We’ve been following the release of pixel art cozy sim Unboxathon and have now had the chance to try it for ourselves. The game has been developed by Skye <3 and published by Evil Corp Games. It’s out now on Steam, priced at $5.99 with a 20% discount still running as we posted our thoughts. Unboxathon is a genuinely unique game that requires you to open boxes, sell the items, and use the funds to improve your tools as well as the quality of boxes on offer.
You start with some basic, trash-filled boxes that you acquire by popping bubbles that constantly float across the screen. If you run out of boxes, it’s easy to get more as you just wait for more bubbles, pop them, and build your box inventory. Unboxathon slowly builds up as more and more bubbles appear by upgrading your abilities. You’ll also start to get enough funds together to unlock better boxes, and the process starts to make you become a millionaire.
There is no danger in Unboxathon, you can’t get a game over or have nothing to do. You constantly switch between popping bubbles, unboxing inventory, and going through the menus to upgrade your equipment or stats. The gameplay loop is very satisfying, and this starts to become a very cozy game, especially given the mesmerizing, colorful aesthetic and delightfully relaxing music that make up the game’s simple but effective presentation.
It does take some time to get used to all the different menus in Unboxathon. The first half an hour of our playthrough was mostly just working out what everything does, how we can upgrade our business, and how to unlock the better boxes. Once we’d upgraded our equipment a few stages and opened enough inventory to make some real money, we were flying. Before long, we’d unlocked almost all the box types and were making lots of cash that kept the loop going and growing.
After a couple of hours playing, we hit an almost zen-like state of quickly unboxing, selling, upgrading, popping, and generally smashing through the gameplay loop at a colossal rate. This is where Unboxathon changed a little, from a quiet, slow-paced game to a constant barrage of going through the motions. It was interesting to see the change, but you can just stop at any moment; nothing forces you to keep the pace up. You’ll just stop improving if you do.
Overall, Unboxathon is a cozy game that aims to hit the pleasure centres of the brain through relaxing music, easy-to-navigate gameplay, and a general delightfulness to the aesthetics. Nothing forces you to panic or to upgrade. If you are content with low-value items, you can just spend time doing that, or if you want to progress to billionaire status, you can ramp up your output. This is a different kind of indie game that has had a lot of thought put into giving gamers the tools, but not the expectation to win.
