Black Paradox by Fantastico Studio has come to your favourite console after being a steam only game for about a year. We got our hands on the Nintendo Switch version but Xbox One and PS4 owners can have a try at some intergalactic space shooting too.
Bounty hunting
Black Paradox is a shoot ‘em up rogue-like game in which you are a bounty hunter in space. With an obvious nod to Back to the Future, your space vessel is actually a flying Delorean. Your job is to bring in the hellraisers, seven intergalactic bosses who wont go down easy. Before reaching a boss you’ll have to blast your way through hordes of enemies in a procedural generated level. Each time you replay a level and trust me you will do this a lot, it feels somehow familiar but still different enough to keep it challenging. Mastering the levels is impossible but recognizing each enemy and mastering their patterns becomes key to success.
Each level has a special enemy who drops a random weapon. Once collected you can switch between your standard shooter and the special. Some of these weapons are more powerful than others. Theirs also some trade back in the sense that the more powerful weapons slow you down a hefty bit. Making them less effective during crowd control in the lead up to a boss but real effective finishers during the boss battles. After experimenting you get a sense of which weapons fit your playstyle the most. The randomness of these weapons pushes you towards trying out new approaches which I liked a lot.
In the garage
Each enemy you down gives you a very small amount of cash. Bringing down bosses is where the real money can be made. As with many rogue-like games you’ll die a lot. Black Paradox has a life meter but once depleted its back to square one. The money earned during each run is saved to be used in the garage. The garage is where you can buy much needed enhancements to your “ship”. There are two slots available at the start and two extra can be unlocked if you have the money. Each enhancement boosts your stats but also adds an extra bonus like a chance your shot will be a triple shot. When advancing through the game and buying upgrades, the available enhancements get better and better until you’re powerful enough to get through all seven levels.
Black Paradox
With about 60+ different enemies you can expect to be under a lot of pressure to get to a boss. The term bullet hell does apply in certain spots. Avoiding all bullets is possible but is very hard to pull off so taking damage will be part of anyone’s playthrough. Luckily the game does offer canisters which refill your life meter. Next to these green life canisters, you can also collect blue canisters. These fill up another meter which indicates when you can use your Black Paradox power. This power makes a black clone appear for a short amount of time to aid you in the battle.
Drones
Defeating bosses grants you, next to the bounty, a choice between two upgrades. These upgrades can make your life meter bigger or can give you one of thirteen drones to aid you in your ultimate quest to catch all the hellraisers. These upgrades can be a big help during your current attempt. Use them well while they last because when you die you’ll lose them. Since the power-ups are so random and not everything is as useful, some runs can be much harder than others. This felt a bit unfair but that’s kind of the way rogue-like games are I guess. Never was I discouraged by the fact I died during an uphill battle. I always felt like the next try could get me further.
Conclusion
Black Paradox brings the rogue-like principle to the shmup world in a great presentation. The pixel art is on point and the synth wave soundtrack is epic. The game is really challenging but you feel yourselves getting better each attempt. The possibility to add another local player to help is a nice addition to this already fully packed neon-lit space shooter. A must-have for all shmup fans out there.
