Underhero Review (NSW)

Written by Patrick Orquia

Title: Underhero
Developer: Paper Castle Games
Publisher: Digerati
Genre: Platformer, Action Adventure, RPG
Number of Players: 1
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: Feb. 13, 2020
Price: $16.99
Also Available On: PS4, Steam, XB1

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Underhero is a side-scrolling platformer developed by Paper Castle Games and published by Digirati. It was first released way back in 2018 on Steam and has now been ported to the Nintendo Switch. The game is inspired by the Paper Mario games especially in its battle mechanics, wherein instead of them being turn-based, they are time-based, and you can dodge or parry enemy hits if you time them right. Unfortunately, it doesn’t incorporate Paper Mario’s paper/cardboard aesthetics, but its pixel/cartoon artstyle looks top-notch. Also, the game’s soundtrack has some very catchy tunes and really works well with the visuals.

In this game, you play as a minion of a powerful villain boss, Mr. Stitches, who likes kidnapping princesses of the Chestnut Kingdom for fun. One day, a chosen hero who is tasked to save the current princess storms into Mr. Stitches’ castle, but unfortunately, he gets killed after getting crashed by a chandelier. An anti-climactic end for the hero right at the opnening minutes. The chosen hero was with his trusted ally, Elizabeth IV, a magical hilt that chooses fated heroes. You happen to pass by her, and she made you the new hero and thus is now taked to continue the mission and defeat Mr. Stitches. Now, of course, you being part of the bad guys and being quite cowardly in general, accepted your new destiny reluctantly. Now, you are both an underling and a hero… an UNDERHERO. Yeah… not that imaginative, but it works quite well. Since Mr. Stitches doesn’t know that you are now “the hero”, he still bosses you around, sending you to different areas to fulfill missions, but now you are like a double agent that is really more good than bad.

Right… so this type of story is not seen often, and I personally am quite impressed by it and the way it was presented. Sure, the usual “go from point A to point B while battling baddies” trope is already clichéd, but in this game, since you technically battle with your colleagues, whenever you start the battle, they won’t attack until you attack first, and you also have the option to talk to them for some humrous banter or to get importan information. If violence is not much your thing, you also have the option to not attack at all if you have enough gold coins (you can bribe them to go away, basically, but this option gives out less XP). If ever you choose to attack, a timer starts and you can opt to attack again if your stamina bar allows you to, or get ready to dodge or parry enemy attacks. Most enemy attacks are well-telegraphed, so you should be able to know when to jump or duck or parry with your shield, or just put up your shield from the start if your timing is bad. Your shield breaks after a few hits, by the way, so you cannot just constantly defend with it all the time, so your best bet to not get hit is to dodge or parry. Parrying doesn’t consume your shield’s HP and if successfully do it, your enemy gets stunned for a short while and refills your stamina bar a bit, allowing you to unleash more attacks.

You have three types of weapons at your disposal: sword, slingshot, and hammer. Sword attacks are for enemies near you, slingshot for those pesky flying ones, and the hammer for giving out heavy hits (also for nearby enemies). Hammer attacks are very slow and consume a lot of your stamina, so be careful on when you want to use it. Again, attacks consume stamina, and when your stamina reaches zero, you will become weak and will be unable to jump or duck to dodge enemy attacks, but you can still parry. Don’t worry, your stamina bar will start to regenerate when it reaches zero, so you will have another chance to attack and dodge, whichever that you need to do. Defeated enemies drop XP and gold coins, and sometimes potions. Gold coins are used in buying upgrades or healing items, and XP is for leveling up. When you level up, like in Paper Mario games, you will have the option to whether upgrade your HP, attack power, or SP.

The game is divided into different “worlds”, with each one comprising of going through an adventure to reach and defeat the boss at the end. On your way to the boss, of course you have to battle against enemies, whether by defeating them by attacks or by bribing them, as previosly mentioned. You will also encounter NPCs that either give you important information about the mission at hand or providing you with side quests. All these enemy encounters and side quests feel balanced and well-paced, and the game overall is not very challenging in terms of difficulty. You cannot flee away from battles, though, so some enemy encounters, especially those with more than one enemies at the same time, may be too overwhelming if you are underprepared or your timing is off. If you die, you lose all progress and you will have to start again from the last save point. Some save points are far from one another, so you have to be better prepared and save often, even if you have to backtrack a bit. If you really need to muscle up, you can go back all the way to the castle and buy upgrades. They are quite expensive, though, so you also need to fight more enemies and explore more to discover hidden areas which usually contain treasure chests with upgrades and gold coins and other collectibles, such as apartment keys (these open apartment rooms inside the castle that contain treasures) and casette tapes (these contain individual musical pieces from the soundtrack which you can play inside save rooms).

Overall, Underhero is really good and enjoyable to play. It is not sa good as the Paper Mario games, though inspired by them, but since there is no Paper Mario games on the horizon for Nintedo’s hybrid console, this is probably the next best thing. So suit up and prepare to play as the bad guy with a good heart, and go through a wild adventure to save a kingdom from the clasps of your boss. And be sure to enjoy while doing it.

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REPLAY VALUE: High

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PROS

• Amazing visuals with pixel art style and aethetics
• Catchy music
• Gameplay and leveling up inspired by Paper Mario games
• Unusual yet very interesting story with well-paced presentation
• Good variety of enemies
• The collectible cassette tapes allow you to change the music inside save rooms
• Very good use of HD Rumble
• Humorous 4th wall-breaking dialogues

CONS

• The controls are a bit floaty at times
• No option to flee from battles
• No readily-accessible mini-map

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RATING: 4/5 Underheroes and villians

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