Hello again and welcome to Retro Revival, where I discuss classic games that have been given a new lease of life. In this series, I cover HD remasters, emulated ports and compilations, either in part or as a whole. This week, we will be taking a look at a classic Capcom game, which never got a dedicated home console port (but was ported to home computers). So let’s take a look at Black Tiger from 1987 and re-released on modern platforms via Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium.
Disclaimer: the games discussed in this feature have been my own purchases, so all thoughts and opinions contained within this feature are my own. There has been no sponsorship of content in this feature, with links to the game where available.
So with the introductions out of the way, let’s get started. I will be discussing the general gameplay experience, then provide my personal thoughts on the release.
About the game
Black Tiger is a side scrolling action platformer, where three dragons descended from the skies above, destroying a kingdom into darkness. From lengthy suffering and darkness, came one brave fighter, an unnamed hero that sets off on a quest to slay the dragons. Armed with a chain mace and daggers, the player must traverse eight levels filled with enemies and traps. The hero must also take down deadly bosses and the dragons to free the land from their tyranny.
The gameplay is relatively straight forward, using a traditional side scrolling flow of action, where the player must guide the hero to the end of the stage. As players make their way through each of the rounds, they will encounter deadly monsters. These include traditional foes like Snakes, goblins and skeletons, but deeper in the adventure, fire-breathing mummies and witches appear, to name a few of the monsters that appear.
If the player takes damage from a monster, they will lose one of their armor points and give a brief window of invincibility. The player starts the game with two armor points, which will shatter off their body when all points are lost. When this happens, the player will be reduced to a loincloth, with only their Vitality left to protect them. At the start of the game, the player will have one Vitality point, but more will be gained at score milestones.
To battle the dangers of each stage, the player must use their chain mace and daggers to defeat the monsters. The attack goes directly forward and throws a spread of daggers, which can be fired rapidly to kill the monsters. As the player slays the creatures, they will drop coins called Zenny, a currency that is added to the player total on screen. The amount of Zenny dropped by enemies will vary, with the highest amount being 500 and the lowest being 1.
While moving through each of the stages, the player will be able to climb columns, jump between holds and leap across perilous gaps. The stages are fairly large, with scrolling that moves in all directions to add a maze-like feel to the game. Luckily, there are arrows that will be in the backgrounds, which will help the player to navigate their way around the levels. But don’t dawdle as there is a timer that ticks down, which will kill the player if it expires.
There will be jars scattered around the stages, which contain various items when they are broken. Inside a shattered jar, Zenny can be found, as well as keys that are added to a counter on screen, but there are dangers that can lurk in jars. On rare occasions when a jar is broken, an enemy can appear from it with the most common being blue slimes. The blue slime monsters also drop from walls and start as a single entity, before splitting into three before moving across the ground.
Throughout the stages, there will be the petrified wise men, who must be touched to free them from their curse. When the player rescues one of the petrified men, they will offer a variety of rewards, with Zenny and time increases, adding to the ever decreasing timer. They also offer advice, like attacking walls to reveal hidden treasures. But their most important service is the shop, where players can upgrade their equipment.
Inside the shop, the player will be able to buy weapon enhancements, with four upgrades that can be purchased to increase the power that can be unleashed. Then there are the armor purchases that can be made, with four sets of armor that can be picked up, increasing the defense in sets of two up to eight. Last, the player will be able to purchase antidotes, as well as additional keys that are an important item to carry throughout the game.
The keys that care collected are used for Chests that are in the stages, with each chest using up one of the keys. Inside each of the chests, the player can find one of three different items inside of it. These rewards are randomised, with the best options being either the gold treasure, or the vitality potion which will restore health. Be careful though as these chests can also be booby trapped, with flames that will shoot along the ground in four rising pillars.
Players must also navigate various hazards that appear, with traps that include man eating plants and blue flames that poison the hero, making it impossible to throw daggers. To cure this ailment, the player needs to use the antidotes that can be purchased from shops. There will also be falling rocks that can instantly kill the hero, deadly pitfalls and the Spinning Scull, which cannot be destroyed. Navigating these hazards is important to success.
In each of the stages, the player will encounter openings which will lead them to the Dungeon, a sub stage that contains treasures, chests and petrified captives to rescue. These short sub areas, will often be infested with enemies, introducing the skeletons that will attempt to swarm the player, but they can be dispatched in a single hit. Once the player reaches the goal marker of the Dungeon or dies, they will be returned to the main stage.
