Boxville vs Recursion
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Boxville
This animated adventure puzzle game features speechless cans navigating a city of boxes. Solve logic puzzles and riddles, explore a charming world, and uncover the mystery behind earthquakes. Enjoy a unique audio-visual experience, playable solo or with a friend.
- Animated film and puzzle game hybrid
- Hand-drawn graphics and custom animations
- Environmental quests and logical puzzles
- Unique music for each scene
- Wordless communication via speech bubbles
- Playable solo or co-op
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Boxville is 2-in-1: an animated film and a puzzle game. Boxville is an adventure puzzle game about speechless cans living in the city of boxes and drawing doodles on cardboards to tell the stories. Boxville is good for playing alone to dive into the atmosphere and challenge your brain with sophisticated logic puzzles and riddles, or playing with a friend or family to share unique audio-visual experiences and solve the puzzles together. Design The core idea of the game is that it’s not just a game - but also an animated film that you can watch and play at the same time. We designed Boxville’s gameplay with the purpose of taking away your anxiety and stress. You can explore and observe the world without rushing and pressure. The game is full of environmental quests and logical puzzles that we have carefully picked from among hundreds of options. Story Boxville is a city of boxes populated with old cans. They live quiet and happy lives with their everyday routines and habits. But one day, unexplained earthquakes disturbed their idyll... Blue Can (our hero) lost his best friend because of that. He started his search but it is not so easy to move through the city after earthquakes. He has to find a way to move forward, return the friend back home and discover the real reason for all those earthquakes. There are many adventures, new friends and it’s not only friends that are waiting for him on the way. He has to be curious, inventive, careful, and to help others, to reach his goal. What you can expect to see and hear in Boxville: - Hand-drawn graphics — all backgrounds and characters are carefully drawn by our artists. - Every animation and sound is created especially for each interaction. - Unique music track was created for every scene to accomplish the atmosphere of the game. - Tens of logical puzzles and mini-games are tightly incorporated into the story of the game. - There are no words in the game — all characters communicate via cartoony speechbubbles.
Recursion
Embark on a mind-bending puzzle adventure where you're trapped in a repeating time loop. Use your wits and a special device to solve mysteries, find clues, and shut down a machine before the loop resets. This compact mystery game offers challenging puzzles and a unique narrative.
- Time-loop mechanic
- First-person point and click adventure
- Mystery and puzzle solving
- Clue finding
- Hint system
- Immersive soundtrack and sound effects
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Enter a mind-bending first-person puzzle adventure. Explore mysterious rooms, solve glitches, and navigate a time loop to uncover the truth. Something is wrong. All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again. Explore a strange, glitch-filled facility and uncover the secrets hidden within Recursion. Features: • Immersive first-person escape room gameplay • Mind-bending riddles, hidden clues, and layered mysteries • The Glitch Camera — capture details and reveal secrets others miss • Intuitive controls for a smooth, engaging experience • No ads, no interruptions — just pure puzzle adventure Can you escape the glitch? Download Recursion now and dive into a sci-fi puzzle adventure unlike any other! From Glitch Games, a small indie team crafting unique memory puzzles, point-and-click mysteries, and immersive story experiences. Follow us for updates, news, and behind-the-scenes content: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GlitchGames/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/glitch.games Newsletter: https://glitch.games/newsletter Twitter: https://x.com/GlitchGames Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theglitchgames/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GlitchGames
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Boxville at 4.7 against Recursion's 4.2. Boxville also leads on review sentiment (78% vs 65%) and ratings volume (755 vs 67). Recursion's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 13.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Boxville costs $3.99 and Recursion $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Boxville holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Boxville has 755 ratings behind it against 67, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 78% of Boxville's written reviews are positive against 65% of Recursion's.
Boxville ships an update every 9 days, Recursion every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Boxville | Recursion |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | $3.99 |
| Rating | 4.7 (755 ratings) — better | 4.2 (67 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 78.2% of reviews — better | 64.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 755 — better | 67 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #146 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.2 GB | 550 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Triomatica Games | Glitch Games |
Customer experience
Boxville
Recursion
User reviews
Boxville
From 755 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Enjoyable puzzles
- 🎨 Beautiful art and animation
- 🎶 Lovely music
- 🧠 Challenging but logical puzzles
- 🤗 Charming characters and story
Room to improve
- 🕰️ Short game length
- 🔍 Tiny inventory items hard to see
- 🤯 Some puzzles too obscure
- 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
- 🤖 Lack of hint system or ability to skip puzzles
Recursion
From 67 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💡 Unique and innovative gameplay mechanics
- 😂 Lots of fun and laughter
- 👍 Great twist on game types
- 🧠 Mind-bending puzzles
- 🌟 High-quality games from developer
Room to improve
- 🔁 Repetitive tasks and puzzles
- ⏳ Too much dying and restarting
- 😩 Tedious and frustrating experience
- ⏱️ Time loop/timer causes anxiety
- ⏳ Game feels too short
Bugs and requests
Boxville
Reported bugs
3 issues- Progress reset after updates
- Inventory items disappearing
- Puzzle mechanics not working as expected
Requested features
4 requests- Longer game with more content
- Ability to use stylus/Apple Pencil
- Improved save/load system
- In-game hints or ability to skip puzzles
Recursion
Reported bugs
4 issues- Lift doors in chapter 3 wouldn't open
- Wireless controller doesn't appear
- Game crashes on start-up
- Stuck in the elevator (potential bug)
Requested features
6 requests- Add a setting to remove the time loop
- Option to disable the timer
- Longer game duration
- Richer story content
- More variety in game environments (less industrial)
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- Sequels to previous games (Veritas, All That Remains)
In-app purchases
Boxville
No in-app purchases
Recursion
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Boxville free?
Is Recursion free?
Which has better reviews, Boxville or Recursion?
Do Boxville or Recursion have ads?
Which is updated more often, Boxville or Recursion?
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