Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure Review

Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure

Release: October 12, 2017
Publisher: Prospect Games
Developer: Prospect Games
Genre: Action, Adventure, Family, Platformer, Switch Reviews
PEGI: E
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What if there were no people in the world? What if the world was made of talking boxes? And what if those boxes sent off some newbie box to stop some crazy boxes that were running amok? This is the premise of a game called Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure and its for the Nintendo Switch! Is this a good game, an alright game, or should it be boxed up and put outside with the trash?

The story for Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure is not very good. The player is thrown into a world of boxes and its all supposed to be charming and fun but it comes off as very forced. The dialogue, especially, is pretty lacking. Now I know that a lot of platformers don’t have good stories, so Unbox: Newbie’s Adventures story being bad is not a deal breaker. The heart of every platformer is its gameplay. So is Unbox a good game?

Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure is an open world 3D platformer. Almost from the start, you can go pretty much wherever you want to go. There are a lot of things to collect, mini-games to play, and boxes to interact with. It seems like a pretty neat little platformer, but its lack of real direction and pointless mini-games makes it feel very dull.

You will be wandering around a lot and wondering what you are supposed to do. There is an arrow that will point you toward a goal but its very easy to get lost in Newbie’s Adenture even with that. And when you do find something to do, its usually a little mini-game that seems pointless and dull. The challenges in this game, overall, are just not that interesting. Is there anyting to like about this game?

It is fun, at first, to explore and find secrets.  Its neat to see such a big open world 3D platformer too. And the game has multiplayer, with a lot of modes, which might be something that families might like. Probably my favorite thing about Unbox is the box character creation though. Its pretty nice! I currently have my box dressed up for Halloween!

Unbox is not a horrible game. I think some people, perhaps younger gamers, might have a lot of fun with it. But if you’ve played a 3D open world platformer before, you won’t find any surprises in this game. And Unbox’s controls are not that surprising either, they are somewhere in between good and bad for the most part.

Newbie’s Adventure’s controls are alright but they definitly could have been better. The main character rolls around and sometimes this feels alright and other times it just doesn’t feel as accurate as you’d like it be. The unboxing jump works fine too but feels pretty gimmicky. The driving controls for vehicles are not bad but not especially good either. Also, I’m really glad there is a respawn button in this game because its very easy to get stuck somewhere in this game thanks to an accidental roll into some small area you weren’t supposed to go into.

Not all the controls are so-so though. Newbie’s Adventure does include touch screen support for its menus and this works well.

Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure is not a totally bad game, there are some things to like about it as I mentioned, but its also not a good game either. And Unbox’s graphics are another reason why the game just isn’t what it should be.

Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure looks like a Playstation 2 or Wii game more than a Nintendo Switch game. Thats not to say that the game’s graphics are horrible, they are not, but the game lacks the polish of a lot of other platformers we’ve seen on the Nintendo Switch. That lack of polish also extends to the game’s music.

The music in Unbox is alright. It can be pretty cheery but none of is especially memorable. The same can said for the game’s sound effects. None of it is especially bad but its not that good either. That pretty much sums up the entire game though.

Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure isn’t the worst game I’ve played on the Switch or any system for that matter but its not up to the level of other platformers I’ve played on the Switch. Unbox just lacks polish and feels like a throwback to Playstation 2 or Wii era platformers and not in a good way. I wanted to like Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure, but just felt pretty ho-hum about the game in the end. Maybe some younger gamers might enjoy Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure, but for everyone else, the Odyssey is waiting for you.

Thanks to Merge Games for providing a copy of this game for review. Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure is now available on the Nintendo eShop.

Trailer