At the end of each of the stages, the player will encounter powerful and deadly bosses. These start off relatively easy to handle, with Stone Guardians that will bounce around the screen. However, as the game progresses, more powerful opponents will appear with the most dangerous being the Dragons. The three dragons appear in the game as super bosses, showing up at set points throughout the adventure to act as major roadblocks.
When the boss of a stage is defeated, the player will be given a Zenny bonus for triumphing over evil. There will also be various secrets that players can find throughout the game, with these secrets hidden inside the walls of the stage. By attacking the environment, the walls be broken and disappear revealing the items inside. The treasures that can be found include an extra life, bonus armor and point bonuses as different icons.
This version of the game is the original arcade release, which has been emulated via the Capcom Arcade Stadium label, being released in the second batch. As this is an emulated release, the game uses the original ROM for the game, with the option of the International release and the Japanese version under the Black Dragon name. These two versions are different from eachother, with the Japanese version being more challenging.
Players can also adjust settings for the game, with the option to modify the difficulty and number of lives, with the option to enable invincibility if available. There is also the option to save/load the game freely, as well as settings that adjust the speed of the game, as well as to rewind the game. There are also global leaderboards, as well as special challenge modes for more online competition, with high score, timed and more to choose from.
Finally there are the settings that let player adjust the look of the game, with players able to change the look of the game, adding bezels and wallpapers to the display. It is also possible for players to select a variety of arcade cabinet designs, with mini-cab, impress and regular upright cabinets. This release also offers orientation options, including a TATE display, as well as filters that provide a visual style that emulates the CRT displays of the past.
Personal thoughts
Black Tiger is a game that I have been around for many, many years, having first played it on the earliest versions of MAME via PC. During the early years, I wasn’t able to play the game very often, as it was on the main family computer. So I was only able to play the game here or there, with the awkward and weird controllers that had to be plugged in with the big connectors. This was an interesting time, as this was during the early days of PC emulation.
I also played the game via console emulators, like MAME for the Xbox during the early 2000s, because this was the only way to play Black Tiger in a decent state. There were ports of the game to the home in the late 80s, with home computers getting ports of the game. But unfortunately they were unfortunately very poor quality, with the Amiga and Atari ST versions being the closest to the original but still unplayable, due to poor performance and framerate.
Black Tiger is one of the best games that didn’t get a dedicated home console port during the Capcom arcade boom. Which is disappointing as a Mega Drive/Genesis port would likely have sold well, given the success of Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts which was ported by SEGA. We had to wait until 2006 for the game to be made widely available, through the CAPCOM Classics Collection releases via emulation on PS2, Xbox and PSP, which was decent.
In the years since, Black Tiger was released in Capcom Arcade Cabinet for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, as well as part of the virtual console on Nintendo Wii. This further spread the game and allowed it to reach a wider audience. And now we have Capcom Arcade Stadium and 2nd Stadium, which not only offer this game, but many more titles that have been dumped on the scrap heap of time. (Some of these games will have their own features)
I have a lot of love for Black Tiger, yet I’m not very good at it as I will constantly game over, needing to play it at lower difficulties. I have beaten the game and I always have a lot of fun with it, as it is one of those straight forward action titles. The difficulty is unbalanced in places as they were designed to drain coins, but with the quality of life additions it is easier to get through the game. This makes it more approachable to players of all skill levels.
There were few games like this at the time it released, as the majority of titles had players going in a straight line from start to goal. This however, had alternate routes, dungeons and elements that wouldn’t be common until much later. Black Tiger also left a mark on Capcom as a whole, with the currency of Zenny being used in many games that came after this, including Street Fighter, Mega Man, Monster Hunter and many more.
With this emulated re-release, it does provide a way to enjoy this game in a variety of ways. You have access to it on all console platforms, as well as Steam, meaning you can play the game anywhere and everywhere. This is a fantastic thing as it allows the game to be shared far and wide, giving this piece of Capcom history a chance to be appreciated by a whole new audience. Especially since many modern games are becoming a little less fun.
If you have enjoyed this feature, then take a look at the other content available and see what catches your eye. There are reviews, sometimes news and features that cover a variety of games. There is the lost gems series, special Gaming Oddities and more coming in the future. So stick around for a while and check out the other content.
Please Note, you need Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium to play Black Tiger. However, this is free software and the games are sold as a bundle or individually, often going on sale for half price.
Link to Nintendo Switch Version (HERE) – Stadium only (HERE)
Link to PlayStation version (HERE) – Stadium only (HERE)
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