It was a city like any other; grimy, crowded, teeming with life. A city of balls, each going about their daily business as only a ball can. But evil lurked in the shadows, the evil of... red! What are ordinary balls to do when red stalks the city? They call upon a special type of ball. A ball that, under the right circumstances, can become something other than itself. A ball that can transform into something that can take on the red menace and make life safe for everyone else. These special balls can transform into boxes you see, and when evil strikes they launch to the rescue. There are a million stories in the naked city, and this is the story of...WereBox!

Okay, so the inner Raymond Chandler sucks. WereBox is a cute little physics puzzle designed by Vogd that is based on a simple premise: these particular balls and boxes can transform back and forth from one form to the other. All the heroic werebox (or wereboxes, depending on the level) must do is rid the area of the evil red balls (and/or squares) by transforming back and forth and pushing the red menace over the edge. Simple in theory. In execution? Not so much.

The player begins with one or more balls or boxes perched on ledges. Changing a ball or box is simple; just click on it to change the form. It is up to you, the gamer, to determine which action will help rid the ledges of the red menace using physics and gravity. There's only one catch: all the other balls and boxes must remain safe. That's right, no suicide missions allowed. As the levels progress there will be more than one good guy and more than one bad guy, so a little forethought and planning is required to rid the sky of all the red balls and boxes without losing any of the others. Timing can be critical, especially in the upper levels, so think before you click.

Analysis: WereBox is a cute yet tough little phuzzle. The graphics are flat, bright, and familiarly cartoon-like. Dramatic music and cute sound effects round out the enjoyable casual gameplay. There are some downsides, though. In some of the higher levels the timing is both extremely tricky and some of the solutions are so complex that the player can end up trying something a dozen times or more before getting it just right. And at 20 levels, the game is a little on the short side.

Gameplay is reminiscent of Red Remover in the simple dynamic of getting rid of anything red while saving everything else with one critical difference: there is no neutral ground in the world of WereBox. There is only good and evil, and none of the good can be sacrificed to remove the evil (aka red). Clicking on a ball will change it into a box, and vice versa. You may have to effect this change more than once to achieve the desired goal of getting rid of the evil reds. In fact, you can also transform the reds back and forth as well, or, at least, some of them. Some of the reds are so evil they resist transformation, making them even trickier to remove.

WereBox is a fun little challenge that will brighten your day. Lurking in the darkness, transforming to save the day, be the hero and vanquish the wicked reds so that life in the city can return to normal. Well, normal for balls anyway.

Play WereBox