Every once in a while, I get to enjoy one of my favourite things: one of my kids regaling me with details on a game they are creating with their friends at school, or a story they have come up with while playing with their toys. It’s a welcome, and almost always entertaining, reprieve from whatever I am in the middle of, and a wonderful reminder that I used to do the same thing with my parents. Whether I am learning that the friendly veterinarian (who is also a princess) now moonlights as a superhero, or that the evil demon king summoned immortal ice warriors during the battle (normally between science class and lunch), I cherish these brief windows into my kids’ colourful imaginations. I say all this because, funnily enough, playing Under The Island felt very similar to these interjections into my day-to-day, bursting with creativity that is often compelling and occasionally confusing.
Under the Island is a 90s-infused top-down adventure game developed by Slime King Games, which has players step into the scuffed sneakers of Nia, a young girl who has moved from the bustling city to the comparably quieter Seashell Island for her parents’ academic work. Before the moving boxes have even been unpacked, Nia gets swept up in the island’s mysteries, making friends with a local girl called Avocado and tumbling into undiscovered ruins beneath the sleepy village.
The duo meets Karasu, a member of the ancient, bird-like Volarian race, who tells the girls that the island is sinking into the ocean and he needs their help to retrieve four magically imbued Gears that were stolen by traitors to his people. Grabbing a sturdy hockey stick that was left in the chest meant to contain a far more impressive weapon, Nia sets off to explore Seashell Island in search of these Gears before her new home disappears below the waves.
It’s a simple, and somewhat silly premise that provides the quintessential call to action and search for McGuffins, all while keeping with the tone of what I quickly learned was a pretty strange island! The game doesn’t waste time getting you into the adventure, with a chance to free roam the town and a short trek through the ruins working as a seamless tutorial.
It also didn’t take me long to start picking up on the somewhat eccentric nature of Seashell Island and its diverse inhabitants. Over the course of my 9-hour playthrough, I bought upgrades for my gear from a mystical, anthropomorphized bear, duked it out with a gang of octopi, and ordered several bowls of steaming ramen from a travelling vendor in a hot air balloon. Under the Island has no shortage of personality, and I couldn’t tell you the number of times I was charmingly surprised by what I saw and encountered.
Under the Island’s gameplay is your classic top-down adventure fare, consisting of fighting monsters, solving puzzles, helping NPCs, and finding secrets, all while progressing the game’s main quest. The controls are also very straightforward, with a 3-hit combo being your only form of regular attack and two other buttons that use their assigned items or tools. Fans of games like The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening will find this all very familiar and may even notice a few references.
That same wacky energy that permeates the island and the locals is found in the items you collect, the enemies that you fight, and the events that make up the game’s story. By the end of the game, my backpack was a cornucopia of bits and bobs, including bombs to blow up monsters and certain walls, a magic staff that shoots fireballs, a shovel to dig holes, and dog treats to feed certain animals. Many of these items had more than one use case, and it was fun to discover more and experiment with them, often leading to fun or rewarding results.
The monsters that roam the diverse biomes of Seashell Island make up one of the oddest lineups I have seen in a video game in quite some time. Onion-headed minions, sentient treetrunks, fish-throwing skeletons, and cereal-pinching pirates are just a few of the mobs I had to contend with, each one adding to the Earthbound-like vibes that Under The Island has. Whether this was intentional or not doesn’t matter; it works, and I dug it.
The four Gears Nia is trying to collect are at the end of four short but fun dungeons that culminate in either a boss fight or a unique challenge. The first dunegeon, an overgrown greenhouse, ended with me stopping waves of frenzied fans from breaking into the star of the local talent show’s dressing room, while I had to come first in a championship cook-off at a lighthouse later on. I really could not tell what was going to happen next, and not just in the story! Secrets and side quests are hidden all across Seashell Island, and exploration is rewarded handsomely.
My favourite detail, though, is how a lot of these elements were woven into the worldbuilding and lore of Under The Island, fully embodying that unbridled childlike imagination. Some little design choices give the game a strange life, like how you speak to a few NPCs back at Koala Village to discover the location on your adventure, or how the game’s fast travel system has to be unlocked beneath the earth by solving sliding block puzzles. Everything has had a twist put on it, and it really feels like the dev team had a lot of fun working on Under the Island. There’s even an animal karma system, so be careful how you treat them!
The vibrant pixel art of Under the Island makes for a wonderful visual feast, with each of Seashell Island’s six biomes feeling unique and fully realised. One minute, I’m walking through giant tree stumps to reach new parts of Bablu Forest, and then the next, I’m navigating foggy marshes and a hippo-infested lake! I particularly like the variety in styles as well, with all character sprites having a Chibi-like appearance, whilst many of the cast also have normally proportioned portraits during dialogue.
The game’s soundtrack forgoes the chiptune stylings of its inspirations and instead is built around strings, brass, and woodwinds, weaving between genres to fit the location you are currently in. I wouldn’t say that there is a singular style or identity to Under the Island’s music, but it keeps that sense of adventure alive, instilling a warm, jovial nature to the world.
Under the Island is impressive for several reasons, most notably the amount of stuff there is to find and do in the game. However, I did find it easy to lose track of where things were and where I had been. The game’s map is not very helpful, uncovering itself in big chunks, only giving you a vague idea of where you are, and you can only see where the fast travel points are when you are using one. It would have made sense to have icons for important places on the map at all times, or to add a pin system, mixing a piece of modern game design with its old-school inspirations. Another piece of more modern game design that I think the game would benefit from is an item wheel to swap out what items you have equipped to the other two action buttons. Having to keep going into my pause menu to swap what I had equipped grew tiresome pretty quickly.
Final Thoughts
Just like with my kids’ elaborate games and worlds they think up, it may not all make sense, but it didn’t stop me from having a great time. Under the Island is a fun and often wacky adventure game that wears its heart on its sleeve and does right by its inspirations. It’s a game that begs to be explored from top to bottom, with the intent of giving the player something to find or do at nearly every turn. I loved my time on Seashell Island, and I think that plenty of other people will too.
Under The Island is available on February 17th across PC, PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch,
Under The Island was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a controller.
We would like to thank Slime King Games and Top Hat Studios for the review key.
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