The Black Heart (198Mb)
This versus fighting game has taken Argentinian developer Andrés Borghi seven years to create, using Elecbyte's M.U.G.E.N. engine. It’s an impressive and very addictive game. The art work has all been developed completely from scratch, and with panache; making it almost an art form as you play. The graphics at first sight appear quite simple, but when you actually play the game it gels together remarkably well. The animations are especially smooth and delicious to watch! The atmosphere and the characterization act together give the game a professional quality which is remarkable for an amateur-made freeware game!
The Black Heart is a macabre and dark horror beat 'em up. As you might expect, the emphasis is very much on performing combo moves to weaken each opponent.
War and hate have ruined the world and turned it into a hostile place. The King of the previous peaceful and beautiful world has been attacked and his heart ripped out by ‘Final’ a powerful creature who has come out of the infinite chaos that rules between the two worlds of Love and Hate, and has returned thence. Legend has that whosoever reclaims the power lying within the Heart will gain extraordinary strength, but also a power that could end all that exists, if it falls in the wrong hands . . .
You have six playable characters to choose between, and each has their own unique set of fighting moves, activated by using simple key press combinations. Additionally to these basic attacks, players charge up a power bar; and should the fight last long enough, get to be able to perform a powerful special attack that is often fatal to the opponent when your power bar is full; to finish the duel off in real style! But the opponent’s health bar must also be below one-quarter for this special attack to work!
It’s actually a bit more complicated than that though, as some combos have a stronger effect but lower your power bar by one point as well, and there is an additional fighting mode available when you have two or more power bar points. Each character has a special move when close enough to the opponent as part of their normal moves.
Each character comes with its own background story and this gives the game some real depth, adding considerably to the gameplay when you play through in story mode!
You can play against the characters in story mode in any order, but to complete the story correctly you should play against The wooden man (Hashi) then Cry from a soul (Noroko); The red dream (Peketo); Chaos and death (Animus); The daughter of the prince (Ananzi) and lastly Lust for power (Shar-makai).
In single player modes you get to play each of the other five opponents, depending on your initial choice of character. It pays to learn the player fighting moves available for your chosen character off by heart, as the computer AI opponents are very good at pulling off combos and special moves, that will leave you well-attacked and bleeding; if you haven’t been able to counter these moves; and counter-attack, yourself.
There's a very handy training mode to sharpen up your moves! And a complete moves list in the extracted game folder!
Each fight lasts for 99 seconds per round, the first person or team to K.O their opponents or have a higher amount of health left than their opponent wins that round, best two out of three wins.
Normal attacks are made by using the ‘A’, ’B’ keys to kick and ’X’, ‘Y’ keys for punches.
Turn up your speed dial to make your character really nimble and fleet of foot (!), and there are two difficulty levels to choose between.
As well as the last (‘Final’ ?!) boss, there’s a requisite femme fatale, a non-human serpentine monster and a shape-changing hermaphrodite to fight along the way!
Graphics, as mentioned are absolutely brilliant, with sometimes spectacular visual effects, and soundtrack to match. It’s stylized and stylish in all compartments!
The game comes with two game modes apart from the main game story (ie with versus, team, and survival modes), and supports hot seat multi-player mode as well, where two or more players play on the same computer, taking turns at playing the game. Against this, there is no network support which is something of a shame.
I honestly don’t think you’ll find a better freeware Mugen fighter game out there than this!
It makes for one very thoroughly awesome experience! Especially if you can get some friends together to play in team mode! Brilliant!
Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sji9Vh7FnoE
Download HERE
The game’s Soundtrack is also available as a separate download from the download link!
Additional Game Info HERE
