Blackthorne Review

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The game “Blackthorne” was released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo by a little company called “Blizzard Entertainment” which you may have heard of. In my opinion, Blackthorne is one of the finer platformers for the SNES and flies under the radar for most gamers. It combines action, platforming, and amazing sound effects to create a superb game. Put on that wife beater, and load up the shotgun! We’re about to explore this Blackthorne review!

Blackthorne Story:

My Blackthorne review must start with the story. It’s unique, and one that stands out from other early 90s games. The premise may be familiar but the way it’s presented is different.

The planet Tuul has been ruled over by a single shaman who has controlled his people with his “knowledge”. This ruler is called Thoros who has two sons, and he is finding it difficult to choose between them for the next heir to the throne. Now, this is where it gets wacky, Thoros leads both of them into the desert and kills himself. The remains of his body turn into two stones, one light, and one dark. Each son takes a stone and starts to rule their kingdoms separately.

One son rules Androth, which is the light stone kingdom, and one son rules Ka’Dra’Suul, the dark stone kingdom. The people of Ka’Dra’Suul begin to reject their stone and are transformed into monsters by the rejection. These monsters look like goblins and ogres in my opinion. One of the monsters named Sarlac begins an uprising and turns his frustrations on the people of Androth.

https://youtu.be/Kdw_WFZCQzA

The ruler of Androth, King Vlaros senses his kingdom is doomed and teleports his son Kyle with the light stone to Earth to save his life and keep him hidden.

And let me take a break here. Can you imagine being Kyle growing up on Androth? It’s his first day of school, and all the kids are meeting each other.

“Oh, what’s your name?”
“My name is SidDraSull.”
“Oh, how about you?”
“My name is KirMeinDroth, and what about you?”
“My name is Kyle.”
“Kyle?”

Instant bully target with a name like that.

Anyway… Twenty years later, Kyle has become a renowned military captain. He receives a vision telling him it’s time to return to Tuul and save his people. The game begins here with Kyle setting out to kill Sarlac and reclaim his throne.

How many games back in the early 90s had such an in-depth story like Blackthorne? Not many.

The details in Blackthorne were not often found in other SNES games.
The detail in Blackthorne made is special. Look at the texture of the ground or the skeletons hanging.

Blackthorne Gameplay:

On the Super Nintendo, it doesn’t get much better than Blackthorne with the combination of graphics, sound effects, story, and controls for a platformer.

As Kyle, you must search for and free prisoners while escaping the level. Often, you have shoot-outs with the enemy. Instead of just mashing a button and shooting at the enemy while they shoot at you, you have to be strategically and patiently fight them. You can get cover against any wall so the enemy can’t hit you, although they too, can take cover. So it’s almost a cat-and-mouse game, and you need to be quick on the trigger because when they pop out from the wall you better blow them away with Kyle’s trusty shotgun. I love the fact that Kyle can point the gun behind him and fire it without looking, signs of a true action-hero.

Each level takes you closer and closer to reaching Sarlac and he’s the only boss in the game which I found disappointing, it would have been fun to pick off his generals on your way to kill him after each level. Now Sarlac himself I had some trouble on. You have to be real quick with the trigger and avoid his attacks. He’s not impossible by any means but it might take you a few tries to beat him. Especially because you need to dodge his magic attacks while rolling away from grenades being tossed from his panther statues above you all while avoiding his bullets.

But once you do, you have a great end-game cut scene. Sarlac’s head mounted on the wall and some hot chick laying beside you at the throne. Now that’s the ultimate power, I bet KirMeinDroth and SidDraSall wouldn’t laugh at Kyle anymore. It’s the cherry on top for points in this Blackthorne review.

https://youtu.be/iHqD3rONrYo

Blackthorne Bosses:

Sarlac is it, but like I said he’s tough to beat the first time. Better practice your cover techniques before facing him.

Memories:

I was first introduced to Blackthorne by one of my childhood friends. I used to go to his house after school for a few hours each day as his mom babysat us. He had a Super Nintendo, and Blackthorne was one of the games that he had. I was pretty young, maybe eight or nine so we weren’t very good at it and rarely got past the first two levels. But I remember it was really fun and unique. I thought the graphics were awesome, and I remember the sound effects very vividly. Whenever you threw a grenade at a door it would make an explosion sound effect that I can still hear today in my mind. Remembering all the special things from this game made me excited to start my Blackthorne review.

