The Underside, now with sword and saw

It’s been a blast watching this game mature from something you could once legitimately call a Cave Story clone into a game much more it’s own.

Also who can’t love the Rockin’ Kats glove?

it looks incredibly fast paced compared to cave story, and the animation is well done. I like the demo reel, looking forward to something playable.

Ah yes… the dreaded Cave Story Ripoff!

Jokes aside, the game is looking better and better each time I see it!

Speaking of Cave Story, why hasn’t TIGSource posted that Cave Story is CONFIRMED for WiiWare…?

Looking great. At this point, however I would recommend replacing the more obviously Cave Story-inspired tilesets with more original ones to shake off the remnants of the “Cave Story Clone” stigma.

Anyone else see that short clip where the little dude was wearing Quote’s hat?

Well, I honestly could not care less if this is like Cave Story, it’s still going to be fun. I mean, it’s certainly going to be more fun than Cave Story, which I sort of hated. OMFG NERDRAGE INCOMING IN 30 SECONDS

Err.. I don’t think people care if you like Cave Story or not, man.

Anyhow, this is looking amazing. I love that you can buy new weapons! I want a sword!

Also, this game is VERY fast paced. Wow. I imagine it’ll be really hard.

Trust me, the fanboy response to that comment will be huge. And by huge, I mean that 1 person will take my comment seriously.

Why the hell would Spore get a four? That’s far too high.

So I heard the new Diner Dash rehash has a few tiles that kind of look Cave Storyish.

is just sooo catchy and cool

That first song, after the guy jumped out of the tree… It sounds suspiciously similar to a slower version of the Meow Mix song at first. =P Great, now all I hear in my head is this: Meow meow meow meow, Meow meow meow meow, Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow.

HOLY SHIT AN UPDATE
Oh wait I saw this 4 days ago
:C

OMG, this is liek the coolest thing evur!

..no but seriously – it is! <3

Looks really cool.
Taking a risk that I will start a terrible flame war.
Isn’t cave story a clone of older platform games it self? So whats the big deal?
I even think I played an older game where your weapons behave like the ones in cave story(with the leveling up etc).

What I am trying to say is, innovation and being the first one at something doesn’t make it necesseraly better.
If a game is good and people enjoy it, then it doesn’t matter how many other games are like it.

I really think this cave story rip-off thing is a little overdone.

.
.
.
…isn’t the weapon room design a bit of a Castle Crashers copy?

Cave Story isn’t a clone, since it borrows from so many games while keepigng itself really original. When I played Cave Story for the first time, only thing that was “rip-offy” was that sound effect from Metroid. :D

Looking really good! :) I like the underwater sections, and the grabbling hook seems fun as well.

Cave Story on steroids…. aWESOMe

Cave Story clone deserves none of my time.

Well you are judging a book by its cover aren’t you?

I liked the part where he walked and shot things

That song at the end is EPIC.

*cough*
http://willhostforfood.com/access.php?fileid=35577

Cave story has its portion of innovation.
Mostly by combining things from several different games.
Though I find it misleading calling this game a clone. as if cave story is genre defining itself.
And this game have stuff cave story didn’t have, and maybe even stuff that were not in any other game before.

I would say that spore is more innovative than cave story. Because spore is a game no other game is really like.
Though I guess that many people here would much prefer cave story over spore.
So innovation and originality is not everything.
Sometimes execution is more important.
And besides, I am not sure this game is really that much like cave story. Or that cave story is that much different than other platform games.

Awesome video and awesome song!X)
Can’t wait to play underside!!!

Ok. That cavestorypoff meme is old.
Let’s start with the bonesaw ripoff now!

Anyway, i just can’t see that game without thinking about how many sprites and tiles are almost directly stolen from cave story, sorry

Even if it is a Bonesaw ripoff, Bonesaw might as well just be a Cave Story ripoff.

I starting to really look forward to this game. The music’s great!

Looking fabulous.
This morning I had a flash of inspiration for my own Cave Story clone.

Am I the only one.. ow wait Eclipse said it also…

People come on, saying everything’s a Cave Story rip-off is OLD OLD OLD.

