metroidvania posts

The Underside, Arthur "Podunkian" Lee's magnum opus, has finally released... its second demo. While The Underside has long been in development, the amount of polish and care going into the game is obvious even in the first demo. Now, to tease us some more, Arthur Lee has released the second teaser to his game, vastly expanding upon the previous area players could explore.

Those familiar with games such as Iji or Cave Story will be instantly at home in The Underside. You jump around, move between screens, and attack enemies through an exploratory, semi-non-linear adventure. While the first demo had maybe 5-10 minutes of gameplay, the second has drastically increased the amount, with the new elements seen in the gameplay trailer from last August all present. You can download the second demo from Arthur Lee's official website. You can find new levels as well as give developer feedback on the official forums.

[Via IndieGames]

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

Before Cave Story, there was a Metroidvania that really caught the eye of the indie community. It was a superbly polished gem of a game, and also incredibly hard. During development it was highly anticipated among a fair bit of gamers. Most fans of indie games, after playing it, realized that they had never played an indie game with that much polish. No game really approached its level until Cave Story a few years later. The game in question is Eternal Daughter, made by Jon Perry and Derek Yu (who is perhaps even more well known for the award-winning game Aquaria).

Every so often there comes an indie game that completely blows away those who play it. The second Freeware Friday ever covered one of those games, the incomparable Cave Story. There's a new game out, though, that has joined the ranks of indie games that must be played by everyone. It's a platformer/shooter/puzzler with an interesting story, excellent mechanics, and tight controls. I'm talking about Iji, a game released only a few weeks ago that has already grabbed the attention of quite a few players.