New The Underside Vid

By: Derek Yu

On: November 21st, 2007

Pixel called…

…he wants his Arrested Development DVDs back. Seriously, you said you were going to return them a month ago!

(Source: Tim!)

  • konjak

    …he broke up with Voxel.

  • konjak

    Argh! Stupid extended article adding content!

  • HandCraftedRadio

    I don’t know why people call this a copy of cave story, its nothing like it! I mean, come on, you aren’t even in a cave, you are in the underside.

  • Shadowrice

    is… is that longcat???

  • namuol

    it borrows a lot of graphical style from pixel’s stuff but the gameplay is a lot faster, and the humor in the game is pretty one-of-a-kind.

  • Melly

    Looooonnnngcaaaat!

  • Not Sure

    CAVE STORY! I am gonna write an ode to cave story.

    Oh Cave Story
    I loved you and all your glory
    You were such an awesome take on Metroid
    And I love metroid games so much

    Everyone thinks you were so original
    But I know the truth
    You just took an old idea and kicked it in the ass
    But you rocked it so hard our nuts fell off

    Now there are more metroid type games
    But thanks to you everyone forgot about metroid
    So now we call it a Cave story Rip-Off
    But that is OK because cave story was better than metroid.

    *sung in E minor*

  • I Like Cake

    I would prefer if it were in D minor, the saddest of all keys.

  • King-N

    I can’t wait for this game!

  • Kenzya

    I never really liked Cave Story. To me, the game represented another 2D platforming standard. There were really no metroidvania type adventure sequences and rather the game was fairly linear and the lame weapon leveling was tedious/PITA. Then you just shootan some monstars.

    I loved the way the game looked though so I am optimistically excited for this game. :)

  • Mr E

    Cave Story is good, but seriously overrated, It’s like the Halo of independent games in that sense.

  • xerus

    “Cave Story is good, but seriously overrated, It’s like the Halo of independent games in that sense.”

    I would argue that it’s a little different, as Cave Story is a good game.

    Zing!

  • Mr E

    “I would argue that it’s a little different, as Cave Story is a good game.”

    Is it? hmmm i never noticed

    zing yourself

  • raigan

    damn it, i was so excited until i realized this was the same trailer as on the indygamer blog.. “new”?! curse you!

  • oh snap

    raigan’s angry now. watch out.

  • Benzido

    The problem with Cave Story is that pixel is never, ever going to make a sequel. In that respect, The Underside compares pretty well.

  • Zeno

    In my naive years, when I thought I could program, I started work on a Cave Story prequel… in… Java.

    :(

    Anyways, The Underside doesn’t look to be half bad. Aside from stealing Cave Story’s visuals, and having a fugly, obnoxious-looking main character, that is.

  • failrate

    I like how the Underside starts with things that worked well in Cave Story, and then extended that with its own twists and innovations.

  • contra

    Come on. Everyone already knows it looks like Cave story, it’s been stated from the very beginning. But this hate-campaign is really getting ridicilous. Do you want the game to be cancelled so bad or what? Whats your motive for crying the same arguments over and over. I think it’s safe to say that Podunkian is aware of the critic by now, but guess what? It’s his game and he can do whatever he likes. And apparently he wants the game to look like this so either get over it or just shut up. Enough already.

  • Jonny

    The music actually did sound a lot like that one song from Cave Story at certain points. But it’s hecka cool, I like the cannon things, NEATO.

  • Sigvatr

    SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT CAVE STORY

  • mr. podunkian

    i like when people consistently compare my game to cave story and then they call me out on it because obviously my game isn’t at all influenced by such a game and gosh this email pretty much sums it up:

    “Cave Story much?

    The game looks good but noticing the grass/door/damage/health bar
    images are identical and the gameplay incredibly similar makes me
    think it’s not a coincidence and I hope you give credit where it’s due.”

    what’s this cave story everyone’s telling me about i live inside a cardboard box that itself is inside a soundproof glass ball and basically i’m completely cut off from the rest of the indie game community so i have no idea what this cave story is i’m seriously going to be so pissed off if this cave story ends up being a ripoff of my game, the underside some how.

  • mr. podunkian

    heh heh i take it back there’s no way in hell anyone else would’ve thought of making a platformer where you shoot things fffff

  • Dusty Spur

    what the hell is cave story

  • raigan (not)

    damn it, i was so excited until i realized this was the same game as cave story.. “new”?! curse you!

  • ZeHa

    The game looks great, I think it’s got a very unique style. Can’t wait to try it when I’m home :)

  • Nikica

    Mr E that’s not right Cave Story is not Halo of Indie because Cave Story is good and Halo suc** !!!

  • Advenith

    Well, now that I’m posting after all the trolls, nobody will care what I write. This gives me the opportunity to say something I’ve always, always wanted to.

    BALLS! BOLLOCKS! GIGANTIC TETHERBALLS SWINGING FROM THE POLE OF MASCULINITY! TEST! ICK! CALLS!

    Great, that’s outta my system. Anyway, the cannon things are sweet, and I can’t wait to kill me some longcats.

