Boxes

Boxes are an important part of the Phantom Mansion games, they can either help Hector, or hinder him. Sometimes boxes are arranged in patterns, the objective is to try and push them in the right order so that Hector can pass, if you make even one mistake then you could have to restart the level, an example of a level like this is level 14 of the Red Chamber, "Box Clever". If the player pushes a box against something, the box will be stuck against it forever (usually), as Hector cannot pull boxes back. Boxes can be pushed up and down stairs, and through doorways, but they cannot be pushed through drops. There are two types of boxes.

Wooden Boxes
Wooden boxes have two main uses, to fill gaps in the floor and to hold down switches (some switches do not stay down unless they have something on them at all times). They are first seen in level 3 of the Red Chamber, "Dead Easy". Wooden boxes can also be pushed by zombies and skeletons, however they cannot be pushed by Hop-Frog or ghosts. They make a sliding sound when pushed. If the player stands behind a wooden box as an enemy is approaching to push it, the enemy will not be able to push it, and will simply turn back.

Metal Boxes
Metal boxes have three main uses, to fill gaps in the floor, to hold down switches and to trap enemies. Only Hector can push metal boxes, they cannot be pushed by any enemies, so if a metal box is pushed in front of them when they are against a wall, they will be stuck there. They are first seen in level 3 of the Red Chamber, "Dead Easy". They make a sound of metal being scraped when pushed.

Trivia
There is a glitch in the Phantom Mansion games that sometimes occurs where an enemy will walk through a box. This glitch has been encountered on multiple different occasions, but it usually occurs when a box is pushed into an enemy.