The Underside

The Underside is a game currently in development by a young man named Arthur Lee and it’s game that I’ve been playing for most of the early afternoon. While it’s still in the preview stage, it does feel as if it’s almost complete. It’s that good. The game has such a familiar feel to it, and while from screen shots you may assume it’s heavily influenced by Cave Story, you’d be right.

However, don’t think that this game isn’t original or is just influenced by Cave Story, as Arthur Lee admits that while The Underside may seem similar to Cave Story, it’s narrative and “the game’s world, characters, plot strands, and dialogue are heavily inspired by Earthbound, and are quirky, whimsical, and sometimes a little strange.”

Playing the game is pure joy as it’s difficult, yet rewarding because of the continuing sense of mystery and a somewhat feeling of dread mixed with hope. Sorry for the generalities, but I don’t want to spoil this masterpiece in the making. It may just end up being that good.

I can definitely see the Earthbound influence in the story and even more awesome, Lee uses quite a few sound effects from Earthbound as well. It’s a Metroidmegamanvania game and it’s strongest points have little to do with the hodgepodge of titles that inspired The Underside. Lee’s excellent pixel work and his story crafting abilities are incredibly awesome.

The narrative while simple and easy to follow, is very original and so far fun to experience. It’s terrible that the game is currently PC only as a lot of Mac users will be missing out, unless they install XP or run Parallels with XP in Mac OS X like I do.

I highly recommend trying this game (watch out for that difficulty though!), as it completely resembles the quality and impact of a labor of love. Arthur Lee most certainly cares about what he is creating and creating he is.

- Kyle