Me and Mikey both played HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed, so we’ve put our heads together to produce this comprehensive review! We’ve got some extensive video coverage of this one, so at the bottom of the review, you’ll find a link to the playlist containing videos of the CO-OP, some FAQs and a video review! Let us get started!

Developer: Digital Cybercherries

Publisher: Digital Cybercherries

15 Hours Played // Review Copy Provided // $19.99

In simple terms, Hypercharge: Unboxed is what happens when someone decides that it is more fun to play as a toy than to play with them! You take charge of an action figure who has the duty of protecting three battery-powered cores from an onslaught of enemies. I’m talking toy robots, classic army men, spinning tops and even tanks! The core modes act as a combination of tower defence and FPS gameplay revolving around making sure your cores remain protected throughout the duration of the numerous waves you will face. But for those seeking some PVP action, the multiplayer does have a decent array of options to satisfy your needs.

What is immediately obvious when you start playing Hypercharge: Unboxed is the amount of passion that went into the development of it. So many details are hidden away, most of which will be ignored by players. For example, cardboard boxes in the toyshop level have fully completed postage stickers with addresses and all. It does an incredible job of making players feel like they have been shrunk down into a real-world, of course aside from the living toys! Of course, what this content lacks in size, I couldn’t resist, it more than makes up for it in volume. A multiplicity of game modes and styles of play ensure that despite standing 10 inches tall, Hypercharge: Unboxed offers no shortage of content.

The environments are as impressive as they are inventive.

On that note, it is time to go into the nitty-gritty details of what is on offer for the low sum of $20.00. To start with, the current version of the game has 10 maps, ranging from a garden to a toy store, and even a rather messy bathroom! Each and everyone is brilliantly designed and packed full of small easter eggs to find and places to explore. Digital Cybercherries have done an outstanding job on building maps that not only look great but integrate brilliant ways to move around them. Window ledges can be ran along, ladders can be climbed and you can even get underneath the duvet in the bedroom level. If you think you can reach it, there is probably a way. Collectables are also dotted around in these hard to reach places and serve as a way to occupy yourself should you end up with free time between waves. I haven’t encountered a single map I really didn’t get along with and this is a testament to the love put into them.

Once you stop gazing around at the gorgeous environments you’ll remember about the rest of the game and the job you have to do. Each map has three ‘hypercores’ that you must protect from the waves of toys that are determined to take them down! They are usually distant from one another which at times can make single-player rather tricky, but the quick pace of movement prevents this from becoming too severe of an issue if you plan well enough. Each core is surrounded by slots for your potential defences, more on that later. In some levels, such as the bedroom, you can even build castle walls around your cores. Little quirks like these are present level to level and add a lot to the overall experience as it makes each map feel different from the others.

Blasting with the minigun is too much fun!

You can further bolster your defences by acquiring batteries which will charge up your core’s shields. Preventing any damage is crucial to securing the highest accolades so managing your shield levels becomes crucial in later waves as your defences will become overwhelmed by the hordes of toy enemies. The batteries are normally hidden away in rather inconspicuous places, so they require a bit of work to find but they are well worth it for the edge they give.

The buildables available vary massively, from the basic glue traps and lego brick walls to Anti-aircraft rockets and machine gun turrets. All of course with the toyish charm the rest of Hypercharge: Unboxed delivers. Most of the buildables are fairly well balanced with different costs and damage levels, although some are definitely stronger on different maps. I’ll let you figure that out though, that’s half the fun! You’ll find yourself switching up buildable sets between levels and this is only a good thing in providing even more replayability.

Watch the chaos unfold in front of you!

On the topic of replayability, there are three levels of difficulty with a fourth one unlockable as you play through. I personally found the default level fairly substantial, especially in single-player but after testing the various levels I think they scale fairly well. If you want a challenge in co-op you will definitely be leaning towards the hardest difficulties though, and why would you want things to be easy anyway? A lot of tower defense games opt to have blanket levels of difficulty which makes no sense to me, so it is great to see Hypercharge bucking the trend. If anything, it sometimes leans towards the easier side, but the option is there to go back and increase the challenge anyway so it isn’t as big of a problem as it could be. Although, I did find sometimes the waves within a level suddenly ramped up from 0 to 100, mainly the spinning blades, which caused chaos nearly every time I had to deal with them.

