 Blackthorn is a very interesting title with a lot going on here. First of all, we've got longtime X-Men and image comic artist Jim Lee designing the cover. Very cool. I recognize that lantern jaw anywhere. Then you'll notice this game is developed by Blizzard, yes, THE Blizzard Entertainment. Way before the days of Starcraft, Diablo, and World of Warcraft. Next as you'll notice right away, this is another one of those quote-unquote cinematic platformers, similar to Flashback and Prince of Persia, and out of this world, otherwise known as Another World. That means the sprite animation here is very, uh, particular. It's very smooth and it looks great, but the controls as a result are a bit stiff to say the least. Alright, so let's get going and, uh, hmm, I don't think this is what you're supposed to do. How the hell do I get out of here? Alright, well, let's look at the instruction book. So uh, what? What the hell is all this? That's right, the first 20 pages of the instruction book are one long ass story, so I guess that's where we're starting, like it or not. Once upon a time there was a land called Tool, and the ruler of this land could not decide which of his twin boys would be his successor, so they decided to determine this by wandering out to the Sands of Sorrow to do God knows what. The two sons come back, but their dad doesn't. Instead, he somehow transformed into two gemstones, one light and one dark, each containing wisdom, knowledge, and all that good stuff. This split Tool's population entwined, the light stone embraced by their people, while the dark stone was neglected for whatever reason, and that caused their people to mutate and become hideous monsters. In the meantime, this guy, Sarlak, uses this opportunity to seize power and attack the people of the light stone. So it's up to our hero, Kyle, son of the light stone ruler, to save the day and end the war. So yeah, quite the story here, and that's just summing it up as best as I can. Back to the gameplay, Blackthorn is a 2D platformer that, like I said, is very much in the same vein as something like Prince of Persia. You can't speedrun your way through a game like this, like you can with Mario. So you gotta be very deliberate and very careful, especially with your jumps, and man, some of these jumps are just ridiculous. Running and jumping is by far this game's biggest flaw. There's just too little margin for error. Needless to say, this kind of game isn't for everyone, but for what it is, Blackthorn is really well done, and I definitely recommend it over the other games of its kind that I mentioned already. There's 17 levels that take place within 4 areas. A swamp, a desert, a mine, and the Shadowkeep. And you traverse the area with your trusty shotgun. And again, just to demonstrate how slow and deliberate the platforming is, you have to put away your gun before you jump. Now, some people are gonna hate that, but I really didn't mind, because there's a lot of other cool stuff you can do, like lean against a wall to avoid enemy fire, and even do a no-look shot. Now, that is awesome. But yeah, that's pretty much the combat in this game. Lean back and dodge fire, and then fire yourself. I like that the enemies can do this as well. That's a nice touch. And I do like the overall emphasis on avoiding fire here, because otherwise Blackthorn would pretty much be a slower, clunkier contra. I make the gameplay sound pretty simple, but believe me, it gets pretty dang hard, and I don't just mean the absurd jumping you have to do, ugh. You also have to collect items from prisoners that allow you to unlock the next part of these huge maze-like levels. They can also give you bombs and other useful items to help you get to out-of-reach areas. So yeah, you gotta talk to every one of these guys, even if they have nothing to say. Blackthorn was also released for PC, Mac, Game Boy Advance, and perhaps most famously for the Sega 32X, where this game really shines. There's actually five large areas to explore in that version of the game, so if you really dig Blackthorn, I'd highly recommend playing it on the 32X if you can. The visuals and animation are just that much more impressive. Anyway, Blackthorn is a very well-made game and a unique kind of 2D platformer, but I'm not sure I can give it an across-the-board recommendation, just because I don't think this kind of slow-paced finicky platforming is for everyone. I mean the jumps here, good lord. I don't want to be held responsible for someone spiking their controller after falling to their death for the 27th time. But if you don't mind the slower pace and you can get used to the weird jumping, then Blackthorn is a great time and certainly one of the best looking games on the Super Nintendo.