Unboxathon Review (PC)

Unboxathon removes the tape and showcases its itty bitty rarities in a manner that will make you think back to the old times—an era where you would bathe in booster packs and pray for that all-important card to slyly appear between the deck. It taps into that memory, and it makes an attempt to keep you circling it for as long as it can keep you with copious amounts of unopened boxes and hidden keepsakes. It finds that space, and it ensures that you have more than enough box cutting scissors and masking tape to keep the contents flowing and the collections firmly stacked. That, in short, is where Unboxathon finds its niche: in the crevices between nostalgic pastimes and homely comforts.

Herein lies an incredibly simple setup—a job in which you need only remove the tape from a surplus of boxes and unload the contents within. Unlike your typical rigorously loaded collect-a-thon sim, however, you aren’t presented with the monumental task of splicing through mounds of odd jobs to earn the keys to these boxes. No, in this world, the boxes operate on a sort of conveyor belt system, and the only thing that you need to do, weirdly, is strip them down to see what lurks within. And if you think that sounds a little too easy, well, that’s because it is, with all due respect, an incredibly easy game. Heck, I’m not even sure if you could call it a game at this point.

There’s a satisfying hook here that doesn’t require too much effort to take ahold of. In fact, for the most part, it involves sourcing randomized boxes and other loot-filled crates, and stashing whatever treasures that each one holds in an effort to flesh out a collection of trinkets and plush goodies. Essentially, it’s a typical gacha game, but without the claw machine or coin-operated dial. Let’s just call it a virtual reflection of a fulfilment center, only you can keep what you stash, and you don’t have to stick to all sorts of strenuous routines to earn a quick paycheck. Does it go a little deeper than that? Sure — but that’s about the brunt of it.

Therapy, Boxed

Unboxathon captures the joy—no, the excitement that comes with the act of tearing the protective layer from a gift and marveling at its contents. With the power of anticipation being its forte, it offers you the luxury of being able to slip back into that collector mindset and lift the veil on handfuls of treasures, upgrades, shiny rarities, and enough bubble wrap to keep your thumbs twiddling for hours. There isn’t so much of a purpose to any of this, and you don’t necessarily have a goal that needs to be accomplished in order to progress deeper into the rhythmic system of dicing boxes and clicking bubbles. There is, however, a progression wall that pulls you into a satisfying cycle of collecting items and unlocking more opportunities to further expand your repository of randomized artifacts. Simple, but surprisingly effective, as it turns out.

As far as mechanics go, there isn’t a lot to write home about here. To put it plainly, it’s as simple as carving a box along an imaginary dotted line and sporadically piercing bubbles with a cursor, similar to what you would naturally do in a typical idle clicking game with vast quantities of highlightable items. It’s the same deal here, with no major obstacles to overcome or perplexing control patterns to master. Is that a good thing? It is and it isn’t. Again, it’s cozy, but there also isn’t much of a challenge for you to conquer here.

Unboxing With Bated Breath

The game envelopes itself with a retro wrapping, with a minimalistic yet adorably cozy design and a trove of sprite-smitten visual effects and wisps of sparkles and box-cutting audio cues. It doesn’t push the boundaries of modern art, but it does keep things aesthetically comforting and adorable with its pixel-crafted set pieces and sprightly colored keepsakes. Honestly, it doesn’t need to bring much more than that, either.

Of course, there is a lot of repetition in the process of unboxing items and unlocking upgrades. As with most gacha-like affairs, you often find yourself shackled to the same pattern of events, with only the promise of a special trinket keeping you from abandoning the box scissors and losing interest in the grand scheme of things. It’s a novel idea, and it doesn’t do much to elevate the usual stepping stone procedure. That said, it does cram all of the right trimmings into its box to ensure that fans of collect-a-thon experiences have enough to keep their nimble hands occupied. It’s just a shame that it doesn’t provide you with more outside of the generic stocking fillers.

Verdict

Unboxathon is as satisfying as it is fundamentally simple, yet still as enjoyable as a lot of collect-a-thon indie endeavors thanks to its weighty binder of spoils and seemingly random keepsakes and other rarities that bulk out its treasure trove. It isn’t a perfect game by any stretch (if you can even call it a game, that is), and it certainly doesn’t do enough to check all of the right boxes in any given genre, for that matter. Yet, there’s an enjoyable experience here that deserves to be shared, if not for its simplistic nature, then for its natural ability to keep you engaged for the long haul. Sure, the concept is minimalistic, and it doesn’t exactly host a wealth of versatile gameplay elements. But, to give credit where credit is due, it does stuff enough items into its booster packs to draw your eye.

If the simple act of popping endless cones of bubble wrap and peeling the tape back from a cascading waterfall of boxes sounds like your cup of tea, then you’ll probably enjoy unpacking Unboxathon and its vast collection of plushies and trinkets. It isn’t the most fun you’ll ever have in an indie collect-a-thon, but it ought to scratch that itch of yours for a short while.