the underside is an exploration based action platformer in the vein (it's a pun~) of games like castlevania, metroid, and cave story. however, unlike most other games in this genre, the gameplay is driven more by plot than by free-roaming exploration (though the world is fully explorable).

the game's graphics and engine are (believe it or not) completely original. the game's engine is written in clickteam's multimedia fusion 2, while the graphics are done in humanbalance's graphicsgale.

the music is written by both me (arthur lee), and my close friend, j. michael brown. done in fruityloops using the 3xosc plugin as well as tweakbench's toad and peach vsts, the game's soundtrack has a real retro feel to it.
the game's plot revolves around a character named 'ip' who must escape from the underside, and maybe prevent the world from being destroyed while he's at it. the game's world, characters, plot strands, and dialogue are heavily inspired by earthbound, and are quirky, whimsical, and sometimes a little strange.

the gameplay is very fast based -- a lot more akin to games like megaman or metal slug rather than metroid or cave story in terms of pacing.