Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 13:28

4 views

1

Here is the playthrough of Blackhawk (Blackthrone) done live on IGTV. Due to space I was only able to record the final hour the playthrough.

Follow me on instagram @CabinSNES_fever to join me live or via my reviews and uploads to witness me take down all the games currently in my SNES colleciton, following on from having already beaten all 234 licenced UK releases for the NES. I only use original carts, no cheats & no save states.

REVIEW:
-I guess I cant ignore the evidence demonstrated to me that my skills in gaming (at least retro gaming) are significantly better than they were a year ago!

It's been a few years since I gave Blackhawk a run and from what I recall, our last tango was a fairly dismal performance on my part. I struggled to gel with the controls, found the puzzle elements challenging and the frustration factor high! That's not to say I didnt appreciate it as a good game, but my poor performance was hardly suggestive of a path to victory and so after numerous hours over a few sessions, I moved onto something else.
I cant deny my surprise to now see myself surpass my old retire point in under an hour, recording only 1 death! Though less than a quarter of the way, I already knew this game wasnt getting the better of me a 2nd time!

Blackhawk has an invitingly dark atmosphere that feels distinctly more mature than you'd normally expect from Nintendo. Bleak & menacing in its premise, whilst succeeding in looking stunning visually. It's the kind of game you saw your older brother playing when you were still stuck on the Big Boo in SMW.

Gameplay wise its essentially Prince of Persia with guns! A fusion of puzzle, action and platforming tied together with that special kind of precision control accustomed to PoP clones popular at the time. Platforming is certainly key but this is a far cry from Mario, theres no 'correcting' input momentum here, your character is snapped to a grid and you'll need to learn exactly how many steps in a running animation to successfully eyeball difficult jumps.

Lots of hanging and climbing, plenty of trail and error, it's a staple of this genre & the inclusion of a badass shotgun with infinite rounds, encourages a more hotheaded approach than this game requires. The gunfight mechanics are simple tho excellent but mastering restraint is as important as aggression.

Thanks to a password for each section, the 16 levels can be taken on at a leisurely pace, tho I found little pain in pushing through the whole game on 2 sessions. A pretty tough final boss fight awaits, but otherwise a well balanced and highly enjoyable experience.