Blackhawk / Blackthorne (SNES)

Okay, today I'm playing Blackhawk by Blizzard, better known as Blackthorne. I've no idea why they decided to change the name for the European release. The logo even still has the triangle in the middle where the T used to sit. It doesn't look right without it.

Well it's definitely not about flying helicopters then.

I started on practice mode, mostly because I was curious what the practice mode was. Turns out it's just a tutorial, with each of these guys telling me the controls when I walk up to them.

It's fortunate that I can't kill them or else I would have been left to figure everything out by myself after I stumbled across the fire button.

Blackthorne (32X)

Out of curiosity I thought I'd check out the Sega 32X version to see if the enhanced graphics hardware made it look any better. And no, it looks fucking awful! What the hell did they do to the beautifully animated hand-pixelled sprites? Why does my dude stomp around like he's the Terminator now?

Okay to be fair the graphics aren't that bad... compared to the music. Still, the gameplay seems to be absolutely identical. But back to the SNES.


SOME RUNNING AND JUMPING LATER.

Uh... what? No, you're the tutorial guy, you're supposed to tell me what to do! Never mind, I think they've taught me everything important. I'll start the game proper.

Hey it's Dracula's castle from the Castlevania games. Wait, the villain's called Sarlac? Damn where have I heard that before...

Oh... right.

Anyway, evil Lord Sarlac decides to lead his reasonably well drawn orc armies to war against the humans, inadventently inspiring almost every Blizzard game made since.

I love that effect.

Meanwhile at Stonefist, the boring human fortress...

Seriously though, look at that thing compared to Sarlac's house. They get bonus points for the stone bridge sure, but the rest of it is painfully generic and... sensible.

So sensible in fact, that I can't believe they couldn't defend themselves from this attack. There's only one narrow point of entry, and surely they have defences designed to take advantage of this. Roll some logs down there, that'll sort them out. If they don't have any logs well that's their own fault for not making some peasants earlier and sending them out to chop trees. That's like... the first thing you do in Warcraft.

Oh wow, what the humans lack in exterior architecture they make up for with their interior design. That throne is way more interesting than Sarlac's one.

The king, seeing that enemy are literally right outside his window, decides that the battle is lost and he must send his son away through a portal. Perhaps when he's older he'll be able to come back and single handedly save the land. You never know.

Personally I reckon the odds of that happening would likely be greater if the wizard went through as well to train him, seeing as the kid really doesn't seem that old. But apparently there's only enough room in the portal for one.

The hero's called 'Kyle'? I was expecting something more like Aragon or Ajantis or some other fantasy made up name. Okay, he's been exiled to Earth, so I guess the game actually takes place here.

Or... not. They show Kyle hitchhiking on Earth for 10 seconds before he's dragged off back to his fantasy world. So what was the point of sending him to our world for 20 years then? I mean yeah it makes a lot of sense for the king and his magician to do it, but why Earth specifically if we're barely going to see the place? They could have just sent him off into the fantasy world wilderness or something.

Okay then, I'm back in the game. For real this time.

It's a fixed screen platformer a lot like like Flashback, which I guess was a lot like Prince of Persia. Kyle actually moves around like a normal human being, able to grab ledges and jump gaps, but not leap around twice his own height firing off his gun. In fact the gun has to be put away before he can jump, as 'jump' and 'fire' share the same button.

Oh shit, oh shit! I am so so sorry. I just wanted to break the chains and let him go, I didn't know I could actually kill the guy! I couldn't kill anyone on the tutorial level.

Crap, I hope he wasn't going to tell me anything important.

Hmm, it doesn't seem like these guys actually have much to say. But look over there, someone has carelessly misplaced two bags of stuff for me to swipe!

Well that sorted out that door, and I've got one bomb left. I'd better save it in case I come across another locked door.

An orc! The big difference between this and Flashback is that in this I can dodge into the background. Here I'm completely immune to the enemy's gunfire, but he can just do the same thing to dodge mine.

Also, I haven't got my weapon out and it won't let me until I'm out of my hiding place. So I'm going to have to wait for a break in the gunfire, step out, pull out my shotgun, then dodge back into the background again before I get shot. Possibly less frustrating than Flashback's forcefield, though I'm not sure yet.

Blackthorne (DOS)

The PC version looks more or less identical, except for the inventory down the side. It definitely seems like they designed the game for the SNES resolution, then stuck a frame around it.

Hey, the people can give me stuff. That means that can't risk letting a single one die in case they're carrying something important. And I can't waste a single bomb, in case I need it to open a door. Enemies sometimes carry bombs, but they don't respawn, so I've got a finite amount of supplies to work with.

This isn't something I ever had to worry about in Prince of Persia or Flashback, so kudos to them for innovating new ways to frustrate me.

Damn, like Flashback it's passwords instead of saves. Still I should be grateful it's giving me infinite continues I suppose.

Blackthorne (GBA)

The Game Boy Advance version features saves instead of passwords, but holy shit what happened to the game art? It seems they're trying to compensate for the lack of a backlight in the original GBA by making the pixels bright enough to glow by themselves. The gameplay is still identical, though there's a bit of screen scrolling to compensate for the lower res.

