UnderDungeon Review - The Zelda Nintendo Refuse to Make

You know what makes a good game? Nintendo does. You know what else Nintendo does? Ignores the cries of many of its fans. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening was a fantastic remake. However, there’s very little else out there for the classic 2D adventure game fan right now. If you’ve already finished Tunic and Death’s Door, where should you go next? This UnderDungeon review will tell you where.

UnderDungeon has a genuinely amusing tongue-in-cheek sense of humour. The game begins with an alarm clock beeping. It doesn’t turn off until the player presses a button, and a furry paw hits snooze. Then again. Then a third time. We meet Kimuto, the player-character, who is living a very modern life in his retro-stylised world.

Kimuto is off to apply for a job as a ‘delivery person’ for a package delivery firm. He’s a smiley, happ-go-lucky kinda guy. He gets the job with only minor inconvenience and is quickly offered a sword. Yes, a sword. What kind of deliveries are these, exactly? Gorilla bosses, vegetables with rayguns and a meeting with a hungover Death later, and you’ll know exactly what kind.

The game is played from a top-down perspective. The player will journey from the office as a hub area to different location under the guise of making deliveries. However, these areas are typically the titular dungeons. They begin very simply of course. But after making a few deliveries the story gets moving. The dungeons start to grow in complexity. They often require the use of a few of the items you’ll gather along the way, but mostly that of your most recently acquired item. You’ll fight small enemies, solves puzzles, gain additional heart containers, and each dungeon ends with a boss.

If this formula doesn’t strike you as familiar, it’s possible you never experienced any of the early 2D The Legend of Zelda games. Yes, as you might have guessed from this UnderDungeon review, the game is very much in the wheelhouse of A Link to the Past or the Oracle subseries. It’s about as far from Tears of the Kingdom as the original The Legend of Zelda. And if that’s something you’re looking for, UnderDungeon is certainly a wise investment.

The visual style of UnderDungeon is closer to a perfectly executed Spectrum ZX game than any Zelda, but the gameplay is far beyond the seemingly low spec graphics. The challenge can be steep and the later levels particularly long, but UnderDungeon has a way of carrying you through. It’s a game which constantly rewards, pulling you through each challenge to the next. Plus, there are numerous sidesteps and mini-games which turn your expectations on their head. And all with that smirky sense of humour throughout. It’s not going to last as long as a Zelda game, but pick up UnderDungeon for a fantastic weekend of retro-styled comedy adventuring.