HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed Review

We begin our game where you are trapped inside a toy package requiring you to break out of the plastic to get free. You are an action figure who is tasked with defending your base from Major Evill and his weaponised toy army. The game has you fighting in everyday settings like the bathroom, kitchen, or hallway, and since you are small, these levels feel huge! This game is a mix of strategy and shooting as you take out the enemy and use blocks and traps in build mode to create defensive walls to defend your base and slow the enemy down for a short period to help protect your HYPERCORE — it's very important, that's why it's in capitals.

Before I get into gameplay, I have to say that the attention to detail in HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed is phenomenal. You can tell that they spent a lot of time on all the details and have even put little scuff marks on the boxes! The Beyblade-like spinners look great and even break into different segments when destroyed like they would in a real Beyblade match. This is one of the most realistic-looking games I have played in a long time!

When you start, you have a few selections to make, like which mode you want to challenge Campaign, where you protect the HYPERCORE from the waves of enemy toys; (this is available right off the bat); free roam is locked but can be unlocked by earning Platinum in any level; Free Mode, which you unlock early on that allows you to explore and complete objectives without having to worry about enemy toys attacking; or the Tutorial, which teaches you the basic game mechanics to prepare you to fight against Major Evill. There is also a Versus Mode where you fight against other players in PvP local or online with crossplay. You can customise the game's rules to create a fresh gameplay experience.

HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed has multiple difficulties available, ranging from casual, which gives you more time to build between waves (six minutes to prepare), with weaker versions of enemies, and goes all the way up to nightmare difficulty if you want a real challenge. This difficulty is locked in the beginning and is only unlocked when you get Ruby awards in every level to prove that you are ready for the extreme challenge.

You get to customise almost every aspect of your action figure, including its type, from eight options like Defence Corps, P.R.I.M.A.L., Valkyrie, Wraith, Supporter, Road Warrior, Mightus, and Breaker, with seven others locked. Head, where you select your noggin from three choices available and eight others to unlock; Skin, pick from seven different styles, with seven others to get; Weapon, with over 100 different styles and colours available at the start, with an additional 33 to get; Packaging, where you choose which design you want for your action figure's packaging; Buildable lets you select the three kinds of defence items and traps you want to use for that run; Name, where you to make or choose a randomly generated title for your character, but who doesn't love monikers like Ms. Monstrous Widow, Madame Huge Stalker, Crimson Fly, or Mx. Revolting Fox? If you want to make it yourself, you can select the prefix, adjective, and noun yourself, but I love seeing the crazy names the game came up with on its own. Then to finish, you get to select the design of your personal avatar.

Now that we are ready for battle, it’s time to learn how to play by doing the tutorial. You move your action hero with the left thumbstick and control the camera with the right. To aim with your weapon, use LT and shoot with RT. Jump is assigned to the right bumper, which seemed weird to me at first but was pretty easy to adapt to. I did find that jumping between objects can be quite tricky, even with the ability to double jump. For example, the game suggested that I jump from the dryer onto the door handle and on top of the shelves. I was never able to complete this successfully; it always felt like the camera wasn't right to line up where I was landing.

With that completed, it’s time to jump into the main game. The overarching story is split into chapters; the first is called Dawn of the Toys. To introduce you to the new stage, we see an animated cinematic presented as a graphic novel with comic book panels. These introductions are fully voiced, which was a nice touch. Your commander, Max Ammo, has an awesome Scottish accent, and the art style in the book is great. We are then given mission objectives that you have to complete and optional objectives to get you additional points and achievements.

In Casual mode, which I selected to learn how to play the game, you have six minutes between waves to collect resources and fortify your defences, trying to protect the HYPERCORES and disarm traps the enemy toys left behind, like cleaning up glue traps. To build new traps and defences, you will need to collect as many credits as you can, as this will also give you more building materials to use. If you build something by mistake or if you don’t need it anymore, you can destroy the buildable for a partial reimbursement of your funds. If you find the six minutes way too long in between waves and want to get straight to the action, increase the difficulty to the next level. This mode can be played on your own or with a friend in local multiplayer. Since I was initially playing by myself, my team of four fighters was filled with AI fighters: Checkmate, Red Menace, and Guardian, who helped me fight against the waves of invading toys. They were actually very helpful in taking down the enemy and defending the HYPERCORES. They were also surprisingly polite; when the one bumped into me, he said, “I'm sorry, my bad!”. Later on, it was easy for my son to jump in and play along with me in split-screen, where we had two AI teammates to help out.

There are multiple stages that you get to explore and battle in, including Operation Alley, Toy Palace, Fort Jeep, Action Attic, Big Trouble in Little Hallway, Flash in the Pan, Shed of the Dead, Garden of Evil, Funderdome, Adventure Dunes, and Rental Lair. Each of these stages has its own unique theme and is full of realistic props and furniture to make it feel like you are right there fighting. The developers have done an amazing job creating these environments, making them feel almost like the real thing!

Once you start battling the waves of enemy toys, remember that this is not a zombie game, so shooting the enemy in the head won't stop them. If you destroy the head, the toy will just keep walking. So you need to target the main body, as knocking off an arm or leg won't make them stop, either. Once you clear the four waves of invading enemies, your team's stats showing things like how much XP the team earned, who did the most melee attacks, who had the worst accuracy, and the most deaths. If you die in your match, it is not over for you; instead, you come back to the battle after five seconds to continue the fight. However, if all the HYPERCORES currently in the match are taken out, you will have to rechallenge this stage again. Once you successfully complete this stage, you unlock new levels to challenge, like Air Hockey Shuffle and Alleyway, along with new character skins like the Red Menace and new character heads like Tactical. There are also new weapon materials, such as Red Menace, and a new glue trap to add to your buildables.

The music for HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed is very good; every stage you play has its own unique music featuring lots of electric guitars, which is very high energy and reminds me of AC/DC. I especially loved the bathroom stage music, as it sounds like retro chiptune tracks mixed with an upbeat tempo that turns dark and ominous as it goes. The only time I felt that the music got repetitive was during the tutorial, but that was more my fault as I was spending way too much time exploring, so the same track kept looping.

As much as I enjoyed playing single-player, the game really shines when you can play multiplayer locally (four players) or online cross-platform with up to eight players. Teaming up to defeat the enemies in the PvE Campaign mode was great, especially in the later levels that are more difficult or if you faced off against each other in PvP. If you get tired of the main game, there is a Party Mode that has two games to unlock, Spinner Battle and Tank Arena.

There is so much to love here, from the character customisation, beautiful visuals, and the ability to not only play on your own but locally and cross-platform. This makes this a game to try out and make all of your childhood toy battles come alive — well not technically, but you know what I mean. Be warned that the difficulty does spike after a while, so it may take a few attempts to get through some of the later stages. If you are up for the challenge of taking on the role of a toy soldier, HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed is a title that you should definitely check out!