OLD, you hear me?!?!

In other news, this game looks rad.

Trotim, I also liked the part where he walked and shot things. The part where he was jumping was cool too.

Just one thing: He uses the grappling hook to dodge a pool of what looks just like water, and then later he’s swimming through it no problem. I realize what he was dodging was either poisonous, or he dodged for the sake of showing off the grappling hook. Either way, it seemed a bit strange.

replace the . between hook and Either with a but

Beastie Boys ripoff

lookin great pod.

Underside has definitely grown up! I am looking forward to chainsawing some bitches in a cave.

I think they should have overlayed the gameplay footage with the song at the end — the video would be half as long and twice as funny.

update by update it’s looking more like an Underside ripoff.

@Bubbinska (5.): it’s at 1:23, isn’t it.

@Critic
Mayhap the game’s water is deadly before you pick up a certain power-up.

When I first played this game I didn’t think much of it, but It’s really looking nice

Every video of this makes me think I’m going to end up liking it more than, you guessed it, Cave Story.

I mean seriously. Cave Story had a lot going for it, but it didn’t have *chainsaws*.

I heard somewhere that Cave Story borrowed a lot from a game called Silhouette Mirage for the playstation.

Doesn’t matter what made Cave Story. Cave Story had it’s own unique graphic style. And this game seems to copy it pixel by pixel.

Or rather I should say plagiarize

???????????????…????????
?????????????
??????

Dwarf fortress stole its tiles, but nobody complains, you guys suck =p

as for the underside, it looks awesome! :D

OK, why must every thing be innovative? cave story is about as innovative as a dead bird but it has CHARACTER and SOUL!
it was a game made with heart and, no matter how you look at it, a unique style, not just art-wise – story-wise, gameplay-wise, level-wise and a whole shitload of other wise’s. some of you might not see it but arthur sure did as he first started working on the underside.
Why some of you are going “duhurr… wall, cav stry tuk sum mechanix from this gaem and this other gaem and is a metroid clone” and failing to see what actually makes cave story unique is completely beyond me! are you so stuck up with your fucking mechanics that you fail to see the big picture?
i’m not complaining about the underside though, the game looks like a shitload of fun, i love where arthur is taking it, and i can’t wait to play the fucking fuck out of it.

fuuuuuuuuck

I guess people are not allowed to have their own opinion these days?
And if you don’t think cave story is one of the greatest games of all times then something is wrong with you.
Cave story is a great game, but I didn’t like it as much as other people do.

When I talked about mechanics, I was referring to the claims of this game being a rip off of cave story.
I didn’t talk about any other value of cave story, because it was not relevant to this specific discussion.

Oh, and there is no need to make an immature imitation quotes of other people, its not funny, it just make your argument seem more childish.

Though I kind of feel I actually argue with a little kid here.

a Rice Boy platformer would rock, but would also be ultimately, just a cave story rip-off :(

sorry, i did go over the top. i didn’t mean to quote anyone in specific but rather reacting (or overreacting, whichever you prefer) to the general discussions about the underside vs. cave story.

I was wondering if TIGSource would ever post this, as from what I can tell TIGSource and PIGScene are enemies of sorts…

That’s right. NIGSource it not indie because it values things like “fun” and “good gameplay” over innovation and bold artistic statements.

Hey, I was usually the first one to scream “Cave Story Rip-Off” whenever The Underside was mentioned (or something playable was released) but I must say this is starting to look more and more original – just like a game only INSPIRED by Cave Story like Arthur always said it was.

Good, good – now I am actually starting to look forward to this. Keep up the good work and make even more unique gameplay elements – this could be more like a Cave Story sequel with all the improvements shown in this video. =)

EW CAVE STROY RIPOFF.
WHERE HAS THE ORIGINAL GAMES GOES?

bonesaw ripoff.

WHY WAS THAT THE FIRST THING THAT POPPED INTO MY MIND WHEN I SAW THE SAW!?

this is what tigs has done to me.

If it were a REAL bonesaw ripoff, it would run at about 20fps most of the time.

It is certainly a rip off but who cares?

