The Turbografx Game That Takes The Longest To Beat

Not everyone had a TurboGrafx-16 (AKA PC Engine) growing up, but those that did often look back on the system fondly despite it being considered a failure in the west (per The Guardian). Released in 1987, Hudson's TurboGrafx-16 ushered in a new era of gaming with its then-impressive 16-bit graphics processing unit. Although the graphics may not look great by today's standards, they were an impressive step up from the 8-bit consoles of the third generation that included the Nintendo Entertainment System. But no matter how pretty a console's graphics are, it lives and dies by its games. Thankfully, the TurboGrafx-16 had some great ones.

Side-scrolling action games such as "R-Type," "Bonk's Revenge," and "Ninja Spirit" provided gamers with memorable experiences that couldn't be found elsewhere. The TurboGrafx-16 was also famously home to an exclusive "Castlevania" game titled "Castlevania Rondo of Blood" that didn't receive a Western release until years later. Despite the TurboGrafx-16 having a cutting-edge GPU, it couldn't shake the limited storage capacity consoles had at the time. This meant games had to be short by modern standards to fit on the tiny 1-2 MB cartridges. But one game on the TurboGrafx-16 defied all odds by providing a hefty amount of content in such a small package. And it's a game that is still enjoyable today.

NEC's 1990 "Boxyboy" takes the prize for the longest game on the TurboGrafx-16, and anyone that has played it will understand why. "Boxyboy" is an adaptation of the 1982 puzzle game "Sokoban," where a player has to move boxes around carefully in a specific order to complete a level. Even one wrong move could spell disaster for players, forcing them to reattempt levels.

This puzzle style may be familiar to some, even if gamers haven't played "Boxboy" before, as its essence has become an essential mechanic for puzzles in contemporary titles and the mobile game market as well. Similar puzzle mechanics to "Sokoban" have also made their way into other more notable and modern games, such as "Link's Awakening," where players must perform similar heavy-lifting tasks to obtain treasure. Although the gameplay was simple, "Boxyboy" packed a lot of content.

"Boxyboy" featured 100 levels spread across five worlds, with each map increasing in difficulty. Each world is based on real-world locations such as America, China, and the South Pole. Players could also create their own maps via a unique 'Construction' mode. Because of the incredible number of levels and their difficulty, "Boxyboy" is the TurboGrafx-16's longest game and can take dozens of hours to complete. Of course, it could take even longer if players lose their level skip passwords.