Black Paradox Reviews

The sloppy controls makes it a little harder than it should at first, but enemy pattern memory will help compensate that. Nice art direction, a plus for the music. As retro vibes goes, this is working quite well.

Loads of fun! Early game is tough/repetitive/grindy until you get better/get more upgrades but then everything rocks! Music is awesome. Wish there was a toggle for screen shake and flashing. The screen flashing is a bit excessive and I feel sorry for photosensitive players.

If you like a good side-scrolling shmup and enjoy all the pain and pleasure of roguelite elements, it's a really strong recommendation. I played the demo a lot and followed the development like a hawk. I'm delighted with it. Excellent vibe, super synthwave sounds and aesthetics. I highly advise getting the soundtrack as well. Check out "Inward Hanzo Randie" via the internet, soundcloud etc. SOLID stuff.

We all remember the shmup style of game, yeah? These devs sure as hell do, and to that end they created (for all intents and purposes) an adaptive shmup. This might not jive especially well with the sort of person who wishes to play "deathless" by memorizing level layouts; enemy patterns are thrown at you randomly, and bosses have numerous different attack patterns they switch between (or in some cases overlap) so the game is always throwing something unexpected at you. Even if you aren't a fan of the shmup, the game is not brutally difficult, and downtime between attempts is pretty minimal. This softens the blow of defeat somewhat, and just lets you get back to blowing things up in space. Which, arguably, is why we're all here. the "rogue-lite" chip system can feel like it isn't accomplishing a whole lot initially. I found it useful to focus on earning the extra slots. Things start to open up beyond that point. I enjoy the game's aesthetic. Look, sound, ability to control the ship (car? Whatever), and there's a fun variety of weapons to find that feel really well balanced. Soundtrack is on point, and really fits what this game is: An excuse to jam out and blow things up. Cheers, devs. Keepin' an eye on you.

The analogue movement and no button remapping means it's basically unplayable with an arcade stick. That alone would warrant a refund for me, even if it wasn't for the huge hitbox on the player ship, abrupt bullet hell attacks with no clear warning, and what looks to be a slow grind to upgrade the ship enough to get past the first couple of levels. The music and the visual style are great, but that's the only positive thing I have to say about the game. I think I'd enjoy watching it a lot more than I did playing it.

For those of you who play Steredenn, this game is *remarkably* similar, to the point that I had to check the developer to see if they weren't the same one. Unfortunately, in its current form this game has serious problems. Your ship is large and floaty, while the difficulty starts hard and gets worse from there - I'd be facing enemies that could cover the screen in bullets, ones that fire directly at you, and ones that charge you constantly at the same time within seconds of starting the game, forcing guaranteed hits. Many of the guns and upgrades are either worthless or have serious drawbacks (reverses your controls, slows your ship considerably, etc.). You can upgrade your ship with chips, but the effects are exceedingly minor early on (1% chance of firing an extra shot, whoo). This will probably eventually get fixed as development continues, but right now it just isn't much fun.

I like the vaporwave aesthetic at least. -Unable to rebind keys -Good luck getting your controller to work -Most weapon pickups actually make the game harder for you -I want to replay the game because its good not because I need the upgrades to get past poor game development

I love it! The demo was kind of frustrating at first, but after getting the hang of it, it is a blast to play. - the music is fantastic - the soundeffects are meaty - the weapons feel nice - the upgradesystem makes it that every run feels interesting The game just needs a bit more balancing here and there, but still, I have a great time playing the title. 100% Recommended!

Dear Developers! LIFE IS HARD ENOUGH, MAKE GAMES FUN! Games are supposed to be entertaining and rewarding! This one is too challenging and unsatisfactory, and way too busy from the start. Why couldn't you just add different difficulty levels??? If someone wants to spend hours of their life trying to perfect their skills it's their choice. I just wanted something fun to play for the evening. Why do you even make so many levels if the majority of players are not going to see past the first few. Do you make a game just for the sake of making it or do you want people to enjoy and see everything you worked so hard for? For me it's just got boring after the first 15 minutes of co-op. This will be an abandoned game which I have no interest to go back to. What a waste of great pixel art and awesome sound..

So you all know what you're getting yourselves into, let me sum up the whole Black Paradox 'experience': 1) You start it up 2) Your Delorean sucks 3) You get rekt on the 1st mission (It'll be over in 3 minutes maybe) 4) Step 3 happens about 10-20 more times while you get used to the controls/grind some currency for upgrades 5) You get enough currency to start looking at upgrades 6) The cheap upgrades are god awful. You may/may not buy some just to make it through one level 7) Step 3 for another hour until, through a combination of skill, luck, and basic upgrades, you beat the 1st stage 8) Stage 2 and 3 bosses are brick walls. You're not getting through until you've gotten better upgrades ^ Step 8 is where most people tilt out of the game. I know I almost did. Because it's gonna be quite a few hours of dying to the same boss just to grind currency. I just took it slow. 9) You finally land your first couple of 'end-game' upgrade (level 12+). And the boss just melts. Die *****. 10) You lap through a few more later stages. You're still getting killed but the worst is over. Clearing 3-4 stages per round rather than 1-2 at the start means you're farming way more currency. Getting the last few upgrades is nothing. 11) You win. 12?) You play the bonus gauntlet mode. My Delorean was so pimped out I rolled over it 1st try. Overall, I came for a synthwave SHMUP. I got a synthwave SHMUP. People complain that the early game is too hard. You start with no HP or damage. Cheap upgrades are trash. Good ones quadruple your power. So by the end you're one shotting everything for that final glorious run where you're more or less giving everything and anyone the bird. Recommend.