It’s not often I’m blown away by a game. Usually I know too much about them to be totally surprised by what happens in them and therefore, usually find playing them enjoyable but not amazing. This wasn’t the case for Underhero. Its humour, story and battle mechanics caught me off guard and because of this, Underhero is my favourite indie game of 2020 so far. Find out why in my Underhero Switch review.

To note, a review code for the game was supplied by the game’s publisher.

Accidental Hero

I watched a short Jimpressions video about the game a year ago and since then have been waiting eagerly for it to come to the Switch. In the meantime however, I’d pretty much forgotten what the game was about; I just knew I wanted to play it. Within five minutes of booting the game up I remembered as Underhero is jam-packed full of charm.

You play as an underling to the evil Mr. Stitches. Your job is simple, slow down the hero as he races his way through the Stitched Castle to fight your boss. This cycle has happened over and over again, with the Hero always beating Mr. Stitches and saving the Chestnut Kingdom. This time around though, you accidentally let go of a chain that is holding up a chandelier. The weighty object falls and squashes the plucky hero, Scarf Boy. Amongst the shock and confusion, you manage to walk away with Scarf Boy’s legendary weapon, a sword hilt called Elizabeth IV.

News of your deeds spreads quickly through the Stitched Castle and you’re brought before the main man himself, Mr. Stitches. Stitches showers you in praise and promotes you. He then sends you on a quest to return three magical stones to his three generals throughout the Kingdom. He would do it himself but he’s preparing an army to invade the Chestnut Kingdom. What Stitches doesn’t know is that Elizabeth IV has already persuaded/peer pressured YOU into becoming the new hero. But you need to get stronger quickly as Stitches’s invasion will happen in a few days time.

It’s all about the timing

Combat in Underhero is very different to anything I’ve ever played before. It’s influenced by the Paper Mario games and is time based, requiring some skill to pull off flawlessly. The main protagonist (Masked Kid) has a stamina bar. The stamina bar limits the amount of attacks he can do at any one time, so if you spam buttons he will run out of stamina and be open to attacks.

There are three different attacks to choose from: a light (sword), heavy (hammer) and projectile (slingshot) attack. Light and projectile attacks take up three bars on the stamina bar and the heavy takes up six. Therefore, you have to be careful choosing what attacks to do before running out of stamina. In addition, the heavy attack, which is a big, heavy hammer, takes time to build up. So balancing actual time comes into play in the combat because if you’re too slow an enemy can attack you.

Furthermore, Masked Kid has a special move called Rush Mode where stamina is ignored for a short period of time. What’s cool is that to fully utilise Rush Mode you have to time your attacks to the beat of the music. It’s an interesting battle mechanic because it means you can’t just spam attacks. When you do they won’t do much damage, but when they’re timed perfectly to the excellent music they are devastating.

Duck and Jump

Underhero’s combat isn’t just about perfectly timed attacks but perfectly timed defence too. Masked Kid can avoid attacks by jumping, ducking or blocking. Each enemy has a pretty obvious ‘tell’ when it’s going to attack. What’s fun is working out exactly what the ‘tell’ means and how you should react to it. When you duck and jump to avoid an attack it will instantly regenerate your stamina bar, letting you counter attack. Blocking puts up a literal shield that absorbs hits but breaks after taking too much damage. I liked this aspect because it gave you a chance to learn enemy moves and ‘tells’ without taking damage.

Pacifist Run?

Finally, some combat requires a less heavy touch. If you have enough gold you can bribe enemies not to fight you. After all, you all work for the same evil corporation so you’re basically all on the same team. Bribing some enemies does have an effect on the end of the game which is pretty cool. However, I liked saving my money for upgrades.

RPG Elements

Like most modern indie games Underhero is a mix of various genres, RPG being on of them. There is EXP and a levelling system that lets you level up your stamina, strength or health after each new level. There’s also an evil shop where you can buy upgrades like extra shield and potion slots, weapon upgrades and more health. It’s only something small, but upgrading Masked Kid was a real driver for me in the game to explore every inch of the map I could find. By the end of the game it made him feel like the hero of destiny as he became so powerful, which was epic.