Blackthorne Review Score:


Blackthorne is a game that doesn’t get enough credit. It’s somewhat short, probably five hours if you know what you’re doing but the gameplay is great. I mean it when I say the sound effects were memorable, I love throwing grenades against doors and hearing them explode or listening to Kyle pump his shotgun. Collecting items from prisoners was a nice touch too. There was a small dose of puzzles as far as needing to figure out where the keys were to unlock the door. I was very young in 1994, so I don’t remember if there was any hype around this game or what the reception was when it came out, but it plays pretty well for today. If you haven’t played it, I highly recommend it. Once you beat the first level, you’ll be hooked. Don’t get discouraged with your fight with Sarlac, it takes practice. I wasn’t able to beat Blackthorne until a few years ago. I love that the hero of the game just wears a white wife beater and blue jeans. If Kyle wasn’t saving the world, he’d be driving a semi-truck somewhere with his long mullet in the wind. My final score for my Blackthorne Review?

Blackthorne scores an 8.8 out of 10.

What did you think of Blackthorne when it first came out? Was there a lot of hype around it, or did you find it later in life? Were you able to beat Sarlac on your first attempt? Let me know your thoughts on comments on Blackthorne, I’d love to hear from you if you’ve played it.

Choplifter Review

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In 1982, Dan Gorlin developed the game Choplifter for the Apple II computer. Four years later, Sega ported the game with updated graphics to the Sega Master System in 1986. Choplifter was one of the very first games I ever played as a child, and I have quite a few memories of it. The gameplay revolves around rescuing hostages and flying them back to your base as enemies zoom around you. Let’s get in the chopper and head into the horizon for this Choplifter review for the Sega Master System!

Choplifter Story:

“Pockets of international hostages are trapped. All across the world. In the Middle East. In the South Seas. And in a secret base somewhere in a cavern.

You man a helicopter rescue team. And your job is to take your helicopter down, rescue the hostages and fly them back to safety. All the while dodging and destroying dangerous enemy fire.

An action-packed helicopter game at its best.”

That description is found on the back of the box and it’s pretty straightforward. Save the hostages, dodge the enemy fire, and move on to the next level. In this Choplifter review, that’s all the plot that you’ll need!

https://youtu.be/WTkOhEvQsno

Choplifter Gameplay:

The first thing that you will notice about Choplifter is the beautiful and vivid colors of the game. The sky, in particular, stands out. A bright blue sky lights up the background for level one, but my favorite sky is the pink one in level two. I can’t recall a time when the color pink was used so much in a level, and it really works as a sunset over the ocean.

Choplifter for the Sega Master System. The choplifter avoids enemy fire on level two.

Level one takes place in a desert where you must pilot your helicopter against jet fighters, missile launchers, tanks, and other hostile enemies. To rescue hostages, you must fire upon the jail to destroy the doors for the hostages to run out of the burning building. Next, you’ll land the helicopter near the building, but don’t land it directly in front of the doorway, or you will crush the hostages that run out. It’s important not to stay on the ground for too long, or else the enemy will send in ground tanks to shoot you and the hostages. I’ve found that setting the choplifter on the ground and pressing the up button every second to briefly hover off the ground keeps the ground enemies away.

To beat the level you’ll have to rescue a certain amount of hostages at each stage. Once that number is reached the level is cleared. You only have a certain amount of lives, so if you get blown up which will happen or if too many hostages die, it’s game over. During my Choplifter review, I was very careful not to land on the hostages and bring back PTSD from my childhood of murdering innocent prisoners.

Some skill is required to move on from the first two levels. The first as I said, is a desert, with the second being set in the ocean. You’ll have to maneuver between submarine missiles and destroyer boats blasting away at you. The third level involves lots of skill and some luck. The hostage buildings in this stage are hidden in a cavern. Not only will you have to avoid enemy fighters flying advanced airships, but you’ll have to duck relatively low to avoid the cavern spikes, but don’t fly too low, or else you’ll get hit by spitting lava. It’s the most difficult stage in all of the game and one that took me until I was into my teenage years to beat.

One hit will kill you, so be careful. The game likes to get dramatic when your ship gets blown up. The music stops as your choplifter falls to the ground in a fiery heap of scrap. When your wreckage hits the ground, you are greeted with intense music and a “Game Over” screen.

Speaking of the music, it’s very catchy, and I catch myself humming it in my head after playing Choplifter. There are no bosses in this game, which would have been a fun inclusion at the end of the level. There are six levels to complete. The last three levels are just repeaters of the first three with different colored skies.

