I was one of those kids who grew up playing with my action figures in the ’80s. I’d wage war between He-Man and the Thundercats, maybe throw in a couple of Visionaries and even the odd Real Ghostbusters toy. None of it made any sense, but to 8-year-old me, they were epic battles that no kids’ cartoon could even dream of matching. Developer and publisher, Digital Cybercherries, takes me back to those days with Hypercharge: Unboxed, a toy box of plastic mayhem from my past.

“Hypercharge is a first and third-person shooter action figure game you’ve always dreamed of! Grab your friends, complete objectives, defend the Hypercore against waves of weaponized toys, and defeat Major Evil together in the story campaign!”

The first thing that I want to get across first is, Hypercharge: Unboxed isn’t licenced. So there are no recognisable characters from your childhood here. However, even with an all-original cast, this game is still immense fun. What you get here is a no-nonsense shooter, pure action, and a game that harks back to when gaming was about just enjoying yourself. There are no microtransactions, no season passes, you buy the game, and you get the whole game. Hypercharge had already seen a release back in 2020 on Steam and Switch, but it is now heading to Xbox and this is the version I have been playing for review.

The basics of Hypercharge are that it is a first and third-person shooter that blends elements of PvP combat and tower defence/base building. You get a handful of different gameplay modes. There is an online multiplayer mode that offers up pretty much what you’d expect from any PvP shooter. However, if online is not your kind of thing, you can always opt for the single-player/split-screen co-op story mode. I’m not going to get into story spoilers here, but it is a basic (but very fun) good toys vs evil toys scenario. Have you ever seen the film Small Soldiers? Well, Hypercharge: Unboxed is basically that. The core gameplay involves you trying to defend your hyper-core (bases) from hordes of enemies. If your hyper-cores fall, it’s game over.

You can build a variety of defences to help, with more being unlocked as you play. Place down sticky floors to slow the enemy, turrets to take care of some of the shooting for you, and you can even place surface-to-air defences to take care of any pesky airborne toys. Wipe out all of the enemies from each round and you win. You’ll be scored on your performance too, and the better your overall score, the more you will unlock. But, it’s not all about the shooting. Between each round, you’ll have several minutes to place defences and all that, but you can also explore the maps, and this becomes a game in itself.

The maps are brilliantly designed, highly detailed and will have you traversing various rooms of a house, a back garden, a toy store and more. Each of the maps really has a lot to take in, and they offer multiple side-quests. You’ll need to really explore and learn each map to get the most out of them. You’ll be doing things like collecting all the coins, finding hidden objects or having to unplug a PC, flush a toilet and try to master tricky jumps. This is why you need the several minutes between rounds, because the maps have so much crammed into them, and they are so much fun to play around in.

The shooting action itself is pretty solid and feels really great. You only have one gun, but you can buy attachments to beef up your firepower. These attachments can be found in the boxes of the toys, and you can add various upgrades or even a second barrel, which then works as a secondary weapon. Stick a flamethrower or laser on your gun, and you’re going to have a good time destroying all of those enemy toys. Speaking of which, I did mention earlier how Hypercharge is not a licenced game. But, the devs have included plenty of nods and references that will take you back to being a kid playing with your toys. There are (non-copyright infringing) homages to the likes of Boglins and the Power Rangers, LEGO and many others.

Priced at around £23, Hypercharge: Unboxed is just so much damn fun. At its core level, it is just another multiplayer, PvP shooter. But its setting and level design really lift it up several notches. Oh, I almost forgot the customisation options, there’s a ton of them. You pick the type of toy you want to play as, and there’s a good selection from the likes of stereotypical soldier. a dinosaur, an  insectoid, plus others. Then you can unlock various heads, change their skins and weapons, you can even change the box the toy comes in and give each character a unique name. The fact that there is so much customisation here, and most of it is unlockable, kept me coming back and replaying maps to get the most out of them.

As I said before, Hypercharge: Unboxed was originally released back in 2020 and since then, it has seen several updates and improvements. The Xbox version, which I have been playing, comes with all of those updates and improvements straight out of the box. Hypercharge: Unboxed is good, clean, chaotic fun. A wonderful nostalgic trip down memory lane to 40 years ago when I used to stage some of the most epic battles in toy history. I really want to go and re-watch Small Soldiers now.