Wow, what a dick. He just shoved me off off the ledge when I tried to climb up. So what do I do now, wait for him to walk away? If I climb back up I definitely won't have time to pull out my gun and get a shot in before he hits me again, and I'm running low on hit point triangles.

Hah! I climbed up, rolled past him, drew my shotgun and blew him away... without even turning around.

Actually I missed first time because he just dodged my attack and shot me instead. So I shot him back while he was laughing.

A green forcefield bridge huh. Where have I seen this before?

Flashback (SNES)

To be fair I doubt Flashback was the first game to have a forcefield bridge, I just think it's funny to see it show up in Blackhawk so exactly. Well it's not entirely the same, in Blackhawk I have to take the key back out and to use it on other bridges.

Why thank you for the information good sir, I would attempt to set you free but I fear I would only end up accidentally shooting you in the face. Rest assured though that I will continue my one man fight for freedom and it's possible that when our lands are once again free from tyranny someone will eventually come down here and rescue you. Or at least bring food.

Holy shit where did that gun turret come from? Oh right, there's a big metal pressure plate on the floor I just stepped on.

Oh well, at least I was able to talk to the poor guy before he got killed.


SOON.

Wow, here's an interesting fact: Though it looks like I'd be able to climb down those wooden beams safely, it turns out that I actually couldn't. Poor Kyle plummeted down the lift shaft and cracked his head on the lift.

And then he started... bleeding oil? What?

Blackthorne (32X)

The non-Nintendo versions show it as it is. Poor Kyle. Poor me too, I have to continue from all the way back at the last password screen. I miss Flashback's save points already.

I'm going to have to kill this blue guy holding a whip as he might be carrying something essential. But this type of enemy literally just laughs at me if I shoot them. I could try throwing a grenade down at him, but I'd risk missing and not having enough of them left to finish the level.

Though hang on, what are these gold bug things I've just picked up?

Turns out that the little bug things are remote controlled flying bombs! Handy for blowing up forcefield controlling computers. Now I just need to remember where the forcefield was. This place is a bit of a maze, and there's some backtracking required.

These guys aren't chained down, but they don't want to come with me. They just whine and keep drilling, so fuck 'em. Shame I can't steal guns from the dead enemy guards and hand them out, but I guess that would just be stupid.


SOME WANDERING AROUND LATER.

I wandered back through the entire level looking for a way to use this triangle I had in my inventory. Turns out it's a reusable portable lift, and I need to use it right here. All the way back at the start of the section, near the last password screen. The game could use a map really.

Oh that's nice, They've started this level off with a enemy standing right in front of me.

So I duck into the background, wait for him to stop firing, then step back out and pull out my shotgun.
Then I duck into the background, wait for him to stop firing, and try to shoot him before he dodges.
Then I duck into the background, wait for him to stop firing...

Can you guess what I did wrong here?



Answer: I turned the forcefield bridge on, and then immediately off again by accident. I only realised after I stepped onto the spikes. A forcefield bridge over spikes... it's a homage to both Prince of Persia and Flashback at the exact same time!

Son of a bitch. These scurrying spider bombs are a pain in the ass. They wander back and forth across their patrol zones, and I have to dodge or jump out of the way when they get close. Unfortunately there's a little bit of a delay on those moves, and I fucked up the timing.

But I'm still alive. One hit point left! Then I went down the ladder and got shot before I could do anything useful. You see the 'dodge into the background' button is also the 'climb ladder' button...

Damn, this guy is the most essential NPC yet. If he'd been killed the game would have been totally unwinnable and I'd never know what went wrong.

Then he wandered over to the left side of the pit before I could leave. The 'talk to people' button is the same as the 'climb up ledge' button, so I'm stuck here until he decides to move. That bastard.

This guy is my new favourite NPC. He's just handed me a new shotgun, one that fires much faster. And the ammo is just as infinite!

WAIT, if we can steal the guns from the guards then why is no one else stealing guns from the guards? I thought they might be DNA locked or chained to their arms or something, but no it turns out that the prisoners are just lazy, and all my guy can be bothered to take are their grenades.


LATER.

Son of a BITCH! I guess I was supposed to wait for him to walk away or something, because I didn't seem to stand a chance with him this close to the ladder. Crap, now I have start again all the way from the last password screen.

Personally I think it'd be better with more checkpoints, or save points like Flashback, but that'd need a rethinking of the whole game seeing as it's easy to get it into an unwinnable state by running out of bombs or killing an important NPC. It's awkward.


SOON.

Son of a bitch! I walked through a waterfall and got shot before I could get clear of the door and duck into the background. I realise in hindsight that if I'd pulled my gun out I could have dodged right away without accidentally using the door, but my first instinct was just 'get the fuck out of the way', and that's why I'm back staring at the continue screen.


I really wanted to see if I could get to another section of the game, maybe see some new graphics, but I'm sorry I just can't stand any more of this. I want to forgive it for the limited bombs and other flaws because it's so damn slick and well animated, but there's enough backtracking as it is without having to repeat entire levels every time I'm killed. To anyone who has the patience to put up with this game, I salute you.

Important info box:

The PC version of Blackthorne is now available for free on Blizzard's Battle.net service.