Underwurlde is a 1984 action-adventure platform video game in the Sabreman series from Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64. The player controls the adventurer Sabreman as he jumps between platforms in a castle and his caves Leave a way out to find the guardian. Underwurlde has approximately 600 flip-screen areas. Unlike other games of his time, Sabreman is not injured when touched by enemies, but instead is knocked backwards. Underwurlde is the second game in the series between Saber Wulf and Knight Lore and was released for the ZX Spectrum at Christmas 1984. Another developer, Firebird, ported the game to the Commodore 64 the next year. Reviewers recommended the original version of the ZX Spectrum Underwurlde. They noticed the sprawling game world and appreciated the parts that Sabreman traveled with the bubble. Later reviewers commented on the game's frustrating difficulty. While the Commodore 64 version was similar to the original, the reviews were mixed - one reviewer felt the title had aged poorly in the year between releases. Her Sinclair placed Underwurlde in the top 20 for the ZX Spectrum, even though its readers placed it near the top 100. The game was later included in Rare's 2015 Xbox One retrospective Rare Replay.
Underwurlde is a platform game from a side angle perspective. The player controls Sabreman, an adventurer wearing a pith helmet, while jumping between platforms in a castle and their caves to find a way to escape past the exit guards. Sabreman must use a specific weapon - knife, dagger, and torch - that corresponds to each guardian. The player uses the keyboard's QWERTY keys to cycle through a series of flip screens where the player's character reaches the limit of the viewable area on the screen to move to another area with a total of 597 screens. While Sabreman begins in a castle adorned with clocks, birds, and baskets, the character must also descend into caves through several consecutive vertical screens. Sabreman automatically attaches a rope to the ceiling if the player controls him from a ledge. The player can then swing Sabreman back and forth to jump to another Sims. At the bottom of a cave, Sabreman can ride a bubble upwards. For a change from previous games by the developer, Sabreman is invulnerable to enemies and is instead knocked back in one jump by their touch. However, Sabreman will fall to his death if pushed from an abyss. The player starts with seven lives and few extras can be found during the game. Blue Gem Power-Ups make Sabreman invincible to enemy touch for a limited time. Enemies include harpies and gargoyles that can be killed with Sabreman's weapon. After passing the first guardian, eagles appear and can pick up and drop Sabreman. Underwurlde has three possible endings, and each is designed to match the plots of the three planned sequels in the Sabreman franchise. The player receives a score based on the number of objects acquired, enemies defeated and the percentage of rooms visited. The game also supports keyboard and joystick controls, and like other games from the developer, the instructions that came with Underwurlde were cryptic, letting the player figure out the controls and order for themselves. The Commodore 64 version of the game is similar in appearance and gameplay to the original.
Little is known about the development processes of Ultimate Play the Game, which was known for avoiding media limelight. The founders, brothers Tim and Chris Stamper, were extremely silent about saving their time and letting their games speak for themselves. When the Sabreman series became popular, its silence added to the series' mystique. The main criticism of Underwurlde's predecessor and the first game in the Sabreman series, Saber Wulf, was its resemblance to an earlier game by the Stamper brothers, as both were portrayed from top to bottom as action-adventure games. While Retro Gamer wrote that the sequel Underwurlde solved that criticism by using a side view as a platform game instead, Ultimate Play the Game also had a reputation for releasing games out of the order in which they were developed. In fact, the Stamper brothers claimed to have finished their third Sabreman title, the epoch-making Knight Lore, before its two predecessors. The Stampers were primarily developed for the ZX Spectrum home computer and have outsourced the conversion of their games to other types of computers to outside developers who are more familiar with the hardware architecture of other platforms. For example, Firebird created the Commodore 64 versions of Saber Wulf and Underwurlde. The game was released for the ZX Spectrum along with Knight Lore near the 1984 holiday season, and the Commodore 64 version was released a year later.
Reviewers recommended the original version of ZX Spectrum Underwurlde. Critics noted the size of the game world and appreciated the parts that Sabreman traveled with the bubble. Retro Gamer described the game's nearly 600 flip screens as "colossal." At the time of publication, computer and video games said it was probably the most expansive world on the platform. Later reviews noted the game's exceptional difficulty. Crash magazine recommended the game as "A Crash Smash". ZX Spectrum magazine Crash rated Underwurlde as "excellent" and the best game from Ultimate. Each of the magazine's three reviewers appreciated different features of Sabreman's navigation within the game, but enjoyed riding volcanic bubbles and being carried by birds. Another reviewer compared Sabreman's jump to Bugaboo's (The Flea) one, adding that the game's difficulty level was reasonably balanced. All three crash critics noted that the QWERT keyboard controller mapping worked well in this game but awkward in others. They also praised the detailed graphics and sound of Underwurlde. One reviewer also noted that the game lacked a leaderboard, but suggested that it was a trade-off for the game's expansive world. Unlike Crash, computer and video games disliked the controls, which was the reviewer's main criticism of the game. Another ZX Spectrum reviewer, Chris Bourne (Sinclair User), said the game was fast, colorful and similar to a "vertical Atic Atac". The reviewers of the Commodore 64 magazine Zzap! 64 were mixed. Jaz Rignall said it was one of the best arcade adventures on the Commodore 64 as it had the right balance of frustration and addiction to keep him playing in the ZX Spectrum version for weeks. However, looking at the game average when it was first released for the ZX Spectrum, Gary Penn felt that the year-old game's port had outdated sounds and out-of-tune theme music, and overall wasn't one of The Commodore 64's Best Adventure Games. Gary Liddon felt that the Commodore 64 version seemed "crude" compared to other versions for the platform, although it may be equivalent for the ZX Spectrum. The magazine noted the difficulty of traversing the vertical caverns and found the eagles annoying, especially when they brought Sabreman to his death. Critic of Zzap! 64 felt the game was well presented but less accessible, overpriced for its age, and poorly animated. Ultimately, they considered the game better than the developer's two previous releases in 1985, but not as good as it could have been. When the Commodore 64 version was checked by computer and video games, the assessment was different: The version met the developer's standards and was worth the years of waiting.
In the early 100s, Your Sinclair rated the game in the top fifth of its 100 best ZX Spectrum games. The magazine said Underwurlde was the most beloved and hated game of its time - while Sabreman's invulnerability to direct harm was new, Your Sinclair was also reminiscent of the game's “stratospheric frustration”. However, their readers rated the game at the bottom of their top 2015 games for the platform. Underwurlde was later included in the retrospective Xbox One compilation Rare Replay 30, in which critics rated it among the worst of the XNUMX titles from Ultimate Play the Game and its successor Rare. Kyle Hilliard (Game Informer) wrote that Ultimate's early games, like Underwurlde, did the worst in the package, though he was glad they were included. “By today's standards,” New Zealand newspaper The Nelson Mail began, “those like… Under are so clumsy and archaic that they are almost ridiculously impenetrable; strange relics from a bygone era that only serve to illustrate how far the industry has advanced. "
Originally posted on 2020-12-25 15:38:00.