Blackthorne | Cinematic Platformer Paradise

[00:00:03] In an ancient age known as the late 1900s, a video game subgenre took root that dared to be bolder, dreamed to be bigger, and reached for the stars. Did they wow us with expensive productions and advanced graphical techniques? They absolutely did.

[00:00:23] Were they any good? Uh, you know what? Don't worry about it. Let's just relax and revisit Cinematic Platformers of eons past. This is Cinematic Platformer Paradise.

[00:00:55] Hello, Cinematic People. Hello, the day after Christmas people. It is your boy Dre, and I'm here with Santa Steve.

[00:01:04] Ho, ho, ho.

[00:01:07] Who you calling a ho?

[00:01:09] I feel like we make that joke every year, too.

[00:01:12] We gotta. It's tradition.

[00:01:15] Come on.

[00:01:16] Well, actually, today's St. Stephen's Day, so that means everyone has to listen to this episode.

[00:01:21] Isn't it Boxing Day in some countries? Whatever that means.

[00:01:24] It is Boxing Day in Canada and other similar countries, yes.

[00:01:27] Do you even know what that is? I don't know what that is.

[00:01:30] I think it's supposed to be where they box up some smaller gifts and give them to secretaries and things.

[00:01:38] I don't know.

[00:01:39] I have a daily customer at work who's in his 90s, and he's from Manitoba near Winnipeg, and he's told me about Boxing Day several times.

[00:01:48] I still don't understand it.

[00:01:50] Maybe this year I'll ask him again.

[00:01:53] Well, maybe you write it down and tell us about it next time, because Kevin won't.

[00:01:57] Kevin's going to come on and be like, what do you mean you didn't send me a Boxing Day gift?

[00:02:01] It's like, okay, sorry.

[00:02:03] Although I think he'd be making that up.

[00:02:05] Anyway, we're not here to talk about Boxing Day.

[00:02:07] We are here to continue our cinematic platformer paradise push.

[00:02:12] I was trying to come up with another P word.

[00:02:15] I don't think you should try so hard.

[00:02:16] We all had too much eggnog.

[00:02:19] Don't push it.

[00:02:20] Okay, sorry.

[00:02:21] Okay, well, okay.

[00:02:22] Push is the word then.

[00:02:23] Anyway, we've covered such stuff as Prince of Persia, Another World, a.k.a. Out of This World, Flashback, etc.

[00:02:31] So today we're here to talk about Blackthorn.

[00:02:43] Blackthorn was developed by Blizzard Software and published by Interplay.

[00:02:48] Oh, baby, Blizzard.

[00:02:50] You know, I don't think they're going to make it.

[00:02:52] I don't know, man.

[00:02:53] It doesn't seem like they will.

[00:02:56] Make it cinematic platformers in 1994 for the Super Nintendo?

[00:02:59] I don't like their odds.

[00:03:01] Blackthorn came out for Super Nintendo in September 94.

[00:03:05] And then for the computer in December 94.

[00:03:10] And 32X in September 95.

[00:03:12] I always forget that version exists.

[00:03:15] And so did everyone else until the Blizzard Arcade collection came out.

[00:03:20] But I think I remembered it existed when Digital Foundry did like the entire 32X library.

[00:03:26] I think John Lineman did like every single game.

[00:03:28] And then that was obviously in there.

[00:03:30] And it was just like, okay.

[00:03:32] And then Blackthorn came out for Game Boy Advance in September 2003.

[00:03:36] Steve, I didn't even know that.

[00:03:38] Blizzard put out a good chunk of their earlier Super Nintendo catalog on the Game Boy Advance.

[00:03:45] It wasn't just Blackthorn.

[00:03:46] They had like a Lost Viking on there.

[00:03:50] And I think even Rock and Roll Racer made it on there too.

[00:03:53] Like, hmm.

[00:03:54] They just quietly made it on to the Game Boy Advance catalog.

[00:03:58] Like, if anyone wants to buy these, no, I guess we'll keep doing a World of Warcraft.

[00:04:04] I guess.

[00:04:05] I guess.

[00:04:06] We'll see if anyone wants this in two years.

[00:04:08] Yeah, we'll see.

[00:04:09] I guess we'll just keep making this.

[00:04:10] Maybe it'll be a hit, huh?

