BLACKHOLE

The Good: * Dialogue and voice acting, while clumsy, can be quite entertaining * Visual design and character design are great * Levels and puzzles are well-designed, clever, and challenging The Bad: * Controls are imprecise and movement is VERY floaty * Intro sequence is far too long for this kind of fast-paced game imo * Music is lacklustre and forgettable My biggest gripe is the movement and controls - jumping and running feel very floaty, as though the character has no weight. The character will hold onto ledges and climb up them if you hold forward, but it all feels strange and unweildy. Trying to pull off a precise jump while the camera ris otating due to the gravity shift mechanic is like pulling teeth. I will be keeping an eye out for updates and future games from this dev, as I like their visual style and goofy dialogue. However, the controls are frustrating enough in Blackhole that I would advise avoiding it unless you are a hardcore puzzle platformer fan.

It's been so, so long since I've enjoyed a good 2D platformer and Blackhole certainly lives up to it's hype. The graphics are great, the theme is spectacularly appropriate and well done, the soundtrack is quite good, the dialogue is witty with the computer being the right amount of bitchiness without being overly annoying. And the puzzles; they are brain-achingly difficult, but mind-mindbogglingly clever. You are going to need a whole lot of spatial awareness and 3D cognition to solve them, as early as level 6 (and they are..oh... I think 130 levels in total?). Yeah, you're going to need to tackle one level per day at a time. Certainly a worthwhile purchase, and probably should be in any Linux user's game catalog.

Judging by the dearth of reviews (and the price), I would say Blackhole is a woefully underappreciated game. Granted it does not have quite the same unique atmospheric details as similar titles like The Swapper, Braid, Limbo, or Escape Goat, but to my mind Blackhole is better than all of them—longer, more immersive, and featuring a wider array of approaches to its goals. The game mechanics are simple and will be familiar to those who play puzzle platformers. The main innovation in the game involves an intriguing room-flipping mechanism that diversifies the challenges of the game in creative ways. There is definitely some strategizing involved, though overall the game leans more towards action and trial-and-error. Also, although I am rarely interested in the stories in these types of games, I was slowly drawn in; the background characters are nondescript and interchangeable, but you do have a memorable and evolving relationship with your guide. The main strength of the game, however, is its incredibly well-balanced level of difficulty. The game is not too easy and not too hard—to me, this is a remarkably rare trait (though I suppose it shouldn’t be!). Yes, some of the rooms are wicked, but they never feel unfair. For some more stringent challenges, you can collect extra items (the black boxes are all manageable, but some of the dog tags will have you howling in frustration!) or take on the brutal bonus levels. As I said, the game is long, and in all the right ways.

My Video Review can be found here: https://youtu.be/DNpoxcLgX7I The developers have made the game challenging yet not frustrating. There are many pros like smart level design, nice graphics and music, precise control, sense of humor and the options how to set up the game to be enjoyable for almost everyone. I do not see many cons here, maybe the difficulty sometimes, the absence of some living enemy creatures or the the local multiplayer. Blackhole is suitable for kids and might develop their motoric abilities and logical thinking. Pros: - sense of humor - level design - graphics - story - control - game options Cons: - difficulty - lack of enemies - no multiplayer I am giving Blackhole Thumbs Up and VideoGaming Father's Index 8 out of 10.