This week’s IG+ First Look has us helping a villainous underling become a bit more heroic by fighting to the beat (poorly) in Underhero.
The hero has been squashed, and your Evil Last Boss has asked you to take the legendary stones back to the boss monsters that once held them. Have to get things ready for the next hero, right? Well, you picked up the special hero’s hilt, so you’re also the next special hero in line to fight your boss. So you need to drop those stones off and then pick them right back up again. It’s confusing, but changing from evil to good can be a complex time. Just roll with this.
You ARE kind of weak to be fighting ultimate evil, though, so you should probably be tangling with monsters in the game’s timing-based combat. You are free to swing your sword whenever you like, but your stamina drains with every chop, soon leaving you tired. You can gain some energy back by jumping over or dodging enemy attacks as they come, but you’ll need to study the enemy’s tells and attack timing to do this. This is quite satisfying to do, and helps keep your strength up to keep hitting back.
You can also parry attacks with your shield, stunning enemies if you block with the right timing. This was pretty generous in the starting area, but missing causes damage to your shield, and you need an item to repair it. You don’t want to mess up too many parries because of this. Also, you can attack to the beat of the game’s music, Mother 3-style, but you’d need far better internal rhythm than I have to do this.
Underhero, when not keeping you entertained with its deep combat, stuns with its pretty pixel art and amusing dialogue. It’s all quite silly and charming (despite squashed heroes), and had me aching to keep playing when the video was done. Well worth grabbing on the many consoles it’s now available on.
Underhero is available now on the PS4, Xbox One, itch.io, GameJolt, and Steam. The Nintendo Switch is set to release on February 27th.
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