[00:04:12] Did you find any interesting production notes on Blackthorn?

[00:04:16] I don't really know much about the history of this game's existence.

[00:04:20] To be fair, as I just kind of told the people, the Blizzard Arcade collection is a thing that exists.

[00:04:27] And unlike other things where I kind of had to do a lot of research, this kind of did research for me.

[00:04:33] They were very thorough on like, guys, this is what we did for Blackthorn.

[00:04:38] And well, other things too.

[00:04:40] But it was like, okay.

[00:04:42] Like, one of the models for Blackthorn was, you know, Blizzard co-founder Frank Pierce, who programmed the game.

[00:04:49] Okay.

[00:04:50] Wow.

[00:04:51] He's holding a broom in place of a shotgun, you know, probably for the best.

[00:04:55] Because do you really want to be seen filming that, you know, with a gun?

[00:04:59] It's for accuracy.

[00:05:01] I think I saw some of the rotoscoping for another world.

[00:05:07] And I saw the gun thing.

[00:05:08] They made like some duct taped, like fake ass thing.

[00:05:11] Because I bet that's about all they could get away with in France.

[00:05:14] Like here we would just use a real gun.

[00:05:15] Well, here they used a broom.

[00:05:17] This is still like a plucky young.

[00:05:20] I don't even think they were called Blizzard at the time they were making this.

[00:05:23] I think this is their first game where they were called Blizzard.

[00:05:26] I believe.

[00:05:26] Oh, yeah.

[00:05:27] That might have been the case.

[00:05:29] But I'm also digging around.

[00:05:30] And they said, point blank, we were directly inspired by Flashback.

[00:05:36] I mean, can you tell?

[00:05:38] I mean, that's going to come up later.

[00:05:40] But another interesting tidbit was, well, we brought this up before.

[00:05:44] The Super Nintendo version was made first.

[00:05:47] This was a Super Nintendo game first and foremost.

[00:05:49] I know we came on here saying, we made this for the computer.

[00:05:53] No.

[00:05:54] Blackthorn was made for Super Nintendo.

[00:05:57] You mean it wasn't made for Amiga or whatever console keeps popping up here?

[00:06:02] I don't know if there even was an Amiga version.

[00:06:05] There's MS-DOS.

[00:06:10] Yeah, there just seems to be a misconception.

[00:06:12] Maybe it's just me that Blackthorn was a PC game ported to SNES instead of the other way around.

[00:06:18] And I get why that would be the case.

[00:06:20] Because considering the other games we've talked about so far, that feels like it might be the case.

[00:06:26] But nah, SNES was the canon version.

[00:06:28] Because as you said, Blizzard did work on SNES.

[00:06:32] Rock and Roll Racing, Lost Vikings, Lost Vikings 2.

[00:06:35] They were kind of in that.

[00:06:38] I mean, they were definitely in that.

[00:06:41] But I don't know how well received it necessarily was at the time.

[00:06:45] I mean, I definitely saw ads and things around at the time.

[00:06:49] But magazines were sort of nice to it.

[00:06:52] I'm looking around and Electronic Gaming Monthly had it for Game of the Month.

[00:06:56] But it must have been a slow month because eights across the board.

[00:07:02] I mean...

[00:07:03] Is that bad?

[00:07:04] What are you talking about?

[00:07:05] I don't know.

[00:07:06] Usually when I think of Game of the Month, I'm like, man, this is going to be at least a nine.

[00:07:11] I mean, I don't know.

[00:07:12] That's pretty fucking good, if you ask me.

[00:07:15] September 94.

[00:07:17] Okay, obviously I don't remember exactly what came out that month.

[00:07:20] But like, what should it have been?

[00:07:22] Final Fantasy VI or something?

[00:07:23] I don't know.

[00:07:24] I don't know either.

[00:07:26] But I guess there's a weird disconnect between how broken the review system is.

[00:07:31] I just thought it was funny.

[00:07:33] I don't know.

[00:07:34] I think that's good enough for Game of the Month.

[00:07:35] I think I said this during Fade to Black.

[00:07:39] I think they didn't always award a Game of the Month.

[00:07:41] I think if it was really a slow month, they didn't do it.

[00:07:45] I think.

[00:07:46] Again, I think this is just more my brain being broken by the way, you know, games are reviewed now.

