Pull Instead of Push in ‘Antiban’, a Twist on Sokoban

There’s plenty of Sokoban games out there – push-based sliding puzzles. But what happens when we change up a simple formula by simply reversing it? In Antiban, you pull blocks.

Egor Dorichev’s Antiban is the antithesis to Sokoban, with players challenged to pass levels through pulling bricks around rather than pushing them. There are a lot of puzzles similar to the traditional ones – definitely enough to make hardened Sokoban players have to take a step back and think about each level layout before dashing into it. This remains the case on the later levels, too, where mirror image duplicates of the player appear and interact with the bricks and buttons in the same manner.

The reason Sokoban is something which reappears in game jams is because it is an easier, switch-based puzzle game, and as such it is more approachable to both the creator and the player. In reversing the core mechanic, Antiban feels fresh, and as such it is no wonder that it ranked in the top 5 of the recent Surprise Pizza Jam. That and the fact that it was, as the jam theme required, a ‘take on a modern game cliché’.

Antiban is available for free on Itch.io.

About The Author

Dann Sullivan

After almost a decade of selling games, Dann decided to try his hand at writing about them instead. A few years in and he is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Big Boss Battle, where he and his team cover games of all shapes and sizes. When not in the role, he can often be found seeking out small, memorable game experiences.

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