Underhero (Review)

Underhero is a colorful 16bit 2D side-scrolling RPG adventure game with Paper Mario esque timing base battle mechanics, (not turn-based) that tells the tale of a fallen hero and the minion (Underling) of an evil villain who must take his place as the new hero of the story. Developed and published by Paper Castle Games.

Underling bares a huge resemblance to the Paper Mario games with it's inspired battle system and charming visuals, but it sets itself apart with original character designs and a unique story about an Underling who must take the place of the hero he's just killed and overthrow his evil villain master. After killing the hero, Stitches (your boss) sends you on a quest to return three magical stones to his three boss creatures so that the next hero can retrieve them after defeating each boss. He plans to get rid of you after your task is done so that no one knows that it was you who killed the hero instead of him, but luckily you picked up the previous hero's magical talking sword hilt. The hilt warns you about stitches and you decide to defeat each boss before giving them the stones to grow in strength for your final confrontation with the evil villain, and that pretty much sums up the story without spoiling too much.

The battle system like I previously mentioned is very similar to Paper Mario or even Bowsers inside story for the DS (My favorite Mario RPG), It looks like turn-based combat but it's more about stamina management and timing your attacks. You have a normal slash attack that uses three bars of stamina, a heavy hammer attack that uses six bars of stamina, and ranged sling shot attack (for those pesky flying badies) that uses three bars of stamina. There's a neat little mechanic where attacking on the beat of the music gives you a damage bonus, this is also used to chain combo attacks during your super move (which is charged by doing and taking damage). For your evasive moves you've got a jump for low attacks, a duck for high attacks, and a shield that can block as well as parry attacks for one bar of stamina. Successfully dodging or parrying will recharge your stamina meter (potions also refill stamina), parrying also keeps your shield from getting damaged and eventually broken. Another cool feature lets you talk to your enemies during battle before you attack them, this might seem like something extra to add personality but it actually comes to play a few times in the game (though I won't spoil why).

Since this is an RPG there is obviously XP and stat upgrades, every time you level up you have the choice to upgrade your attack damage, Health bar, or Add a bar to your stamina meter. You can also find upgrades in chests scattered around the levels, some give you a health bonus while others upgrade specific things like a charged attack, or increasing the size of your sling shot pellets. You can also buy potion, health, shield, and other upgrades at the castle (the main hub). There's other secret and not so secret collectibles such as cassette tapes (which are tracks from the game)that can be played at save stations, as well as apartment keys that are used to get into apartment rooms containing special chests that hold valuable upgrades.

There are some platforming sections accompanied by pitfalls and spikes, these are fairly manageable and were never too difficult though I do play a lot of platformers so It's possible someone might find them a little difficult. The areas where challenge picks up the most is in the races, though they are short they still provide at least a small bit more challenge than the average platforming. There are a few instances where you will be solving platforming puzzles with levers and what not, but it's not often and isn't tedious or boring. If you're the kind of person who likes to play the pacifist route in games you have the option to bribe your enemies with gold instead of fighting them, though you can't bribe bosses (as well as some enemies such as the exploding larva) and this doesn't change the outcome in the end so it's really up to you if you want to challenge yourself or not.

My favorite aspect from Underhero (other than the fun combat) is the presentation, the colorful 16-bit pixel art is fantastic and full of character, the music is catchy and cheery (most of the time), and the character design is great with some pretty memorable characters like underling and stitches (who looks a lot like the Boogie man from The Nightmare before Christmas), everything looks and sounds really good it all has a Nintendo charm to it. Although it has a few problems with pacing (mainly towards the very end) it doesn't detract from the overall amazing quality such as its interesting story and characters, great soundtrack, a very satisfying combat system, and a few extra neat mechanics. Underhero is a very worthwhile and at the moment underrated Indie title that you should definitely pick up, especially if your a fan of the super Mario RPG's. Underhero is available for the fair price of $14.99 on Pc/Steam and Itch.io.