Bosses:
As I stated, there are no bosses, but there are a few difficult enemies to predict. The hovering airships in level three are a pain, but other than that most enemies you can avoid fairly easily. You have two options for firing, you can shoot your machine gun which you will do 90 percent of the time, or you can tilt your helicopter toward the screen and drop a few bombs which is crucial to blow up enemies on the ground. Thinking back on my playthrough, it would have been a great touch to include a few bosses after rescuing the targeted amount of survivors. My Choplifter review score would certainly have increased if this element was added.

https://youtu.be/K7MIRzHhHSk

Memories:
The Sega Master System was the only system I had growing up until fourth grade when I finally got a PlayStation. I spent a lot of time playing it, and Choplifter was one of the games that I kept going back to if I wanted to burn an hour. The game itself isn’t special, but I do remember hours and hours of playing it during my childhood. It was too hard for a six-year-old, but when I got older I mastered the controls, and I’m able to beat the game now.

Choplifter Review Score:

Choplifter stands out with its colorful backgrounds and catchy music. The gameplay itself is pretty simple, but it had a unique goal as opposed to other “shooters”. Picking up hostages was a fun goal, and you’d always feel bad if you squished one or two. Your brave little pilot always waved at the screen before taking off. Most times, I’d wave back knowing he was going to die in a few minutes. Such bravery he showed in the face of certain death.

There are a few easter eggs in the game like Superman flying in the background or E.T. on the bike flying over the moon. These nuggets are fun to discover, and I appreciated the little bonuses. My gripe with Choplifter is that it’s such a short game, and the difficulty curve is huge once you reach the third level. If you know what you are doing, you can beat the entire game in 15 minutes.

The menu screen also makes me laugh, it shows a helicopter shooting its machine guns but the helicopter is pointed at hostages with their hands up making it look like it’s blowing them away. So what’s the final score for my Choplifter review?

Choplifter scores a 6.5 out of 10.

What did you think of Choplifter? What are your memories of playing it? I’d love to hear from you, so drop me a comment below and let me know if you were able to beat the cave level! Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.

If you’d like to own a copy of Choplifter you can find preowned copies on eBay for between $6-$20.

Mega Man Review

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Back in 1987, Capcom gave birth to the Mega Man series which is still going strong today. The success of the franchise is the result of clever-level designs, interchangeable weapons, and unique boss fights. Today, I’m reviewing the first Mega Man game for the original Nintendo. Let’s just get this out of the way, Mega Man might have the worst box art ever but let’s hop into this Mega Man review!

Mega Man Plot:

Two doctors named Dr. Light and Dr. Wily were working together in robotics to assemble humanoid robots that could help mankind with basic tasks and dangerous jobs. Together, they created seven robots to help humanity. Mega Man was created to help assist Dr. Light in his lab, while Ice Man, Guts Man, Cut Man, Elec Man, Bomb Man, and Fire Man were built to perform an array of jobs to make the lives of humans easier.

  • Not to be confused with Santa Claus, Dr. Light is shown in his original artwork.
  • Dr. Wily is upset at Dr. Light for his luscious head of hair, or something like that.
  • The original blue bomber.
  • Cutman – good for cutting logs or a Jewish bris. Mazel tov!
  • Bombman is fond of explosions.
  • Elecman looks like a super villain for Spiderman.
  • Fireman – a real hot head.
  • Gutsman – semi-pro wrestler with that spandex.
  • Iceman – His face was frozen like that.

Dr. Light was credited for much of the work and to the dismay of Dr. Wily. In an act of revenge, Dr. Wily decides to reprogram the six industrial robots into killer machines who terrorize the city. In desperation, Dr. Light upgrades Mega Man into a combat robot equipped with a Mega Buster on his arm capable of shooting balls of energy to help defeat the rogue robots.

Mega Man sets out in the year 20XX to help defeat Dr. Wily and his six robot commanders.

Mega Man Gameplay:

After defeating the six robot masters, Mega Man heads to Dr. Wily’s secret base where he confronts him. Defeating more deadly robots and clones of the original six robot masters, Mega Man faces off with Dr. Wily once and for all. Mega Man gets the best of him and in an act of mercy spares Dr. Wily’s life.

https://youtu.be/mJ000MWB7eA

Mega Man was unique back in 1987 for having the ability to let the player choose their path in the order of levels that they play. Each robot master is weak to a specific weapon, and you can only obtain that weapon after defeating another robot master. There is certainly an easier path to play, but if you wish to be challenged you can start with whatever robot master you like. Mega Man is a challenge in itself with its brutal platforming levels filled with persistent deadly enemies. You will die, and you will die a lot. Frustration will grow, and you will curse out in anger.