The graphics are not the strongest selling point on either game.

I guess normally in game developer culture it is considered normal to clone another person’s game mechanics or gameplay ideas (within reason), but you are expected to come up with original graphics and music… mainly because it is much easier to come up with truly original artwork ideas than truly original gameplay ideas.

More importantly, I think that it is normal and reasonable for developers who spit the dummy over legitimate criticisms to be trashed for it by everyone: like Dyack or Smart. If everyone calls your game a rip-off, the right responses are either a) “I don’t care, this is a doujin game” or b) “Whoops, I’ll fix it”.

It’s a shame because this looks like a great wonderboy clone, which is something I would love to play, but now I want it to fail horribly because of the author’s reactions.

Um so yeah what’s the current ETA?

I do love The Underside, and it’s good to see it coming along so nicely.

Also, isn’t the Cave Story meme many years old yet? Honestly, it’s like yelling “ALL YOUR BASE”… and you can bet someone’s going to do that.

Random internet people, I weep for you.

Now, I haven’t watched that video – I’m on dial-up, I can’t. Is it significantly different from the demo up on the Underside’s website? Because I wasn’t really fond of that demo – thought it was pretty awful, to be totally honest.

The game looks pretty much the same to me as it did from the beginning, from watching all the trailers (and only that, I didn’t try the demo).
I liked the look of it from the start.

See, I like the /look/ of the game – almost a 32-bit version of Cave Story – I just couldn’t stand the gameplay. The level design was… not very good.

That might’ve just been me, though.

I really, really want to like this game. I mean, this is the kind of game I usually love. It looks like it could really stand on its own feet, and seems to have earnestly tried to seperate itself from cave story (in both mood and gameplay).

The graphical similarities are still really-really jarring, though, and this seems even more unnecessary than before. And, like been said, if they had been acknowledged as copies then it wouldn’t bother me as much. I would probably still wish it hadn’t been done that way since the game seems so promising.

Like Benzido, I’m also unfortunately bothered by the authors reactions. Now it seems the only way I can see this game is through a filter of internet drama, and that the only reason the elements decidedly similar to Cave Story persist is to prove an argument or point (which… it fails to do).

So, all in all, it’s really annoying. I want to like it, but can’t. And because of reasons that shouldn’t even be a concern.

Now, just to contradict myself here, I don’t even really mind rip-offs. Innovation isn’t so important to me personally. For me it’s style, and, as far as art is concerned, nothing is sacred. Rip what you want to achieve the effect you want. Cave Story has a very distinct style. If you want your game to breath ‘Cave Story’ then copy it. I even /want/ more Cave Story-esque games (it’s a damn awesome game).

Copying pixel for pixel is only going to echo Cave Story more-so, and only going to piss more people off if you then claim this is your own personal style (which, yes, is there too, behind it all, and only behind it all).

I guess what I’m getting at is: maybe this is failing because it seems indecisive. Either be a rip-off or don’t?

Criticism-out.

The bit where he’s wearing a Quote costume made me laugh out loud.

Also, the big-head dude in the tree at the beginning could be a brilliant Balrog parody, with XTREEM CLOSE-UP character portrait and all.

I think it’s cool that Podunkian is being such a good sport about all the “OMG RIPOFF” silliness.

As long as he’s not making any money off of it he can rip whatever he wants off. Well, there are certain naming conventions companies have managed to patent (-tris), but unless he’s using another game’s popularity for financial gain, there’s no quantifiable reason to oppose it. Whether he values internet popularity and is ripping Cave Story’s visuals off to gain it is the real argument. Personally, I think he just isn’t a very creative artist, so he picked a style he liked and emulated it best he could.

I can understand you guys getting pissy if Podunkian claims the art style is all his own, but man, who gives two shits that it looks like some other game? At least it has a style at all. If you want to bitch about art, bitch at developers for the 360 who don’t even try to have art design.

Because it will be better than Super Mario and possibly better than Metroid.

Um, so that game The Underside looks pretty awesome. Better and better.

Hm.

