Sokoban
Sokoban is a game invented by a Japanese company, "Thinking Rabbit". Essentially, it's the Block Puzzle of all Block Puzzles.
The idea is simple: Push all of the blocks inside a maze on their target positions, but there are two rules that make it tricky:
- You cannot pull blocks; you can only push them.
- You cannot push more than one block.
Suddenly a task that seems so simple becomes really challenging. In other words, the game can get very hard, very fast.
A lot of people liked the idea and now there are tons of remakes and new levels on the Internet. Many of them are rather difficult.
Tropes used in Sokoban include:
- Back Tracking: Since you can only push one block at a time, you will have to traverse the map multiple times. This is amplified in some layouts (e.g. Level 20), where you need to traverse the entire level to get a box around a corner.
- Block Puzzle: The ultimate.
- Lost Forever: You cannot retrieve a block pushed in a corner, or next to an edge wall. If one of the target squares is right there, it's all fine, but if not, then...
- Unwinnable By Mistake: Very rarely, some poorer clones/remakes feature levels that are unsolvable from the very start.