Italian indie developer Fantastico Studio has revealed that its synthwave-styled, sci-fi shoot 'em up Black Paradox will be making its way to Switch later this year.
In the game, you play as Black Paradox, a fierce bounty hunter who must defeat the biggest criminal organization in space, The Hellraisers. The game blends old-school shoot ‘em up elements and roguelike mechanics across seven levels of random generated enemy waves and hazards, presumably taking away the technique of learning each stage's layout as you play.
Each level will feature its own boss, each with different and unique attack patterns. The more you advance in the game, the more the bosses will start to attack using 'bullet hell' patterns. There are also many different weapons and powerups that are available to collect, aiming to make each run through the game that little bit different. Here's a full, and lengthy, feature list:
- 18 deadly weapons!
- 17 handy powerups!
- 11 deadly drones, little helpers that pack a lot of punch!
- A space bending ultimate move, the "Black Paradox", so powerful that the main character got his name from it.
- 50+ different enemies all with its own attack patterns!
- 7 deadly bosses with unique attacks.
- A growth system to give the player more powers while upgrading his stats.
- Integrated control support for all kinds of controllers!
- 2 player local co-op.
- Amazing pixel art.
- Original Synth-Wave soundtrack by the trio Inward, Hanzo & Randie
The game is just about to launch through Steam Early Access (on 27th July) and will be making its way to consoles after that. A Switch release is currently expected to land in September and a free demo for PC is available right now.
So, what do you think? Share your thoughts on this one down below.
Comments 22
I dunno what I have to think after what I just saw...
There is something cool and at the same time something disturb me.
Difficult to explain or to put words on it...
But whatever, good luck to them !
hmm I'll give it a try
I expected better music... Shame...
can we plllleeeeease stop with the back to the future references
we get it. you watched back to the future
everyone saw that movie
also it looks just like steredenn
i will probably buy anyway because i am a sucker for retro pixel indie arcade games!
Ugh. So many positives. Gorgeous looking, co-op with actual separate health gauges (unlike Steredenn) and then that one dealbreaker: "Roguelike". I can't with those anymore.
... I'll take two, please.
@Fake-E-Lee
This is the word I was searching for : KITSCHY ! Thanx dude !
So many people complaining about a minor thing,
lol. It looked more like the Camaro from M.A.S.K. than a Delorean to me. Anywho, game looks fun and I love shooters and synthwave. I'm in!
@Fake-E-Lee
Your brain works the same way as mine apparently.
@Fake-E-Lee Good point. I'll change it to mean "so many comments on a minor thing." I get it though. Burnout on 80s nostalgia is real. My opinion is its fairly unobtrusive in this instance do to the art style.
@Fake-E-Lee For sure. Gotta be open to change. I've flipped my opinion several times after getting more insight. We'll see how this ends up.
Man, this looks amazing. Insta-buy for me.
@Stargazer: Agreed. Gameplay looks stellar..
Unsure, i love shoot-em-ups and i love 80's anything but this looks generic as hell and the sprites are way toooooo big. Demo please
@Fake-E-Lee Looks like the same assetts almost.
Looks pretty decent, I might give this a shot if the reviews are good. I'm liking the soundtrack.
Looks a bit meh...love 80s shmups but compared to Gradius/Nemesis, Slap Fight, 194x, R Type, Side Arms etc most of the New old style stuff looks poor to me.
Downloaded a demo called Hyper Sentinel which is very...very similar to Uridium from 1986 on the CBM64.
Not sure what to think of this.
Anyone interested in getting a shmup right know should better take advantage of the excellen RXN -Raijin- 999Yen (10$) sale...
or simply get one of the 9 Psikyo shmups available (Zero Gunner 2, Strikers 1945 I&II, Gunbird 1&2, Tengai, Dragon Blaze, Samurai Aces, Sol Divide).
Wasn't sure about this game from the trailer. The graphics didn't do it for me but the upgrade system is appealing. However, once "roguelike" was mentioned it put me off. Never mind, there's plenty of other schmups available on Switch.
@EmirParkreiner Thanks for the games, will add them to my ever growing wishlist.
@Fake-E-Lee If you're a steam user you have access to a huge library of vastly superior shooters. Check out Infinos Gaiden.
@EmirParkreiner RXN has a lot of technical flaws and is never worth the asking price but the current 75% off makes it an essential grab.
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