[00:07:52] Like how we had two reviews for Jedi Survivor.

[00:07:56] Yeah.

[00:07:57] And we all had to pretend that was okay.

[00:07:59] Mm-hmm.

[00:08:00] Jesus Christ.

[00:08:01] I mean, Nintendo Power wasn't even doing the score thing.

[00:08:04] But they're like, man, this plays a little better than other games with this sort of animation.

[00:08:08] But it still feels a little slow.

[00:08:11] Yeah, that's the point.

[00:08:13] I don't think they can feel fast.

[00:08:14] Otherwise, you know.

[00:08:16] I noticed there was a tidbit in the magazine ad for Blackthorn.

[00:08:20] By the way, that's how I knew this game existed.

[00:08:22] I saw ads in every magazine.

[00:08:24] But there was a blurb in there.

[00:08:26] After boasting about his shotgun and the creatures you're going to shoot with it and whatever typical 90s copy.

[00:08:32] It says at the end, and I quote,

[00:08:35] All blasting at you in full motion cinematic animation and digitized sound.

[00:08:41] So real you'll think you lived it.

[00:08:43] End quote.

[00:08:46] Steve, I mean, like, they're saying it.

[00:08:48] I know Another World said this in its Genesis ad too.

[00:08:51] But now it's like real.

[00:08:53] People, like you said, with the reviews, people are recognizing this genre as a thing.

[00:08:58] I mean, better here than in Nosferatu, which I think might have come out around the same time.

[00:09:04] And people were not digging that as much as this.

[00:09:06] I don't think people called Nosferatu a cinematic play.

[00:09:10] I mean, like, it's not completely not one.

[00:09:14] Okay, full disclosure to the audience.

[00:09:16] We tried to play Nosferatu for this series and we gave up.

[00:09:19] I mean, it's not because it was bad.

[00:09:21] I mean, we already played bad games on here.

[00:09:22] But because, like, I don't think this is the vibe right now.

[00:09:26] Like, I'm not bumping this over, like, Fade to Black or Blackthorn or anything.

[00:09:31] Like, sorry.

[00:09:31] I think we're just going to have to give up a Nosferatu.

[00:09:34] But speaking of not giving up, what was your experience with this?

[00:09:38] Because with me, I never saw the Super Nintendo version in stores.

[00:09:42] Because I think it might have been people starting to get squeamish around the ratings just a little bit.

[00:09:49] I think this might have been that weird time where things were just starting to get ratings.

[00:09:54] And Blackthorn still didn't necessarily have one.

[00:09:57] I remember seeing the PC one at Sam's Club a lot.

[00:10:01] I don't believe it has an ESRB rating.

[00:10:04] It would obviously get a teen or something, surely.

[00:10:07] I mean, probably today.

[00:10:09] But you know how these sets work.

[00:10:11] Like, did you ever see it?

[00:10:14] I don't think so.

[00:10:15] But again, it's like I said, the only way I knew of it was from those magazine ads.

[00:10:20] And I think a couple magazines just praising its animation, how fucking cool it is.

[00:10:25] Because it is fucking cool, right?

[00:10:27] And that's about it.

[00:10:29] I didn't.

[00:10:29] The very first time I ever laid hands on it was for this podcast.

[00:10:33] Now, did we both play the Blizzard arcade collection version?

[00:10:36] Or did you just borrow it?

[00:10:38] Because for a while, Blizzard actually had a good chunk of their older games on their website just to play.

[00:10:45] Like, what?

[00:10:47] Hey, you want to play Lost Vikings for Game Boy Advance?

[00:10:50] Go ahead.

[00:10:51] Be our guest on your computer.

[00:10:54] Wait a second.

[00:10:55] Are you saying they had some sort of, like, browser solution where you could just go in there and say, hey, I want to play Lost Vikings.

[00:11:02] Click.

[00:11:02] And you could just play it?

[00:11:04] I mean, it didn't work super well.

[00:11:05] But yes, it existed.

[00:11:08] That's fucking weird.

[00:11:09] I bet the Activision merger put the kibosh on that, right, Shirley?

[00:11:15] Probably.

[00:11:16] Okay.

[00:11:17] Time for you to tell me the premise of Blackthorn.

[00:11:21] I cannot wait.

