Underwurlde

About Underwurlde

Underwurlde (1984) is Ultimate Play the Game's second Sabreman adventure, a vast platformer of nearly 600 flip screens in which enemies knock Sabreman back instead of killing him.

Underwurlde in Depth

Sabreman, the pith-helmeted adventurer, jumps between platforms in a castle and its caverns seeking an escape past the exit guardians, each of which requires a specific weapon: a knife, a catapult or a torch. Seen from the side, the world is a series of 597 flip screens that change as he reaches the edge of the view, beginning in a castle decorated with clocks, birds and baskets and descending through vertical screens into the caverns. Walking off a ledge, Sabreman automatically attaches a rope to the ceiling and can swing across to another ledge, and at the bottom of a cavern he can ride a bubble back to the top.

Unlike Ultimate's earlier games, enemies do not hurt Sabreman but bounce him backwards, though being knocked off a precipice is fatal. He starts with seven lives, with a few more to find, and blue gemstones make him briefly immune to falls from any height. Harpies and gargoyles can be killed with his weapon, and after the first guardian eagles appear that can carry him off and drop him. There are three endings, each designed to lead into the plots of the three following Sabreman games. Computer and Video Games said it was likely the most expansive world on the Spectrum, and Retro Gamer called its flip screens "colossal".

Making Underwurlde

Ultimate Play the Game released it for the ZX Spectrum in late 1984, shortly before Knight Lore. Reviewers recommended the original, praising its huge world and bubble-riding sections, though later critics noted its frustrating difficulty.