  • gustab

    Underside looks fun.

    It plays a little bit faster than Cave Story.

    Cave Story has very similar setup to Metroid.

    But is in no way a direct clone.

    Underside is a clone.

    With little things added on top.

    But that’s fine.

    Because it looks fun.

    And it looks like that’s what it’s all about.

    Everyone, plox.

    Stop with the denial.

    Longcat is looooong.

  • mr. podunkian

    what’s a longcat? the enemy in the game is a caterpillar (HEH HEH GET IT???) is longcat some sort of dumb internet meme or something

  • Lez

    Longcat is a real species of cat.
    + love the grappling fist :P

  • negative zero

    Gustab, nicely said. oh, and why can’t Halo and Cave story both be good games?

  • http://www.planetfreeplay.com Mosh

    They just can’t alright? Is that good enough? Just think of the Highlander.

  • haowan

    caterpillars, the name actually comes from the french

    chat-et-pillar

    because they look like cat heads connected to a pillar-like elongated body. True fact!

  • duh

    i’m going to make a game that rides on the fame of the underside which rode on the fame of cave story which rode on the fame of metroid.

  • duh

    and then ill be famous too, just like podunkian.
    ill be just like him.
    its going to be awesome.

  • Pixel Mort

    Looks like The Underside is a complete Bionic Commando ripoff now! : D

  • Carlz0r

    I just now found out that there is a demo of this game u.u

  • Derek

    These comments have got it all. <3

  • Space Ranger

    OMG THIS LOOKS JUST LIKE CAVESTORY LOL.

    But seriously, how can anyone work on a large game for such a length of time when it’s a fan game/clone?

    I would be so depressed knowing it’s not my own original work.

  • fartron

    Pixel has announced that he’s finally relented and will let you all buy him new Arrested Development DVDs.

  • Omg, who cares if it looks like a ripoff? All of you who loved Cave Story should stop wanted this game to get canceled and should anticipate its release instead. Just because it (seemingly) uses the same engine but with some cool innovations(grappling hook, those launchers in the video above) doesn’t mean you should hate on it. Is there anyone who refuses to play Ninja Gaiden but loves Castlevania?(the original NES ones)

    Cave Story was real good fun but it was a little short for me. and really sad. I hope this game isn’t sad.

  • Melly

    the Cave Story is a lie
    the Cave Story is a lie
    the Cave Story is a lie
    the Cave Story is a lie
    the Cave Story is a lie
    the Cave Story is a lie

  • robolee

    this games plays nothing at all like cavestory

    neither does it LOOK like cave story
    http://i9.tinypic.com/6sg9xex.png
    woah, would you look at that, they are both 2D SPRITE GAMES, the only similarity is:

    similar weapons, shooting game.

    Derek you should be ashamed, not only is this a really good game, but you are belittling an indie developer (who will probably make OTHER types of games, or sequels/prequel)

    cavestory is one of the best games I have ever played and I have basically every mod made for it as well, and I would pay a lot of money for it, but this is also very good IN A DIFFERENT WAY, good story, cool fmv’s, and good gameplay.

    now I suggest you go and play it, NOW! this goes for every single person who reads this message (previous players will have fun playing it again :))

  • Adam Atomic

    I must say that I am excited but it confuses me even more to see original gameplay and visuals mixed in with carbon copies of cave story graphical elements. I mean…whats the purpose except to create controversy? Clearly the creator has plenty of original ideas and the game’s movement and action are sufficiently different to warrant different visuals.

    I dunno, to me that is just frustrating; if there weren’t those few little visual elements that were so very very close to Pixel’s own ideas, I think this game would be a lot less angsty, and to me those visual choices no longer serve a purpose. Building a game is about harmony and ensuring that your gameplay and your visuals sync up perfectly. I think this is one of Cave Story’s greatest strengths, and I see this as a weakness in the Underside’s presentation.

    Again, to sum up, they are clearly different games. So why bother copying stupid stuff like health meters? The only logical reason I can see is the creator likes the attention, but that in itself is a controversial accusation :P UH OH, INTERNET DRAMA!!!

    Also, happy thanksgiving! Interesting turkey facts: when the pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, Squanto greeted them by saying in perfect English, “Do you have any beer?” Soon, the pilgrims (emaciated and mostly dead from their journey) and native Americans had negotiated a 50 yr truce and lived in relative harmony for almost half a century!

  • rz.

    huh. this is on front page of gametrailers.com

  • robolee

    here’s a hint: PLAY THE GAME, that’s right, all the way to the END.
    and then you’ll see how much it is better than cavestory.

  • robolee

    oh no the health bar has been…”copied” well… no it hasn’t you should check before you say that as many games have used very similar health bars.

  • Bob

    As Adam Atomic said, the game is clearly orginal in many respects(there aren’t any cannons or grappling hooks in Cave Story), so why does it have those copycat graphics(the save point is even a spinning floppy)? I bet that we wouldn’t even be having this discussion without the copied graphics.

  • Zeno

    Reason for stealing CS graphics: All this attention.