[00:11:23] Okay.

[00:11:24] But I need you to wait, like, one more sentence because the people at home need to know.

[00:11:28] The story for Blackthorn is 19 Super Nintendo manual pages long.

[00:11:34] Oh, my God.

[00:11:37] So what I got for you here is some very big time paraphrasing.

[00:11:43] Okay.

[00:11:43] Of what's going on.

[00:11:45] All right.

[00:11:46] Cannot wait.

[00:11:47] Tell me about it right now.

[00:11:48] Hit the music.

[00:11:56] Far away on the planet of Tule, there were two kingdoms, that of Androth and that of Cadrasul.

[00:12:04] Cadrasul's Emperor Sarlacc sets his sights for Androth and pretty much wrecks them.

[00:12:09] King Vlaros of Androth, knowing that they are utterly fucked, uses space magic to send his son to Earth for safety until such time that he can save his people.

[00:12:18] 20-some-odd years pass.

[00:12:20] Kyle Blackthorn, a real name he's adopted, becomes a renowned military captain and mercenary who, following a court-martial, begins hearing strange voices telling him that he needs to go now.

[00:12:32] His home planet needs him.

[00:12:33] No, really.

[00:12:34] It does.

[00:12:35] So off he goes, whisked away by the same space magic that brought him to Earth.

[00:12:40] Back to Tule to enact vengeance.

[00:12:47] Did not disappoint.

[00:12:49] Did not disappoint at all.

[00:12:50] Fucking amazing.

[00:12:51] His name is Kyle Blackthorn?

[00:12:54] I think he named himself that sometime after coming to Earth.

[00:12:58] It's weird.

[00:13:01] 19 pages, Andre.

[00:13:03] Oh my god.

[00:13:05] We're talking about things like people had cooking up at middle school.

[00:13:08] Like, clearly, someone was sitting on elements of this for a while.

[00:13:14] Just, just incredible stuff.

[00:13:16] Just incredible stuff.

[00:13:17] It's so nerd.

[00:13:19] That is some real nerd shit.

[00:13:22] Wow.

[00:13:23] I love it.

[00:13:24] I was just going to say, you know how we just make up names for shit and we don't care to look up the names?

[00:13:28] Like, I was waiting for you to come in and say, Steve, is his name really Kyle Blackthorn?

[00:13:33] Like, you know, while we were making notes, I'm like, yeah, his name is really Kyle Blackthorn.

[00:13:38] I, it's unbelievable.

[00:13:40] I mean, we were joking about Freddy Flashback earlier and just, like, this is like, this is actually as dumb.

[00:13:47] Anyway, let's get into the game a bit here because I kind of alluded to this already, but for me, Blackthorn represents a line of demarcation.

[00:13:58] Like, Blackthorn to me is the first game where it's clear we're learning something from the previous games.

[00:14:06] You know, and I call it the beginning of the second generation of this genre.

[00:14:10] If this, if you can even consider this a generation of it, but I kind of do.

[00:14:16] Would you agree with that?

[00:14:17] I mean, if I didn't know any better, Andre, I would say, I think they were very polite in their interview when they said, yeah, we were inspired by Flashback.

[00:14:27] Like, they really sat there and said, you know, we could do better than this.

[00:14:33] I mean, I know they did.

[00:14:35] Of course they did.

[00:14:36] You know, all this shit I complained about the last time, like they, it's like, look, this is a ROM hack of, I know it's not a ROM hack, but like, this is, we're going to make it Blackthorn.

[00:14:45] He's, he's less wussy now.

[00:14:47] And he, and look, you could dodge shots and you can tell when enemies hit things.

[00:14:53] And we have a jump button.

[00:14:54] It's like, we, we have fixed Flashback, everybody.

[00:14:58] Still rude, but I understand what you're saying.

[00:15:01] You know, you're right.

[00:15:02] I did talk about this before we talked about Prince of Persia, when we were introducing this entire concept.

[00:15:08] And I said, you were always just like a dude, just like a regular dude.

[00:15:14] Kyle Blackthorn is not a regular dude.

[00:15:16] This is a, no, this is a man.

[00:15:21] He's got, he's a guy with a shotgun and, you know, he shoots forward and there's a very impractical animation where he shoots backward, not giving a fuck.

