Now and then, you come across a game that you can tell from the first moment that you love its vibes. That was kind of my first experience with Hypercharge: Unboxed. A game where you play as action figures fighting it out in everyday settings like bedrooms and the toy store sounds like something right up my alley. Growing up, I enjoyed the movie Small Soldiers and always thought that there was potential for a game in that ilk. Sure, we’ve seen games before that let you play as toys, but nothing quite gets as close to that feeling of toy warfare as Hypercharge: Unboxed.
From the comic book page to life

From an aesthetic perspective, Hypercharge: Unboxed does everything perfectly. It’s good-looking and has a great vision for what it wants to convey. If you are in the garage level, you can climb up and down tools and battle it out on top of the family vehicle. In the bedroom, you can hide away in dark corners and walk over discarded food and drinks.
That dedication to nailing the look is also carried over into your chosen action figure. There are tons of unlockable creatures with all kinds of cosmetics. You can change a lot about your lizardman or basic soldier, all the way from their colors to the box they start each match in. Just from a looks standpoint alone, there isn’t anything that Hypercharge: Unboxed gets wrong.
I particularly enjoyed the platforming at play in the game. Jumping up ledges of things like books or counters to get the high ground was always great. Getting to the top and looking over the area felt great. It would be nice if there were more to do in the environment, though. Situations like pushing over a book to land on the enemy would be a really cool way to get some kills. The playground here is fun to go up and down on, but outside of the cosmetic value, there isn’t too much to enjoy.
That’s not the right batteries for this toy

Getting into the campaign, I was a little surprised to see that the story missions are tower defense-centric. Each level has three Hypercores that you need to stop waves of enemies from getting to. Between each wave, you have a couple of minutes to place down some defenses and do a little exploring, and I feel this is where Hypercharge: Unboxed loses a little of its luster. The defenses you put up are pretty limited, with a small selection available in each match and their placements dedicated to specific spots. The tower defense gameplay isn’t bad, but it doesn’t add anything meaningful to the game and only detracts from the areas of the game I wanted to enjoy more.
Gunplay is just okay. The Xbox version has a very, very strong aim assist. You could aim very far off from an enemy, and the game will train your targets directly onto them and follow their movements. You can turn this down in the settings, but oh boy did I feel like the game was trying to hold my hand while shooting. Hypercharge: Unboxed also uses bumper jumper controls. It was a little offputting for me, but I’m sure there are some classic Halo fans out there that will enjoy it. Again, you can change that in the settings, but for it to be default is quite odd.
Moving around all of the environments in this game is amazing. You can fall down cracks, climb up door handles, and see a lot of things the normal-sized person would struggle to see in these environments. There are side challenges for certain platforming tasks, finding collectibles, and more. All of that is great, but the moment I am forced back into the tower defense structure, I find myself wanting to do anything but that. It always felt like I was just moments away from reaching a collectible, only to have my attention ripped away to the invading toys. Luckily, you can decide to come back to levels in Free Roam with no enemies, but you have to start over on uncompleted objectives and obviously, there’s a loss of fun with literally no challenge available. Instead of the tower defense campaign, it would have been much better to eliminate the time limit and have a sandbox adventure to explore freely but still have objectives and enemies within. Think of the Toy Story 2 game but with guns.
Bring a friend because there won’t be many there

The multiplayer options are player-friendly, which is good because it is very difficult to find people to play Hypercharge: Unboxed with. Whenever I would search for lobbies to join, I was constantly met with server disconnections, and when I did get into games, it was always filled with bots. Luckily, the bots are finely tuned not to be too hard or easy, at least most of the time. They have their moments, but there are worse AI systems out there.
It’s a little offputting that a game with crossplay that has been out on other platforms for a while would have so many problems finding people to play with. If you want to play with someone in your household, splitscreen play is available, which seems like a dead concept in most shooters these days. That does give Hypercharge: Unboxed some more points in the nostalgic aisle. Just don’t expect to get into many great online matches with strangers.
The online PvP modes are all pretty basic shooter modes you have seen a thousand times over. Deathmatch, Capture the Battery, Infection, and King of the Hill. Because the only games I could get going were against bots, I don’t think I saw the best Hypercharge: Unboxed PvP has to offer. Maybe at launch, the Xbox release will boost the servers a bit, but I don’t expect that to last for long, and like the levels, it’s not like the gameplay under the cosmetics is anything too special.
Final verdict
Hypercharge: Unboxed is a gorgeous game that is highly reminiscent of Small Soldiers. That’s a good thing from a looks perspective, but the gameplay isn’t anything too special. The tower defense structure distracts you from the exploring you want to do, and when you look at the game’s server issues, there’s not much hope for an online community to grow long-term. That said, you have your choice to play in first-person or third-person, and you can always boot it up with a friend to play against decent bots. For what the game lacks in compelling gameplay, it more than makes up for with its gorgeous plastic-covered characters and large arenas.
Hypercharge: Unboxed was reviewed on Xbox Series X with a code provided by Digital Cybercherries. The game is also available on PC and Nintendo Switch.
More from us:
C.A.R.D.S. RPG: The Misty Battlefield review: Heart of the cards
The Review
PROS
- Beautiful world from a toy's perspective
- Fun levels to platform around
- Offline play available in every mode with decent bots
CONS
- Server issues when trying to find others to play with
- Tower defense gameplay doesn’t do anything interesting