Switchblade is a 1989 side-scrolling action-platform run and gun video game originally developed by Core Design and published by Gremlin Graphics in Europe for the Atari ST home computers.

[1][2] The first installment in the eponymous two-part series, the game is set in a dystopian future where players assume the role of Hiro from the Blade Knights as he embarks on a journey to defeat Havok, the main antagonist who broke free from his imprisonment after the sacred Fireblade was shattered into several pieces.

Its critical success would prompt the development of a sequel eight months later, Switchblade II, which was created by a new team at Gremlin Graphics without the involvement of Phipps and garnered a positive reception from the public as with the original title upon its release on Amiga, but was not widely ported to other platforms.

[6][7] Switchblade is a side-scrolling action-platform game with run and gun elements where players assume the role of Hiro on his quest through a subterranean labyrinth in Undercity, fighting against enemies and avoiding hazards in order to reunite 16 scattered fragments of the sacred Fireblade sword and use it against Havok, an evil entity who broke free from his imprisonment.

Switchblade takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where the Undercity in the Cyberworld of Traxx has been submerged into chaos and slaughtering with the awakening of Havok, an evil entity who broke free from his ten thousand-year-long imprisonment once the sacred Fireblade shattered into pieces and lost its power, along with the death of the Blade Knights order.

[8] Switchblade was solely created by Core Design co-founder Simon Phipps in his spare time and became the first title he wrote for the Atari ST, but due to the nature of its development process, it took approximately eighteen months in reaching completion while he began and finished various other projects at his company, most notably Rick Dangerous, with Phipps stating he desired producing a project that felt similar to arcade and home console titles during this era due to his fascination with Japanese artwork.