[00:15:29] No look shoots backward, just puts the hand, you know, boom, right behind his back.

[00:15:34] I mean, spoiler alert, it's only practical for the last fight of the game, but it looks awesome as fuck.

[00:15:39] It's, have you ever accidentally shot one of your homies like doing that?

[00:15:43] Cause I have.

[00:15:44] Yeah.

[00:15:46] Much like Fates of Black, there's no penalty most of the time, unless you, that you really needed something they hand you.

[00:15:52] But yeah, but most of the, most of the time you don't.

[00:15:57] Or, or the other, the bad guys also shoot them too, which is kind of annoying if you need them alive.

[00:16:02] But point is Blackthorn, it's like a mix of everything.

[00:16:07] Like the reviewer said, you have like that tight level design of Prince of Persia and you have the gunplay, a flashback.

[00:16:14] And then you have like the platforming is a mix of both of those games to me.

[00:16:19] And this is, again, this is not like another world, more dragon's lair, much more push forward, cinematic, cinematic.

[00:16:26] This is more cinematic by your own hand, which I appreciate.

[00:16:30] But anyway, we've been talking controls a lot through this series because cinematic platformers control very unusually.

[00:16:38] And while Blackthorn is not radically different from the other games that we've covered so far, there are some things about it that make it feel more refined, but I can't really put my finger on it.

[00:16:51] So maybe you can for me.

[00:16:53] Again, it's not the easiest thing to do unless you're actually playing it because, again, you still need to put in the time.

[00:16:59] You're not going to walk in, contrast all, bam, bam, everyone's dead.

[00:17:03] Hooray, we saved the hostages.

[00:17:04] Tool is saved.

[00:17:06] Hooray, Emperor Kyle Blackthorn.

[00:17:09] You're going to go in.

[00:17:11] You need to deliberately walk around, but it's pretty clear what Kyle Blackthorn can do.

[00:17:16] He walks, he shoots.

[00:17:18] He can also press himself, you know, against the wall or even just, you know, backward if there is no wall.

[00:17:23] It's the funny, to me, that's the funniest shit in the world.

[00:17:25] It's like, yeah, I'm just going to step over here and everything's going to miss.

[00:17:29] That's so fucking cool, though.

[00:17:31] It is!

[00:17:32] It's awesome!

[00:17:32] It's, he's just standing in the shadows waiting for you to make that move or to shoot and then just retaliate.

[00:17:40] That is so badass.

[00:17:41] It's one of those badass things to happen on a Super Nintendo, straight up.

[00:17:46] It's not just badass, it works because you have these orcs that clearly were going to work their way into Warcraft later.

[00:17:54] And once you figure out the patterns, you know when it's time to come out and shoot them.

[00:17:59] And it's very satisfying to just pop out of cover and shoot them and move on to the next part.

[00:18:06] There's little things that make you feel refined, too.

[00:18:08] And then this is like a small thing.

[00:18:10] And I don't know if you noticed, because so you hold up to go into cover.

[00:18:14] You can just press Y to shoot.

[00:18:16] You don't have to come out of cover, let go of up, shoot, and then press up again.

[00:18:20] You can just press Y to come out of cover, shoot, and then he'll go back and cover.

[00:18:24] That is so smart.

[00:18:26] And it's something that a lot of these other games didn't really do because not only do they not have cover, that's not the point of those games, but they just don't have the refinement of those kind of controls.

[00:18:38] I wouldn't say it's acrobatic as Prince of Persia because, oddly enough, nothing really is.

[00:18:44] I thought we'd see more of that here.

[00:18:46] No, Prince of Persia is really acrobatic.

[00:18:49] But I'd say this still comes close because further along you move in the game, there's plenty of times where you could risk reward certain jumps.

[00:18:58] And yes, you still take fall damage, but you can really risk reward that like, okay, there's bad guys over here.

[00:19:06] But if I fall, it'll only cost me some damage.

[00:19:10] I can fall one and a half black thorns.

[00:19:12] Yes, that's a real unit of measure now before I actually take damage.

[00:19:19] Well, Prince of Persia has that too, though, with its life meter.

[00:19:23] And I feel like they just took that directly from that.

[00:19:26] But Blackthorn is also better about it, I would say.

[00:19:30] It's just like overall as a video game, I just feel like learning the controls was satisfying as it was in Prince of Persia.