A Platformer too?!

Yes, that’s right, Underhero is also a pretty decent platformer. I’m not a big fan of the genre, however, I loved the platforming in this game. It was fun and challenging, Masked Boy controlled well and overall was extremely well designed. I think I enjoyed it so much because the environments in Underhero are so gorgeous.

One world you’re in a lush maze of a jungle, another you’re in a haunted mansion in the middle of a snow storm and the final you’re climbing the inside of a gigantic tree. I didn’t feel like the game fell into any video game tropes at all, which made playing it feel fresh and interesting. Like I said above, upgrading Masked Kid was enough of a drive for my to try and search out every coin in the level. However, the beautiful and vibrant worlds made it even more enjoyable.

The Writing

The story in Underhero was incredible. I like the twist that you’re the baddy at the start of the game but from the start it seemed obvious where this story would go. Nevertheless, that wasn’t that case because the story unfolds into something totally unique. The humour is well timed and charming, the characters are interesting and layered and by the end of the game you feel for them. It sound silly to say that about a 2D pixel art platformer. Usually ‘feeling’ for characters is limited to the like of The Last of Us. However, the writing is so good you understand why the characters are doing what they’re doing. Although the game is light-hearted and funny, the ending is sad and touching, blowing me away.

The Music

It’s unbelievable to think that the entire soundtrack of Underhero was composed by one person. Stijn Van Wakeren has done an incredible job with the soundtrack. There’s hardcore party tunes (Ghost Party) in there, beautiful piano pieces (Our Hero on Ice) and catchy quirky tunes like Tim’s song. The soundtrack added so much to the game and it’s so damn catchy! Don’t believe me? Well listen to the tracks in the game or check out Stijn’s bandcamp.

Undertale Clone?

When researching Underhero I bumped into this statement a lot online and it just isn’t the case. Underhero mixes lots of different genres and inspirations but is a totally unique game, comparable to no other game on the eshop. Do not right this game off if you’re an Undertale fan just because it has ‘Under’ in its title. Sure there’s similarities, especially in the tone of the game. However, for me Underhero was much more engaging, better looking and more fun than Undertale.

Ghost Key

There was only one problem I had with the game and sadly it could be game ending. There’s a section in the game where you have to transport a key around a maze using moveable platforms. The problem I had was that I’d get to the final stage of the puzzle and the key would consistently fall through the final platform into lava. Luckily, you can respawn the key any time, but no matter what I did, I could not get it to land on the platform.

Eventually, after some frustration and lots of head scratching I tweeted the devs to ask for the solution. It turns out it’s a bug in the game that causes the key to fall though the platform. To get the puzzle to work you have to restart the game and stop the other two platforms in the puzzle from moving before transporting the key onto the last platform. It worked! But it’s such a shame this bug is in the game. For ‘hardcore’ gamers it might be obvious to tweet the devs and ask what’s up. However, if you’re a casual player and pick up this game you might never finish it because of this bug and that’s a huge problem. Hopefully Paper Castle will fix it in a patch.

Underhero Switch Review

Underhero is my favourite indie game of 2020 so far. The story was both funny and touching, the world and game as a whole is stunning and the soundtrack rocks. The combat is novel forcing you to get good at it. It feels rewarding and by the end of the game you feel like a god when in battles. It’s fair to say Underhero is a mix of different genres and is influenced by a variety of other games. Nevertheless, it does everything well. Platforming is challenging but fun and the RPG elements add a nice feeling of progress, making you feel like the hero when you started off as a minion.

If you have any interest in Underhero you should buy it. The only reason I’m not giving it a perfect score is because I encountered a potentially game ending bug. However, I was playing an earlier version of the game, so hopefully when you get your hands on this indie gem it should already be fixed.

Therefore, I give Underhero by Paper Castle and Digerati my rating of

What did you think of my Underhero Switch review? Are you a fan of Paper Mario combat? Will you be picking up Underhero? Let me know over on Twitter or join the conversation on Discord.

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