The Switch is lacking in really good multiplayer FPS games, especially ones with both offline and online options. So, Hypercharge: Unboxed managing to deliver both with a swift left hook, right hook, before knocking out the opposition into the dirt. I haven’t had a chance to dive into the offline modes, living on my own has that effect, but I have tried all the online modes and to put it simply, they are brilliant. I implore you to buy this game for the co-operative gameplay alone, but the PVP options on top are phenomenally well made. The highlight for me is definitely the plague mode, which is a mode akin to ‘infected’ from the Call of Duty series. One player starts as the infected with some unique abilities and has to infect the rest of the players until only one toy remains! The other PVP modes are your standard team deathmatch gameplay, and they too are really fun. But that Plague mode is just something else. As I said, the co-op multiplayer is in concept the main pull of Hypercharge, but the PVP would be worth it even if you have no interest in co-op.

Speaking of multiplayer, especially the online, I could see many people being hesitant over Hypercharge: Unboxed because of the known issues with the Switch and online games. So, imagine my shock when, upon booting up and creating an online lobby for the first time, it ran flawlessly. After getting to grips with how exactly to make a lobby and bring players into it I played for 2 hours with no hitches at all, and that is with a connection across the Atlantic! Me and Mikey were really impressed by how well the online has been designed in Hypercharge. There is even a server browser to make finding games even easier, too many games overlook small features like this and it’s another testament to the passion put into the game.

PVP in these environments is really fun…

Controls are quite confusing at first, with Hypercharge opting for the ‘bumper jumper’ system which uses the triggers to jump instead of the classic ‘B’ button. However, after initial confusion over this, an in-game tutorial is coming soon post-launch, I felt quite comfortable using it as it allows you to still aim whilst jumping, something which has always been an issue in shooter games. Aside from this, I found the controls fairly easy to pick up after a few minutes of playing. Although it is worth stating that whilst you can opt to play with a traditional jumping/running setup, this is the limit of control customisation. I am a big advocate for control bindings, so it is a shame to see them amiss here. At the same time though, we do have gyro controls which is a MASSIVE plus. Gyro controls should be an essential feature in FPS games on all capable systems so seeing them here is a brilliant sign of the care for gamers on the Switch. I will say though, I wish I could make them a little more sensitive, even at the highest level I find myself wanting to push it even higher, a patch could fix this though and I hope to see this improved in the future.

The biggest fear I had coming into Hypercharge: Unboxed was definitely how it would perform on the Switch. I mean, I can bring up a lot of promising Switch titles which fail to impress because of poor frame rates and resolution. In my, so far, 15 hours of game time, a combination of single-player and online, I encountered very few performance hitches. A few seconds here and there, but for 99% of my time Hypercharge holds a solid 30 FPS, it is a shame it can’t hit 60, perhaps one day it could do but being able to hit 30 so consistently is good enough for me.

One final thing well worth discussing is the customisation options! And guess what, it is all FREE! No microtransactions, no loot boxes, nothing, everything is unlocked in the game through completing all the different challenges. Even more helpful is the fact each unlock displays exactly what you need to do to get it! Of course, if you prefer to not know you can do that too, but I found it really helpful to be able to track exactly what I need to do. The different options themselves are pretty decent too, with the ability to change heads, outfits, gun skins and so on. My own favourite was definitely unlocking the ‘lego’ head which I continue to use to this day! I’d like to think more skins and unlockables will come with future content but at launch, it is a great set of options and all for free!

I present to you… DOCTOR DANGER!

On the topic of future content, I’ll finish by bringing up the recently released road map detailing what lies ahead over the next few months for Hypercharge: Unboxed. By May there will be new game modes, new characters, in-game voice chat and more maps as well as additions to both weapons and enemy rosters. Of course, I won’t review content which isn’t in the game yet, but the promise to commit to not only this content but working on the game according to the reviews is well worth considering if you’re looking into Hypercharge.

My first review of 2020 has set a high mark for other games to follow, so it is with great pleasure that I award Hypercharge: Unboxed a Golden Heart! It is a game I will encourage people to buy, and one I will be returning back to as often as I can. Combining FPS and tower defense in such a masterful way is worth praising, and whilst it isn’t perfect, Hypercharge is well worth investing in, not only because of the product now but because of the one it will become.

Interested in seeing our YouTube content for HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed? Here is the playlist containing four videos!

HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed is an amazing experience, but it isn’t the only one on the Switch! For another brilliant title, I recommend our review of Super Lucky’s Tale, a fantastically fun 3D platformer! Be sure to keep the convo going on our Twitter and join our Discord. Thank you, as always for checking out our content, we appreciate everyone who helps keep indies alive!