[00:19:38] Like putting in felt rewarding like it was in Prince of Persia overall as a video game.

[00:19:45] Okay.

[00:19:45] I mean, I obviously feel that way about Flashback 2, but it's also not fade to black as in Flashback 2.

[00:19:52] Flashback also.

[00:19:55] But, you know, yeah.

[00:19:56] But again, that game is fairly esoteric about the things it wants you to do to accomplish certain tasks.

[00:20:02] And Blackthorn is not.

[00:20:05] So jumping around and stuff felt pretty good.

[00:20:08] But there's also some other things that make it feel more refined.

[00:20:12] Is that one, Blackthorn runs at 60 frames a second.

[00:20:16] Oh, my God.

[00:20:18] That makes it feel so much more fluid than these other games that just could not end.

[00:20:24] And look, I would never expect a game like Another World or Flashback to run that way.

[00:20:30] Of course not.

[00:20:31] Right?

[00:20:32] I'm not saying that they should have.

[00:20:33] The fact that Blackthorn does also, and I know you're not a frame rate whore like I am, but that's also contributing to fluidity here.

[00:20:43] You have to admit it.

[00:20:44] Well, yes, it was.

[00:20:45] But like you already said, that's because we're iterating on this premise.

[00:20:50] If we were making Blackthorn in 1989, 1990, there's no fucking way.

[00:20:55] Also, it's funny that you say how esoteric it is because early on, it's pretty easy to figure out what you're supposed to do.

[00:21:03] Later on, it gets pretty fucked up.

[00:21:05] And okay, I'll level with the people at home.

[00:21:09] For evaluation purposes, I was playing the Super Nintendo version.

[00:21:13] And then I'm like, oh man, you know what?

[00:21:15] I kind of want to keep going.

[00:21:17] So then I turned on the definitive version.

[00:21:20] And you know what, Andre, for that one, it's just the Super Nintendo version.

[00:21:25] But it does the one thing that I wanted a lot of game developer people to do forever.

[00:21:31] They gave me a fucking map to play with.

[00:21:34] Oh boy, the map.

[00:21:37] Which, okay, you don't really need them for like the first two, three areas.

[00:21:41] But later on, it's like it's a godsend for people like me.

[00:21:45] And by people like me, I mean someone who might have to put down a game for a few hours and not necessarily remember what part of a labyrinthian level they're in.

[00:21:56] My most controversial take in video games is that it's fun to get lost.

[00:22:01] You don't need no damn map.

[00:22:02] I mean, you keep saying that, but.

[00:22:05] It's true, man.

[00:22:07] I didn't really, I don't know.

[00:22:08] I didn't miss it, really.

[00:22:11] That is cool that they have that.

[00:22:12] Of course it is.

[00:22:13] I mean, you know.

[00:22:14] Oh, okay.

[00:22:15] I kept giving the other versions a whack.

[00:22:17] And by the other versions, I mean, I tried the 32X version, which they call the 32-bit version on this set.

[00:22:25] Oh, they weren't allowed to say 32X, okay.

[00:22:28] I'm like, what?

[00:22:29] Because I wasn't entirely familiar when I was first doing this project either.

[00:22:33] Like, oh, did they make a PlayStation Saturn version at the time?

[00:22:37] Because I know Lost Vikings 2 was on PlayStation Saturn.

[00:22:40] Maybe Blackthorn made it on there too.

[00:22:42] Not in the US because Sony said no to 2D.

[00:22:46] I'm like, looking it up later.

[00:22:48] I'm like, it's on 32X.

[00:22:50] They're called the 32X version, the 32-bit version.

[00:22:53] And Andre, this is pathetic.

[00:22:58] They made pre-rendered versions of the characters like Donkey Kong Country.

[00:23:02] Oh, no.

[00:23:04] And then stuck them onto the 16-bit environments that already existed.

[00:23:09] It's jarring as fuck.

[00:23:11] That sounds really bad.

[00:23:13] And speaking of sounding terrible, the musical cues and sound is also very terrible.

[00:23:19] Which is to say, for the most part, all these games are pretty much the same underneath.

[00:23:24] Like, across versions.

[00:23:25] Like, you can even share your passwords across versions.

