Blackwind

I love twin-stick shooting and mechs so when I saw the trailer for Blackwind, I just had to give it a go and I'm quite glad that I did.

There’s a basic local co-op mode as well, reminiscent of the one seen in Super Mario Odyssey, where player 2 can only control a handy drone that can shoot and explore certain areas, but it’s not as fun as an actual proper two-player experience at all, and most importantly it does not fix the game’s issues. The potential for something fascinating was there, but unfortunately, the game’s first hour gave us a false impression, as the promising combat model and exploration became a repetitive, prolonged slog way before the end credits. Too bad.

While it's packed with old-school hack and slash action, Blackwind's lack of variety and lackluster mechanics leave a lot to be desired.

Blackwind has a lot of promise, but fails to deliver on it. Smooth controls can't make up for repetitive combat and bad design choices.

Blackwind is as utilitarian as a bank statement and painfully middle-of-the-road. It’s tough to recommend that you play this game because we can scarcely remember anything notable about it from our own playthrough. Yet at the same time, it doesn’t actually do anything egregiously wrong to make it instantly destined for the garbage bin. If you’re looking for an entirely unremarkable and unoriginal sci-fi themed hack ‘n’ slash, Blackwind certainly ticks those boxes. Unfortunately, if you’re looking for a meaningful way to spend your limited time and hard-earned money, this ain’t it. We won’t go ...

Jimmy Hawkins, the protagonist of hack n’ slash sci-fi platformer Blackwind just can’t catch a break. The teen is just cruising around on a spaceship with his Dad and WHAMMY – they are attacked, and the ship goes down. Luckily for him, Hawkins’ was inside his father’s newest prototype armour, the Battle Frame, so when he lands he was fine and dandy, but his Dad? Well Hawkins is going to have to find him. That’s not all the bad news for Jimmy however, as the planet he’s crashed o...

Blackwind has the right ingredients for an engaging and challenging game, but the lack of proper difficulty balance and camera frustrations prevent it from hitting the right marks.

With every aspect of Blackwind comes a new laundry list of issues big and small that make it feel like it should have been incubated a while longer.

It’s difficult to recommend on a story basis thanks to its generic narrative, and even harder to recommend on a gameplay basis thanks to the slew of glitches, loose controls, and boring progression. With more time and refinement, Blackwind could very well have been an enjoyable experience, but alas, it didn’t seem to be written in the stars.