Ohhh, yes!!!
Black Tiger is one of those games I've loved since day one, and I got to play it again after what feels like a lifetime! It's a conversion of the famous arcade game we love. Disclaimer time: my old joystick doesn't work well moving diagonally, so you will see lots of silly mistakes in my recording. Honestly, it's the joystick!
We step into the sandals of a muscle-bound barbarian hero who’s had enough of monsters wrecking his homeland. Three nasty dragons have plunged the kingdom into chaos, unleashing wave after wave of grotesque beasties. It’s down to us to hack, slash, and leap our way through the ruins to put things right. Along the way, we will free imprisoned wise men for handy rewards, scoop up piles of gold, and grab weaponry.
This game is classic arcade fun - pick up that joystick and instantly you're having tons of fun leaping over the landscapes and pummelling monsters into oblivion. Each level looks superb and is really interesting to explore: I love the mechanics of clinging onto ledges to fire or leaping towards higher places in a dingy, creepy world. What a great adventure - arcade-style - and this is proving to be every bit as good as I remember.
It's the joystick controls that impress me the most, which is no easy task for the Atari one-button design. It is very responsive, so it keeps the action going as fast as it should. The range of monsters is brilliant, and what's better than powering up with ridiculous weapons to crush your enemy? Love it!!
Graphically, this is a stunner, and considering no STe hardware scrolling is (sigh) utilised, the old STf keeps up with the pace. Sure, it's not as zippy as the arcade, but it works, so I'm impressed with how good it moves considering what's going on. The backgrounds and sprites are ace - I love the wonky skeletons the most. The design is something I adore because it works perfectly, so it feels like a belting arcade experience.
This is pretty faithful to the original, and I feel US Gold did us proud, especially considering they ignored the STe hardware... sigh... That would have been a huge deal with a little help from the Blitter. Still, as is, Black Tiger is fantastic and one of my favourite arcade conversions. This means it scores top marks from me.
Leap your way through the labyrinth, killing anything and everything that moves!!
Clinging onto anything sturdy to reach those platforms.
Oh no, skeleton monsters!!! They look awesome, but it's best to KILL THEM!!
Hang on, there's a little old man here. Let's kill him... wait... no, maybe not?
