Underhero

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Overview

Underhero is a role-playing video game developed by Paper Castle Games, a team consisting of four developers, that was released in 2018 across multiple platforms. The game puts players in the shoes of the "Masked Kid," an evil underling who betrays his boss and takes over for a failed hero to save the world. Underhero plays like a traditional side-scrolling platformer but implements RPG elements, with a turn-based combat system inspired by the Paper Mario series.

History

In September 2015, Paper Castle Games created an Indiegogo^[3] page with a flexible goal of $12,403 to raise funds for the development of their video game Underhero. On September 20th, the developers posted a demo video of the game to YouTube^[4] announcing its addition to the Steam Greenlight program (trailer shown below). A demo for the game was also released that month on the game's itchi.io^[5] page.

Underhero did not reach its crowdfunding goal, earning only $372 by the time the page closed. Despite this, the developers continued to work on the game, documenting the process on their Tumblr^[6] dev blog, routinely releasing songs, artwork and video clips relating to the game (examples shown below).

On September 19th, 2018, the complete version of Underhero was released to Steam. On February 11th, 2020, it was released on PS4, and on February 14th, it was released on Xbox One. On February 27th, it was then released on Nintendo Switch.

Soundtrack And Physical Release Problems

Underhero's soundtrack was produced by composer Stijn van Wakeren and received considerable praise from fans of the game. The first track from the game released by Paper Castle is titled "Overture," and was released on YouTube^[7] on November 22nd, 2016 (shown below), gaining over 26,000 views in four years (shown below).

On September 19th, 2018, the day of the game's full release, the soundtrack was released on multiple platforms under video game music label Materia Collective,^[8] notably not seeing a release on Steam (further examples shown below).

On March 15th, 2021, Twitter^[9] user and composer of the game Wakeren posted a series of tweets revealing that he and the developers at Paper Castle planned to release a physical edition of Underhero including a CD copy of the soundtrack (shown below). This involved contacting and getting permission from Materia Collective, who owns the release rights to the soundtrack. According to Wakeren, their repeated attempts to contact Materia Collective were largely ignored, halting Paper Castle from producing a physical release. Wakeren also mentions how Materia Collective repeatedly ignored requests to put the soundtrack on Steam.

Later that day, the Twitter^[10] page for Paper Castle Games, @papercastledevs, tweeted support for Wakeren, echoing his sentiments in a statement of their own (shown below).

Online Presence

Fan Art / Memes

Underhero has garnered a significant fanbase over the course of its development and release cycle, inspiring numerous works of fan art, primarily on sites like Deviant Art^[12] and Tumblr^[13] (examples shown below).

While the protagonist, the Masked Kid, is often the subject of fan art, other characters from the game are also the subject of original art and memes. For example, on January 4th, 2020, Tumblr^[14] user bulrushes posted a piece of fan art recreating the "how are you that small"^[15] meme with the bosses from the game, garnering over 130 notes in two months (side-by-side shown below).

Reception

Underhero gained generally favorable reviews following its release. The Nintendo Switch version of the game holds a Metascore of 86/100 and a user score of 8.4/10 on Metacritic^[1] as of March 2021. On Steam,^[2] Underhero holds a 9/10 rating as of the same date. Reviewers and users awarded particular praise to the game's story, artwork and soundtrack.

On September 21st, 2018, YouTuber^[11] and video game critic Jim Sterling reviewed the game positively, calling it "underrated" and praising its gameplay, soundtrack and design (shown below).