Black Future ‘88

Genre: Action-Platformer / 2-Stick Shooter / Roguelike

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Black Future ‘88 is an Action-Platformer with 2-Stick Shooter mechanics and Roguelike elements released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2019. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where a nuclear holocaust stopped all clocks in 1988 and the world just kinda’ went with it, deciding that from that point on the year was perpetually 1988. Of course, since you keep dying and resurrecting repeatedly within the span of 18 minutes, the year hardly seems to matter.

This game makes use of a neon-infused rust-covered cyberpunk aesthetic (the game’s creators refer to it as “Synth-Punk”) depicted using some nicely-detailed pixel art visuals. These visuals are paired with an excellent synth soundtrack by Skymelt that works perfectly with the game’s themes. Songs like No Future, Streetlights, and Murdervator are good examples of exactly the sort of stylish tunes you’ll be blasting and slicing through enemies to in this game. Suffice it to say, this game absolutely nails the look and feel it’s going for.

Not that you’ll be spending much time gawking at the game’s presentation, though – Black Future ‘88 really pushes players to rush as much as possible – not only is the clock ticking on your inevitable 18-minute demise, but items will disappear if left alone too long. Tick tock, tick tock. Perhaps sadistically, while some of the game’s shops will let you trade in-game cash for guns and ammo, others charge you in minutes, which I have to admit is a clever mechanic that forces you to weigh a cool new upgrade against the need to rush even more to beat the time limit.

I will admit, I hate being rushed, so one of this game’s core elements is one I personally don’t care for. However, there are a few other elements here that make this unnecessarily worse. Firstly, with each new weapon, players need to waste time figuring the weapon out and trying to decide how it compares to the two they have equipped. While there’s some joy at finding something new, it would have been nice if the game had some sort of “firing range” in the starting lobby so players could test out these weapons and upgrades to get better-acquainted with them before being made to make a snap decision about them during a run. \

However, even beyond this personal desire, there’s another more general problem with the game, and that is that the text is often very small and colored in a way that makes it extremely difficult to read. When this is providing vital info needed to make a snap decision, that’s pretty frustrating, and it pretty bad both on a TV in docked mode as well as the small screen in portable mode.

However, these frustrations aside, it’s hard not to like Black Future ‘88. The game packs a lot of style and great fast-paced action, and even if it’s constantly rushing you, it’s a rush that’s exhilarating and well-worth playing, especially for fans of Action-Platformers looking for some slick, speedy action. If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, definitely give this game a look.

tl;dr – Black Future ‘88 is an Action-Platformer with 2-Stick Shooter and Roguelike elements that has a fantastic presentation, a killer soundtrack, and some slick, fast-paced action. However, some players may feel frustrated by how the game is constantly rushing you, and the tiny, hard-to-read text will almost certainly frustrate you. Still, if you’re looking for a challenging Action game, Black Future ‘88 is well worth a try.

Grade: B

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