Download 90s Era Classic Blackthorne For Free

by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Feeling a hankering for some good old-fashioned sci-fi platforming butt-kicking? One of Blizzard’s earliest games for the SNES, Blackthorne is now available for free download straight from your Battle.net account page.  Just hit Download Game Clients on the right (or go via the dropdown menu for Games and Code) and at the bottom under Classic Games you’ll see Blackthorne, which is an absolutely (not) huge 6 megabytes.

So what is Blackthorne? You play as Kyle Vlaros, son of King Vlaros, who was sent to Earth as a child to avoid a brewing conflict between his people, the Androth, and the Ka’dra’suul, on the planet Tuul. Originally, the two peoples were one, but the Ka’dra’suul were turned into monsters and now want to take over the world of Tuul. Kyle, now a fit and fantastic 20-year-old in the military, is summoned back to Tuul to save his people and take down the evil Sarlac, leader of the Ka’dra’suul.

It’s a classic 90s platformer, so expect lots of running around and jumping, but you’ll also be liberating the Androth the old-fashioned way: with a shotgun. Kyle has the ability to dodge incoming fire by pressing himself up against the game world, so combat rewards smart and careful play. There’s plenty to the game, too, with 17 sprawling maze-like levels to take on. It also looks like Blizzard has given the game the once-over with some keyboard-friendly controls, but has preserved the original look and feel of the game (ie. sprites and MIDI). It also bears the Blizzard Classic Arcade splash screen, which was used on GBA re-releases of other Blizzard favourites Rock n’ Roll Racing, and The Lost Vikings. Could they also be coming to PC?

What are you waiting for? It’s free!