NetherWorld Review
Pixel art action-adventure NetherWorld desperately wants to shock you, and it’s exhausting.
NetherWorld. Credit: Hungry Pixel / Selecta Play
Hungry Pixel, a small indie studio from Spain, brings us NetherWorld, a pixel art action-adventure published by Selecta Play. Following weird jellyfish Medoo's alcohol-fueled descent after his wife abandons him, the game promises a twisted journey through a grotesque underworld filled with cokehead mages, dirty old guys, religious perverts, dangerous mobsters, entrepreneur prostitutes, drunks, and more. It tries so hard to be edgy and transgressive that it forgets to be entertaining.
NetherWorld. Credit: Hungry Pixel / Selecta Play
The story follows Medoo drowning his marital sorrows in booze, which quickly spirals into a surreal odyssey through increasingly depraved scenarios. The game clearly aims for dark comedy, but the writing rarely lands. It's edginess for edginess' sake, throwing shocking content at you without the wit or timing to make it funny. Despite detailed worldbuilding, I found myself not caring about any of it. The dialogue system doesn't help, forcing irritating pauses before letting you advance text when you just want to read faster and move on. What could have been a meaningful exploration of heartbreak and failure gets buried under try-hard provocations that mistake being offensive for being clever.
NetherWorld. Credit: Hungry Pixel / Selecta Play
Combat consists mostly of boss fights with some clever concepts undermined by frustrating execution. Playing on default difficulty, I found them needlessly punishing, desperately wanting a dodge or jump button that doesn't exist. The throwing mechanic epitomizes the control issues. You hold a button to increase force and release to throw, but with no fine control over power while the aim deteriorates as the throw charges to full strength. It's clunky and imprecise when battles demand accuracy. The game can't decide if it wants to be an action game or an adventure game, failing to excel at either.
The minigames range from drinking competitions to roguelike dungeon crawling as a tick named Joe, with several sex minigames thrown in featuring button-mashing quick time events. These sex minigames are again shock value without substance, neither funny nor mechanically rewarding. And there are so many of them.
NetherWorld. Credit: Hungry Pixel / Selecta Play
The pixel art graphics are serviceable but uninspired. While the world drips with grotesque detail, the character designs didn't work for me. I appreciate weird aesthetics, but these feel ugly without purpose, gross without charm.
NetherWorld mistakes being transgressive for being interesting. Its constant barrage of shocking content, frustrating combat, and try-hard edginess can't mask the lack of genuinely funny writing or engaging gameplay. For every clever boss concept, there's a control issue or difficulty spike that ruins it. For every attempt at dark humor, there's juvenile shock value that falls flat. At its core, it's neither a good action game nor a compelling narrative adventure; it's simply an exhausting exercise in how not to handle mature themes.
NetherWorld is available now on Steam.
Overall Score: 4/10
Played on: Steam Deck
