Black Knight Sword Preview

Upcoming enigmatic downloadable from Grasshopper Manufacture is a dark fairytale, framed as a puppet theatre of nightmares, and it looks incredibly good.

By Jim Cross / March 28, 2012

What can I tell you about Black Knight Sword? Well, this upcoming enigmatic downloadable from Grasshopper Manufacture is a dark fairytale, framed, quite literally, as a puppet theatre of nightmares. Perhaps nightmares is misleading, this is not a horror game. Though this 2D side scrolling platformer certainly has a bleak, almost Lynchian aesthetic to it. Hardly a surprise then considering the involvement of visionary developer Suda 51, whos work is always remarkable and memorable, regardless of overall lasting quality. Having recently had a chance to get hands on with the game, a few things are immediately apparent: firstly the game is sparse. Narratively, visually and in terms of gameplay there is something very retro about this purposefully minimal design.

You take control of a doll, a man, some kind of avatar who is in the process of committing suicide. You start the game swinging in a city apartment with a noose around your neck. Whether your character has been resurrected, has failed in his attempt or is conscious for some other reason, its not immediately clear. Without prompting you soon wiggle the stick enough to break free of the noose and begin moving toward the black sword. The sword is a bizarre, magical item of unknown origin, and one that on contact immediately transforms your character into the equally inexplicable and stoic Black Knight. From here on out its anyones guess as to where or why youre going. After some light instruction youre running, jumping, double jumping, swinging the sword and casting forth a damaging projectile in the form of a black clad girl. You then begin to progress onward into cobbled midnight streets, grimy sewers and beyond. The environments you enter pop up around you upon discovery and the surreal disfigured monsters attack in regular waves. And this is brings me to the second notable point about Black Knight Sword: its strangely familiar.

The platforming gameplay is one thing, but really its the enemies who, in many cases are bizarre reimaginings of classic Mario adversaries, like flying contorted faces in lieu of goombas, that do it. This is definitely not a Nintendo clone however and if anything its this subversion of a classic and family friendly product that makes Black Knight Sword really interesting. This game is dark, impenetrable and genuinely difficult. Some light RPG elements are also present too. At regular intervals you may find yourself freeing a trapped and winged eye that will transform into a monstrous demon vendor allowing you to trade collected hearts for health upgrades and other short term buffs.

Black knight Sword doesnt currently have a release date but it's still one definitely worth remembering. So keep one disembodied eye on What Culture for more as it comes.