UnderMine
Rating Summary
Based on 19 critic reviews
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
A well designed, entertaining, and black humoured roguelite that does a great job of balancing long-term progress with the need to extend individual runs.
UnderMine may look like a Super Nintendo game, but it takes some of the best (and sometimes frustrating) elements of games like Binding of Isaac and Enter the Gungeon and brings it altogether to create an addicting journey.
UnderMine is a ridiculously easy game to recommend. If you are at all a fan of roguelite games, you owe it to yourself to pick this up at your earliest convenience. UnderMine demonstrates clear mastery in its overall design, controls, upgrade systems and presentation, which all come together to make for a thoroughly engrossing experience. The one caveat is that those of you who are sick of roguelites won't find anything to change your mind here; if you fall in that camp, it's perhaps best to take a pass, even if you're essentially missing out on one of the best examples of the whole genre. Otherwise, we'd give UnderMine a high recommendation; this is absolutely worth your time.
Undermine is a clever rogue-lite with plenty of pixel art charm. The gameplay and design elements come together to create a fun, addictive experience that'll appeal to action arcade gamers and RPG fans alike.
UnderMine on Switch is a strong, quirky roguelike full of personality that strikes a healthy balance between challenge and accessibility.
The secrets and characters you encounter truly give every attempt a unique feeling, and once you make it through the Undermine's five areas and bosses, you unlock the Othermine, which is a true roguelike without the base game's progression mechanics. There are dozens of hours to be spent with UnderMine, and many more if you want to complete the 96 in-game achievements and find every partner familiar, item, and potion. Without question, Thorium Entertainment has struck gold with UnderMine, and it's a worthy addition to the Switch's stable of rogue-ish titles.
Overall, a solid title in the genre which offers plenty of content to enjoy and some well-implemented visuals; only let down by some frustrating mechanics and slight graphical flaws.
Overall Undermine is a really good roguelike with a lot of well implemented mechanics. Is it breaking any molds? Not really, but the implementation was well done. The environments are large enough that you don't feel guided, but stages are small enough that you don't start getting frustrated being in the same location. There are plenty of randomized power boosts, and the upgrade system is pretty fair about when you need upgrades vs. How much they cost. While my luck may have screwed me over, there wasn't a design choice that did. I was really pleased with Undermine as a roguelike, and with the shorter nature of the stages, it lends itself really well to the Switch and its portable nature.
All in all, Undermine is a lot of fun and it lived up to the hype I had for it. While there are small issues, I never felt my overall enjoyment was tainted in any way. I would love there to be a physical release and I want DLC.
Undermine is a rogue-lite that doesn’t reinvent the wheel compared to other games in the genre. But this wheel is of high quality and made to such a high standard it’s hard to ignore. If you’re old or new to the genre Undermine is a title that you can sink hundreds of hours in long or short bursts. Undermine is easily up there as one of the best titles in the Rogue Lite genre. Excellent stuff




















