The Indie Games catalog has been home to several games that have strong similarities to older genres, and Ubergridder continues this trend by having much in common with Pac-Man and other ’maze chase’ games where you control a character who can’t fight back very well, so they have to avoid enemies while completing their objective. Ubergridder has you guide a cartoon-style robot through an overhead maze/grid (hence the title) where you juggle two tasks: Moving over grid-lines to complete and repair them, while also avoiding aliens that are chasing you.
Fixing the grid lines is easy enough, since you just have to move over them. Once you’ve completed the lines framing an area (usually done by moving in a square pattern around it), the grid completes and that part of the stage is repaired; you have to do it for all the grid segments in order to finish the level. The aliens make things harder by roaming the map, trying to pin you down and even a single touch from them is lethal. Your robot cannot fight back, leaving you with only evasion and dropping bait called ’Monster Chew’ to distract them. Evasion works well enough, though the monsters are ever so slightly faster than you; if they stay on the same path you’re on then they will eventually catch up. Dropping some Chew will usually keep them busy for a few seconds, and is your most effective defense.
Most of the time, all of this works like you would expect it to. The controls are easy enough and you only need the analog stick and two buttons (one to drop Chew, the other to pause the game) to play. This makes Ubergridder a very quick game to learn, and it’s generally enjoyable. There are however a few problems worth covering. The most minor is that the Start button doesn’t seem to pause the game; strangely enough B does that. More significant are the occasional issues where you’ll miss just a tiny bit of a grid line and have to move over the entire thing to find that one spot that somehow didn’t register when you went across it the first time. The monsters have a few problems too, such as occasionally opting to ’camp’ a small section of grid line that requires very precise timing to get through safely, and in a few rare instances they have gone right through the Chew dropped in their path; this is a real problem when it’s your only defense against them.
These aren’t fatal flaws, but rather moderate irritants. Ubergridder works fine most of the time and is enjoyable. Its low cost makes up for some of the problems as well, since it only costs $1 USD/80 Microsoft Points and is pretty entertaining. While its game mechanics are obvious nods to Pac-Man style titles, Ubergridder stands fairly well on its own merits and you should give it a try.