Shinii16 sayeth:
_I was wondering if TIGSource would ever post this, as from what I can tell TIGSource and PIGScene are enemies of sorts…_

omfg, enemies? isn’t it all good fun? well it is, for me. I’m simple like that. (good to know that the indie scene is big enough for enemies now, btw.)

Only the _Indie Mainstream_ have enemies. Now we need a new word that’s indier than “indie.” (*Alternative?*)

How personal it gets teeters on scary, though…

Pandapendent is the new term.

The game looks awesomely cool, and IMO it differs enough from Cave Story to not be a rip-off. It makes me a bit sad to see that people argue about so small stuff when the main point is that there’s an awesome game we will get to play some time in the future.

I think it’s funny that people are talking crap about some internet drama and then reflecting that upon the game. On the other hand that’s very natural, I don’t deny that.

But I see it this way: if an artist that i’ve had some sort of personal feud, or just came off as a dick to me puts out something that I could like – as for artform it’s more benifical for me to put my ego to the side and just digg it. I mean even here on TIGsource there’s people who have rubbed me the wrong way but it doesn’t close out the possibility they could put out a really enhoyable (spanglish) game to me. It would be harder for me to apreciate it but given the chance I still could.

After all, we’re suppose to create and not pat each others on the back just becouse we’re such a handosome and nice guys or girls. It’s not like Eurovision song contest.

^yeathat

It looks fun, and I’m going to play it. That’s all that really matters, right?

I’m indie as FUCK

I wish you could drunk drive in this game to Cave Story music…

No, seriously – it looks good but it plays awful. Everyone who’s excited about this game should play the demo so they don’t get let down when the game sucks.

Therum: I played the demo and I loved every bit of it. I can’t wait for the full game.

Yeah, it plays just fine, and that was even an early demo! C’mon, guys.

Ruh oh

Castle Crashers rip-off?

Lol, I kid

Seriously? I thought the difficulty was way out of whack, and I thought the level design was kinda bleh.

For the record, the first time I ever HEARD about this game was yesterday – so I don’t have any bias or anything.

Oh, hey, Guy misses the point again.

The reason people said the Underside was/is a Cave Story ripoff is because of the graphical style. Whether you think it’s a ripoff or an homage is a matter of opinion, but you’d have to be blind and retarded to deny the similarities, especially since Podunkian will freely admit to them.

It’s got nothing to do with gameplay elements. (I dispute your unsubstantiated “Cave Story is a clone of older platformers” claim, by the way. Sure, it borrows gameplay chunks here and there, but there’s no one game you can point to as a primary influence. For all its comparisons to Super Metroid, for example, Cave Story plays very differently, in that it is much more linear and has much less exploration.)

But hey, I don’t give a shit about graphics as long as they don’t make my eyes bleed. And as somebody else said, this looks like a 32-bit version of Cave Story, which is very nice.

Gameplay’s the important thing. I haven’t played the Underside yet, and I’ll probably wait for the full game since I hate demos. But gameplay-wise, at least, this doesn’t look *anything* like Cave Story.

I actually wanted to refresh my memory so I played trough the demo again. And was surpriced how different it looks to both what it has become and cave story as well. I although there’s tile based graphics and the colour scheme is similar, the art is more reminicent of games like Earthbound to me. Not to say anyone here said that Podunkian ripped Cave Story’s visuals, but I got the picture that the drama that I referred earlier had something to do with that.

I don’t kow guys – it could be that I’m sucking Podunkian’s cock, but I’m ready to buy it’s his own style with a lot of homage to Cave Story. (But like Kongming said, there’s no denying similarities)

Noticed that on some other forums people whined it looked too much like Cave Story, and when that has changed they whine about “not staying constant/true”… Is it just me or have some people already made their mind about the game?

“gustav said about 15 hours later:
OK, why must every thing be innovative?”

not innovative, only made without ripping off sprites, tiles and not only the exactly game mechanics maybe…

Also: stole gfxs is not an homage

Eclipse, I’m not gonna fall into that so I’ll just counter “stole gfxs is not an homage” with..

MWAHA! GOOD ONE!

“..Lol ur gay u liek stole graphics from jet set radio!” xD

..and totally not serious about that one.