[00:23:29] Like, you can take your Super Nintendo version and bring it to the Game Boy Advance version.

[00:23:33] And bring your password to that and show up at the same point.

[00:23:37] It's a very efficient port job across all these games.

[00:23:41] That's super cool.

[00:23:43] Actually, that it works that way.

[00:23:45] So, if you were to get it for the computer, you can just put in your Super Nintendo password.

[00:23:50] Yeah.

[00:23:51] That's crazy.

[00:23:52] That's actually really cool.

[00:23:53] Yeah.

[00:23:54] I think I'm kind of out of things to say about Flash.

[00:23:56] Well, okay.

[00:23:56] I have one more thing.

[00:23:57] I have one more thing that I want to bring up to you.

[00:23:59] That I've noticed at this point of playing so many of these games.

[00:24:03] I think it's really interesting that the European games, like Flashback and Another World.

[00:24:09] These are these, like, dark, Blade Runner, sci-fi-ass adventures, right?

[00:24:15] They were on some real nerd shit.

[00:24:16] But when the Americans at Blizzard made Blackthorn, they went for some real heavy metal type shit.

[00:24:24] Like, literally, the magazine Heavy Metal.

[00:24:26] Or the 1981 animated movie Heavy Metal.

[00:24:29] Like that.

[00:24:30] You know?

[00:24:31] I just think that's a really interesting contrast between our two.

[00:24:36] I mean, clearly, they were inspired by movies and things of the time.

[00:24:39] And like I physically suggested earlier, they were probably also inspired by, like, okay, I think Lester's a little more capable than Freddy Flashback.

[00:24:49] But, you know, they were probably like, oh, no, I can't jump across this platform.

[00:24:53] Oh, no.

[00:24:54] I feel like in Blackthorn, when you fail, it's like you failed Kyle Blackthorn a little bit.

[00:25:01] Not the other way around.

[00:25:03] It's like you have all the moves you're supposed to have in Blackthorn.

[00:25:07] I feel like that's what's going on here.

[00:25:09] And they wanted to make the character reflect that.

[00:25:12] That is true.

[00:25:13] I didn't even think about it from the character aspect of why, you know, Kyle Blackthorn is this very video game-ass character.

[00:25:21] And the other ones, like you said, Freddy Flashback and Another World Johnny or whatever is like just guys.

[00:25:29] Okay.

[00:25:30] I know we've been raking all these.

[00:25:32] This is on the top.

[00:25:33] I'm not even going to ask you.

[00:25:34] This is better than Prince of Persia.

[00:25:35] It's better than all the games we've played so far.

[00:25:37] Nope, nope.

[00:25:38] Number one.

[00:25:38] And if guys at home, it's the day after Christmas.

[00:25:42] Odds are pretty good.

[00:25:43] It's $10 on the eShop right now.

[00:25:46] Go get it.

[00:25:47] Definitely.

[00:25:48] The whole set.

[00:25:48] Have yourself a Merry Christmas.

[00:25:50] You can play this and Lost Vikings.

[00:25:53] Go get it.

[00:25:54] If it's on Steam, I'm going to definitely get that.

[00:25:58] I don't know why it wouldn't be.

[00:25:59] Yeah.

[00:26:00] Yeah.

[00:26:00] I don't know.

[00:26:01] They're weird about stuff sometimes.

[00:26:02] You know how that shit goes.

[00:26:04] Might be on Epic Games Store or some bullshit, right?

[00:26:07] Ah!

[00:26:08] Right.

[00:26:09] Yeah.

[00:26:10] Blackthorn.

[00:26:11] That's our new number one ranking.

[00:26:12] I'll read them all off now.

[00:26:13] Blackthorn at the top.

[00:26:15] Underneath that, Prince of Persia.

[00:26:16] Then Another World.

[00:26:18] Flashback.

[00:26:19] Fade to Black.

[00:26:19] Shadow of the Beast.

[00:26:21] And Heart of the Alien still at the bottom.

[00:26:24] And next week on Cinematic Platformer Paradise, here's your hint.

[00:26:30] If you think in pure thoughts, your heart might become one of darkness.

[00:26:36] Yeah, figure that shit out.

[00:26:41] You have all week.

[00:26:43] See you next week on Cinematic Platformer Paradise.

[00:26:46] 2 to 45.

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