Reviews

Released at the same time as Knight Lore, this game also included the same character of Sabre Man. Sticking with the more conventional 2D graphics of their previous games, Underwurlde is a fast moving platformer with a similarly sized map to Sabre Wulf set in a massive complex of underground caverns.

There are some nice graphical and gameplay touches; you can rise up caverns on bubbles from volcanic vents and descend using a rope rather than just having to jump everywhere. Sabre Man can pick up a variety of weapons to combat the assorted monsters along the way, each of which can also dispatch a particular guardian opening up a new section. Unlike Sabre Wulf, you've got the advantage that the monsters can't kill you directly; however they can knock you over and if you fall far enough that will do the job for them just nicely.

But, there lies the game's big flaw; it's almost impossible to avoid being repeatedly knocked over by the monsters and even with a lot of practice, the amount of time you can survive for can be just a bit too random. Rather, you've got to trust to luck and picking up bonus lives to have a hope of finding the exits which lead to Knight Lore, Pentagram and the, never released, Mire Mare.

All in all it's a bit of a flawed gem by Ultimate's, albeit very high, standards. The graphics are great, and the gameplay is mostly very good too, but whether you'll enjoy it depends on how much of being bounced around like in a pinball machine you can handle.

I find it a non-trivial matter to score this 2D arcade adventure from Ultimate. On the one hand it has the trademark technically excellent sprite routines which are outrageously fast and smooth. There's also imagination by the bucketload and a real sense of immersion, helped by the huge game map.

On the other hand, it's a bit of a bugger to play. The pinball physics mean that very often you'll be bouncing in the exact opposite direction from where you actually intended to jump to. You can quite easily end up even in the wrong screen and falling down a great distance, just by ricocheting off another sprite. Overall I'd say the pros and cons pretty much cancel each other out, but of course the game has more depth than simply being labelled as "average" which would be a little unfair without some explanation. It's more like a game of extremes (both good and bad).

The game stands out not only because it has that memorable "Ultimate" feel, but also because of plenty of extra nice touches like bubbles floating upwards that you can jump on and ropes that extend downwards from the cave ceiling which the player can swing on in order to make a (sometimes) controlled downwards decent. The player must collect gems and also a small selection of weapons must be found to defeat various in-game antagonists. If you can keep plugging away at it, depsite the barely-controllable (sometimes almost random), chaotic trajectory of the player character then there is plenty to discover here.

Verdict: A memorable, bright and colourful game with plenty of action and quality graphics, but it could really drive someone insane.

Quite possibly the most frustrating game in existence. The many difficult to avoid creatures do not kill you, instead they bounce you around the rooms. Most of the time you are playing this, you are not in control of Sabreman. Instead you spend the game watching him ricocheting around the screens like a pinball.

Great game in which you are a human pinball thrown in every possible direction by flying monsters and demons, you can try to lower yourself into pits using some web that spiderman lent you, and go back up to the top standing on bubbles spit by volcanoes. But most of the time you just bounce around without any control on your character. Anyway you can learn to do slightly better. Colourful, fast and furios action, you must costantly be shooting to neutralize the monsters and their effects on your manoeuvrability. The goal, I don't know exactly what it is, probably to find a certain amount of diamonds that will open the exit from the Underwurlde for you to proceed to Mire Mare. I met a sort of minotaur. Maybe he's the one you have to corrupt to go out. I think it's frustratingly funny, smooth and fast animation, and your shooting goes in multiple directions like lapilli from a volcano. No less than 4/5.

This game looks so glamorous you cannot resist it ! ! !

A MUST HAVE for every Ultimate lover !


4,5 / 5 .

Another Spectrum classic by Ultimate, the second adventure of Sabreman, the intrepid explorer in Sabre Wulf, a Stamper brothers' peculiar 8-bit vision of Dante's 'Inferno'.

After surviving the terrible jungle in the previous adventure, now our hero descends into 'the Well of Evil', the depths of the Black Void. He must kill the three demons that impede the exit of this hell, each one with a different weapon, and finally reach one of the three alternative exits that takes him to Knight Lore, Pentagram and Mire Mare, the next game in the series, being the third one never released, as you all know.

It's a really hard 2D adventure in which you come across all kind of demons, resurrected gargoyles and poisonous plants, with a very original feature for a videogame: enemies directly don't kill you, you'll only lose a life if you fall off from certain height because of their shoves. Hopping on volcanic bubbles or rope swings are other great features of this game.

It consists of a very huge map of hundreds of screens (one of the biggest by the time it was released, 1984) with the usual Ultimate touch: great and coloured graphics, good movement and frenetic sounds.

July 7 is San Fermin and the best game that may seem like the party in Pamplona is the Underwurlde.

After all, when an enemy reaches you, you don't lose a life, but you are thrown into the air.
Just like in Sanfermines' encierros when a bull catches you.

1984 Ultimate (UK)
by Chris and Tim Stamper

This is the second game of the Sabre Wulf series. It's not the best game from the Ultimate folks, but a rather good one, just like the first.
You can see the gameplay changed quite a bit, although graphically remains similar.
It's not as player friendly as the first game, mainly due to the jumping routine, which requires a bit of practice, but it's more immersive than Sabre Wulf, with it'snew lateral perspective and general atmosphere.

I must admit I never got far in the game, which means I will be returning to it from time to time, after all the Speccy never died to us 80's kids.