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| ...not remotely how I'd describe it... |
Ah, the arcades! Nothing in the world like them! I say that
being someone who was never really a party to the rather archaic thing. Arcades were around in a time when I was but
a proto-Madcap and I never really experienced the pain and suffering of having
to put in yet another quarter in order to play the game I found myself situated
at as I slugged my way through level upon level to reach the ending. But, in order to reach back and feel
nostalgia for a time that I wasn’t actually around for, I picked up an offering
from Capcom on the Xbox Live Arcade known as the Capcom Arcade Cabinet, and a
particular game stuck out at me from the motley. A game with a barbarian wielding a shield and
a ball and chain and the title of “Black Tiger”.
Upon some research, I found this offering from Capcom to
original have been titled “Black Dragon” in Japan. So, my logical first question is…well,
why? Did the localization team feel that
they would be insensitive to dragons if the title remained? This really wouldn’t be an issue to any great
extent – just look at titles like Street
Fighter 2010 – but it has a problem in its name. There are no Tigers in it, black or
otherwise, they just aren’t there. You
see goblins, demons, mummies, witches, even dragons…but
no tigers. Not even anything even tiger-esque, which makes the name change all
the more confusing.
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| How did Slifer the Sky Dragon get here? ...oh, right, Japan... |
But as for the game itself, what’s the plot? Well, not a
lot, actually. It’s a fairly standard
RPG plot that basically translates (in terrible Engrish) to “monsters bad, you
kill!” and kill you do as the aforementioned Barbarian with a Kunai with Chain
and a shield. All you’re given in your
epic quest is a suit of armor (which I’m pretty sure should negate the
Barbarian’s Fast Movement ability…oh, wrong game), the rip-off of Vampire
Killer, and the ability to jump and move about throughout levels of platforming
and monsters to reach an end boss and repeat the process until you win.
The story?
“Long Long ago, three
dragons descended from the skies above with a roll of thunder and destroyed a
kingdom into darkness.
From lengthy suffering
and darkness of the kingdom came one brave fighter.”
…yeah, no. That’s
it. In all that glorious Engrish.
 |
| Punch a dragon in the face? DON'T MIND IF I DO!!! |
Along the way, the barbarian hero saves dwarves from stone
who either given him an item, open up a shop for him, or offer up some
insultingly obvious advice in plain Engrish.
Using a system of gold coins known as zenny, the barbarian can purchase
chains that fire more projectiles and stretch out longer (no innuendo here,
stop looking) as well as armor that looks progressively more and more shiny.
Really, there’s not a lot to this one. It’s one of the most brain dead games you’d
ever play. It’s arcade roots shine
through, however, in the difficulty.
First off, there’s a time limit.
I understand that from an arcade perspective, but unfortunately this is
a console port and I have it on good authority that it hasn’t been 1987 for a
solid twenty-six years. This could have
been taken out and it would have taken away from nothing, though I do give it
credit to at least provide the timer for it.
Not that you’ll never actually need it, the earlier levels are
ridiculously short and easy to get through while
finding the hidden items in each level.
No, where the difficulty shines through is in the enemy
places. Now, I wasn’t there for it, but
back in the day games were done this way in arcades in order to steal as many
quarters as they could possibly milk out of players. You’re going to die. A lot.
Sometimes even unintentionally.
The game is even downright unfair with some of its enemies, who take way
more hits than they rightly should before being taken down (not counting the
boss monsters, obviously) and its actually rather hard to tell that you’ve hit
them. On the other hand, the player will
have bright sparks of electricity arcing around them as they presumably lose
piece after piece of armor Ghosts ‘n
Goblins-style before melodramatically lifting into the air and falling back
upon death.
The jumps, as well, can be an absolute nightmare. The barbarian (who, for the sake of
convenience I’m going to call “Bob”) jumps in a weird arc even when wearing no
armor that results in occasionally overshooting or undershooting your
goal. This isn’t often a problem, save
for the few levels where instant-kill death traps wait below in the form of
lava or spikes. Luckily, Bob doesn’t
have to deal with a lot of these, though later on fragmented hand holds come
into play that force him to leap around to get to a destination…which is not
always made easy thanks to the placement of enemies.
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| "And in time, Bob became King by his own hand..." |
I’m not going to beat around the bush, this game isn’t bad
but you’re going to get tired of it very, very fast. I know for a fact that I did. The influences of it are very obvious to see
given the time period it came out – in particular Castlevania and Ghosts ‘n
Goblins – but it doesn’t really have much to stand out on its own. A decent hack and slash platformer, but
merely a hack and slash platformer nonetheless.
Even with the weird name change, that’s all there is.
Black Tiger is now
available from Capcom.
The Capcom Arcade
Cabinet is available for download from Xbox Live, the Playstation Network, and
PC.
This review is based
on the Xbox Live downloaded version.
For the latest from
the MadCapMunchkin, follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.
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