Upside Down Minecraft Survival Map
For Australians and Minecrafters who are sick of the cliched ways that developers keep making games the right way up, upside down survival is a minecraft survival map with all the usual things inverted. The ground is on your head, the requisite sole tree grows towards the void and the landmass you must mine for its precious resources towers skywards whilst your feet scrabble for purchase on a few slippery leaves.
A Brain Teaser
My initial observations of this map are that it requires a lot of concentration. The ground might be all upside down, but gravity still pulls you towards the void. The real challenge, at first at least, isn't in the fact thast everything is upside down, but in the fact that there's so very little of it. The only way to get yourself out of your very precarious situation is to start digging, digging upwards.
How Adorable!
The map has some very cute surprises, including floating lakes of lava suspended above your head. Is floating lava not cute? Ever since the Endermen were introduced I've not known what was which in minecraft.
More Wood, Please
The biggest problem facing the player is a lack of wood. The single tree must release at least one sapling or your game is pretty much over (or about to take an unauthorised detour to inventory editing town). Fortunately trees do tend to drop at least one sapling, you just have to be careful that you don't lose it overboard.
Invisible Blocks
In case you were wondering how lava and water and sand all stay suspended in the air, it turns out that there are invisible blocks holding them in place. You can't seem to break through them with tools, but you can't stand on them either, as I discovered whilst plummeting to my doom.
A New Classic
Upside Down Minecraft Survival has, in my opinion, the potential to become a classic. Much like Survival Island, I started off the game thinking I'd just play for a few minutes and get a sense of the thing, but it drew me in. You see, once I'd conquered the sole tree, well, then I had to get the next tree to grow and then I had to somehow get the water pooling nochalantly above my head into a bucket that I could use. I didn't just have to survive you see, I had to actually build the land from the ground up. Starting with a base layer of cobblestone, then moving onto dirt which had to be irrigated for potential crops (I hadn't yet found any seeds at the time of playing, but hope is eternal.)
