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Written by Clari87
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Thursday, 17 April 2008 |
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 Blackthorne 32X (1995)
Platform: Sega Genesis 32X
Region: USA, EUR
Genre: Platformer
 Blackthorne. The classic sidescroller by Blizzard Entertainment gets an update courtesy of Interplay for Sega's 32X console. Multi-platformed on several consoles (MS-DOS and SNES) much earlier, Sega knew that this was their time to shine. Why just simply port the game, when they could take advantage of the 32x's rendering hardware? That's exactly what happened, in what would look like the best rendition of Blackthorne to come along, on Sega's could-be Genesis 32X. What turns out is one of the greatest gems for the system.
You're Kyle Blackthorne. Son of King Vlaros, ruler of a kingdom called Androth, planet of Tuul. Like Blizzard lore, years before the game there's this ruler called Thoros, big baddass he is. He can't decide to choose between his two sons on who claims the throne, so he thinks that dragging them out to the desert and taking his own life will solve it. In a nutshell, his body becomes two stones, one light and one dark. The Kingdom of Androth are formed out of the lightstone, and Ka'dra'suul is formed from the darkstone. Androthi respect their's, the big K guys reject it and are instead turned into monsters. One of the ka'dra named Sarclac seizes power, forms an army, and leads them against Androth. The valiant King Vlaros sends his son Kyle Blackthorne to Earth to save his life, giving him the lightstone to boot. 20 years later, Kyle becomes a military captain and merc. Of course, he breaks out of Prison. He begins having strange dreams and is confronted by a magician with the orders to return to Tuul to save his people. This is where the game begins.
Now, you think that with a game this old, the Genesis could take it. You're probably right -- it might. If the SNES could so could the Genesis, but just barely. What Interplay did to Blizzard's game was amazing in its own right, and should've been released as an enhancement pack for the original game. Check out the screens and compare for yourself. Interplay, in short, blew all of the other versions away. Nintendo decided upon a simple port of Blackthorne for their SNES, obviously eschewing higher quality stuff to get it to fit on their cart. They also censored the game. I'm sorry, but with all the attention Sega gets with keeping games how they are formed, I still wasn't sure on why the SNES remained popular). Anyhow, what you got was virtually the same thing on PC. 32X changed this.
 The graphics, are simply put, mind blowing. Instead of the 2d animation you got in the prior versions, Interplay busted out and decided to render it in 3-D. This is where the beauty of this game lies. You get an excellent color palette which triples what you saw in other versions, smooth animation, and full 3d rendering. The characters and especially monsters look amazing in detail. Compared to the SNES version...it's like comparing Beer to Wine. One does the job, but one's classier. Interplay also took it upon themselves to redraw the environment, and it doesn't manage to lose an ounce of detail in the process. The resolution is high and retains all of the effects. It's as if they redid the entire game. It's truly a wonder to see it played and is an excellent counter to even some first-generation Sega Saturn games. You go through breathtaking mines, Forests and swamps, deserts, and the evil Shadow Keep. However, with all this extra power they busted out with a fifth episode in the snowy mountains, which really takes advantage of the hardware. In short, they made what gorgeousness Blizzard had and doubled it. This is truly a sight to play, and completely immersive. While the 32X version might have lost some of the grityness, you'll soon be drawn back to this version simply for the enhancements it brought to the original.
 Blackthorne isn't your standard platformer. It takes its roots from Flashback and Prince of Persia (reviewed earlier). Instead of magic and that crap, Kyle gets a boomstick. While the game might seem medievalish, Kyle is decked out in a wife beater, jeans, and combat boots. He can maneuver around, run, climb, find keys and various items and use them all. However, the real unique stride in this game lies in the combat system. You can draw your weapon (which gets stronger as the game progresses) and you now have the amazing ability to prone the wall, or hide in the shadows from enemies and gunfire. This feature is new to the genre and is a lot of fun to play with. You have to time your attacks just right, but it lets you do more than be a moving meat-puppet. You can even fire behind yourself, which is rarely useful, but brings about the attitude formed around Kyle. I got into a couple of heated gunfights myself, and they were all a blast (the prisoners will sometimes take the heat you hide from). This game rarely gets repetitive, and with the attention of detail Blizzard put to it, you're bound to notice something different everytime. You can converse with various prisoners and if you are nice to them, they'll give you important items. It's really in tune with the rest of the game, as it retains some of the 2d art in the introductory sequences and during gameplay, but as always, it's converted over flawlessly. The game also comes with a fair amount of smart puzzles and plenty of adventure.
As stated, the controls are tight and lose no translation, in many cases, it's much better to be played on the pad than it is on the keyboard. As is the case with most 32X titles, you might want to have a 6-button gamepad. They might be a bit confusing to one who has never played the game (across all platforms) so you might want to start with the practice course when you begin. This is highly recommended as it can get easily frustrating if you forget which button does what.
 For a 32X title, this game sounds absolutely lovely. As with other 32X ports, too much attention is devoted on the graphics and the Genesis is left up to the sound emulation, but Interplay was smarter than the rest. They put the Yamaha and TI up to great use as the music in some ways sounds better than the SNES or PC versions. The sounds are just as good as they are in the PC release, but I sometimes giggle as the Orcs sound slightly "higher pitched" than in the other versions (in contrast, the GBA version is lower pitched). However, it's really a small setback as everything sounds as it should be, but it's a huge thumbs up that the music survived the translation.
 The game holds up amazingly well, however there are a couple of small flaws. As stated earlier the controls can get maddening if you don't memorize them. Another small complaint is that you have to be very careful about the items you use (namely the bombs). Since many of the doors in the game get blasted open, if you throw your bomb the wrong way or use it on a monster that doesn't drop one, you're absolutely fucked. So you have to be careful and ration the bombs you have (unless you go up against the Slave-Driver Orc, who usually drops them, then it's ok). But this is a puzzle/adventure/platformer, so it takes brains to go through it. Also, if you happen to dodge an attack while too close to an Orc, they'll bitch slap you backwards. Usually this isn't a problem as they are too busy laughing that you get right back up and blow their grins off. Just a couple of odd quirks to a near-flawless title.
Sega made the right choice in bringing it to their 32-bit console. Blackthorne is fun to play, and although it doesn't come with a save system, a standard password system is instead used. It has a rare charm that can keep me coming back to it, regardless of any version. Blizzard set themselves up with greatness when they would soon follow with Warcraft and Diablo, but this is a small reminder that greatness lies in times before. A true gem for the 32X, if you can pick it up, do it now. It won't let you down.
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Graphics: 5/5
Music/Sound: 5/5
Replay Factor: 4.5/5
Overall Score: 5/5
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 April 2008 )
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