but what we don't have is our most favorite game in the world. We would not update our old ipad so we could keep the things we enjoyed the most. This new or updated version of boxed in freaks our eyes out! We don't even feel like looking at it! We have dyslexia and this shadow type look is so disappointing. So much for favorite. Why not just creat a new game and given it a new name. The cute robot is gone its no where near the cool game it used to be. Our grandson dosent even like it anymore.
Loved this game for its simple clear graphics and the clever strategy levels. Even though no new levels seemed to be forthcoming we still kept the game on our phone, resetting levels to play again. We received a shock when we opened the game to pass the time while waiting for our plane. Jarring, blaring racket deafened us and our fellow passengers. Overdone graphics, horrible sound effects have reduced this once once elegant game to a travesty. There are no settings to switch off sound. And the new graphics are horrible and unnecessary for the game. Wish we had been given an option to upgrade the game. As it is, we immediately deleted this off our phone.
Had the original Boxed In and Boxed In 2. They were 5 star games functional, clever, … Why in the world would anyone redesign it into this continuously animated 3D space nonense? We have no idea. Swipe controls dont function properly or accurately as in the past. Animation is not necessary. Dancing robot is stupid. Music is horrid. Worst game redesign EVER. Developer, if you care about your players, rename this to Boxed In 3D and bring back Boxed In v1 and v2.
This was one of our favorite games, and we played it all the way through a least once a year. Then came iOS 11, which broke the game. Dang it! We were happy to see a new version – until we began to play it. It is so obnoxious! Besides the annoying flashing bright strobe at the exit square, there are loud sounds which continue to play even after we turn off all the sound. And the animation leading into each level is just way too much. Please tone this down so its more like the old Boxed In 2 and 3 – and then please update 2 and 3.
So glad to see the return of our all-time favorite puzzle game on iOS! Puzzles range from easy to deviously hard, but theres great satisfaction in solving them.
Love these games. Have every one of these boxed in games and they are great.
Hands down, the best game on the iphone! We just replayed all levels after a 2 year hiatus, and enjoyed them just as much as the first time. Hint-click the Level # button to get to the game level you want. To the developer-have seen nothing new from you for some time. Please do more Boxed In or Iced In games.
Challenging and helps us learn patience.
The best advice for this incredibly challenging game: learn to plan ahead. We've played all three of the Boxed In games, and each gets better than the last. Challenging levels with simple gameplay? Clearly not impossible to achieve, as this game will have you scratching your head.
Finally beat all 50 levels. Wow! Some tough ones in there. Now on to Boxed In 2 :).
We think it would be better if you could take back more than one move.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 4.76.1
- Size: 197.25 MB
- iOS: 12.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Dennis Mengelt
Last updated: 27th July 2023 | Genre: Entertainment, Casual | Developer: Dennis Mengelt