To help minimize the outbursts, Mega Man can collect energy capsules for his life and extra lives throughout levels. Throughout his mission, Mega Man can jump and fire his “Mega Buster” to kill enemies. Memorizing enemy patterns and level layouts is a must if you want to beat this game.

Killing an enemy will add to your score, but personally, I never paid attention to what my score was. I just cared about advancing to the next stage in one piece. Mega Man does include a wide variety of smaller robots that will attack you. Each stage has unique enemies and themes that go along with the Robot Master that calls that level home. Ice Man will give you an ice level and Fire Man will give you a level filled with flames and so on.

After destroying the six robot masters, a seventh level will open up. It may seem like this is the “last” stage but it’s far from it. Defeating the six robot masters always gave me blue balls, teasing with the end of the game, but instead I was greeted with four more stages complete with insanely hard bosses, fighting the six robot masters again, and then finally Dr. Wily.

The music fits perfectly with each stage, giving Mega Man an encouraging tune to slaughter enemies. I recently interviewed Manami Matsumae, game composer of Mega Man. She shed some insight into how she got started at Capcom and what the process was of creating the Mega Man sound effects.

Mega Man Bosses:

Part of the fun in Mega Man is defeating the six robot masters. Let’s take a look at what makes each of them unique.

Cut Man: Designed to function as a lumberjack he has powerful saw-toothed scissor-like cutters on top of his head.

Ice Man: Impervious to chilling sub-zero temperatures, Ice Man was built to perform jobs in extreme climate conditions.

Guts Man: Perhaps Guts Man was built for construction sites as he is capable of lifting and transporting huge boulders and steel beams. Watch out as he can chuck some of them your way.

Bomb Man: This robot master gets flagged by the TSA whenever he flies. Using his large bombs, he throws them at the land for construction projects to clear the way for projects.

Fire Man: Not one to put out fires, this robot master melts, and molds metals with a flamethrowing torch on top of his head.

Elec Man: A robot master that is not electable, but electric. He uses his power to conduct electrical operations for large businesses and companies.

https://youtu.be/BsoWOksW3Yo

After defeating them, you’ll have to invade Dr. Wily’s secret fortress. Here, you will encounter one of the toughest bosses in video games. He goes by the name of “Yellow Devil”. This bastard, in my opinion, is the toughest part of the game. After the Yellow Devil, you’ll face a strange robot protected in a bubble and a clone copy of Mega Man.

Finally, you’ll face off against Dr. Wily in his tank-like machine. After defeating it, Dr. Wily will beg for mercy at the feet of Mega Man. In the first of many, many poor decisions Mega Man will show mercy at letting him live.

Memories:

I never had a Nintendo growing up so I didn’t actually play Mega Man until around 2011 when I was first getting into retro games. I used to play it with my coworker on an emulation laptop in our private office while we “worked” all day. I admit I wouldn’t be able to defeat the game without being able to save in-between stages. Many, many “restarts” occurred whether I missed a jump, or ran into a nasty enemy. The robot masters are tough and Dr. Wily’s castle is insanely brutal with the Yellow Devil. I didn’t have the patience to practice until I was good enough to play the game in its entirety without saving between stages.

One key upgrade that is crucial to pick up is the “Magnet Beam” that you will later use in Dr. Wily’s fortress. I recently replayed Mega Man earlier this year and totally forgot about the Magnet Beam stranding myself inside the fortress without the power to use it. Needless to say, I was not pleased.

Mega Man Review Score:

Mega Man is a fun franchise, I have been able to beat the first six games for the NES. The first Mega Man set the stage for the following games to come. The ability to select levels was clever, the boss fights difficult but not impossible and the uniquely themed stages all give Mega Man a charm. If you are into difficult platform challenges while constantly mashing the fire button this game might be for you. So what’s the final score for this Mega Man review?

Mega Man scores a 7.1 out of 10.

Interested in owning Mega Man for the NES? You can purchase a preowned edition from eBay. The copies range from $55-$125. Don’t feel like spending the big bucks? You can download Mega Man digitally on the Nintendo E-shop for $5.

I want to hear from you! What did you think of Mega Man on the NES? I’d love to hear your memories of when it first came out or when you first played it. Who was the toughest robot master for you? How would you rate the game? Drop me a comment below so I can read your thoughts. Thanks for reading!