Project Black Sun is, in all it's unforgiving difficulty, beautiful graphics and great atmospheric audio, a precious gem in our streamlined million dollar franchise world. I wish Starflower Games all the best and hope they continue making memorable games like this.

Yes, I managed to finish the game after a long and frustrating series of repetitions, but it makes beating the game so much more gratifying.

I really want to like this game. It's got consistently decent pixel art and serviceable music, with competent sound design. It's got okay level design for the most part and I like Metroid-type games.

But: this game is terribly terribly hard, such that it's nearly impossible. The game really needs to be balanced better, or at least have an easy mode. It feels like the dev balanced it by playing through it him/herself and assuming that everyone would have the same level of skill.

Also, a minor concern: the game has two default control setups, both of which are terrible. Fortunately, you can map your own control scheme. Unfortunately, it forgets your custom keybindings whenever you start the game.

So. I'd give this game 4 or even 5 stars, but unless and until it gets better-balanced, I can't honestly give it better than a 3.

Interesting to note, the game will kill you. And I mean in the first few minutes, without warning, to your complete shock. And again. And again. Suffice it to say, if you don't level up in "I'm gonna beat this game no matter what", chances are you won't even last ten minutes. Cheers to you if you make it past that mark. You'll find new and better ways to die over the course of the game. Getting killed about five times on the exact same spot, and then again one screen later is frustrating to some, but it does get fun once your mind goes down the crazy drain. Old School difficulty at it's greatest! You've been warned.

This is a beautiful and immersive indie accomplishment that, unfortunately, turned out to be a bit too unforgiving for my taste. Either way, I'm happy I picked it up simply as a way of supporting the developer, because I'm very excited to see what they'll do next. Anyway... if you think this title looks interesting I'd definitely recommend checking it out - after all, it's not exactly expensive!

Fun, but HARD. It is pretty easy to burn through your starting two health quickly. Still, a great game for those who like Metroid-like gameplay.

It would be nice if the map system had more features (manual labels), and some of the controls are a bit awkward (sliding). Still, for $2, a lot of fun can be had here.

A few things come to mind when I think of this game, 16-bit (yay!), Metroidvania, and HARD. This game will KILL YOU (AS HCBailly would say). The controls have some issues but for the most part it's a matter of getting your groove with the game. There are many secrets to find and of course being a Metroid style game power ups. The art style is very nice, however the main man always seems a bit too big to me for the environment, but hey that's just me (I played a Gnome in WoW So...) All and all, a nice little indie game that can cause rage but good rage.

A decent game with a few good ideas, what keeps this game from being good is its prohibitive difficulty due to the low health, the rarity of health and ammunition drops and lack of save points at the start of the game, making play an exercise in dying, reloading and repeating the same areas.

A Metroid-vania platformer that's as difficult as it is beautifully retro, reminding me graphically of the Metal Slug series. Those who want an old school challenge without the complete frustration of a poorly designed game need to look no further.

Project Black Sun came out of nowhere and surprised me. Two-man team Starflower Games has produced a refreshingly back-to-basics platform roamer - a distinct homage to Super Metroid - and it's a joy to play. Black Sun scores major points for its gorgeous art and music, tight gameplay, and classic atmosphere.

Beyond the brief introduction, there are no cutscenes or friendly characters here - just a sprawling, silent, multidirectional maze full of secrets and powerups, Metroid-style. Controls are tight and responsive, but they take a bit of getting used to - you can only fire horizontally, and you can't fire while jumping. This felt like a handicap to me at first, but the game is actually balanced around these restrictions, so once I got used to it, I didn't even notice anymore. Reloading is a bit trickier - you are extremely vulnerable while reloading, so you have to think ahead during boss fights.

Black Sun's difficulty level has been a problem for some. The version I played, 1.0.2, apparently smooths over a few issues. I found the game to be challenging, but very approachable and very winnable. The early game can be rough, as you have few bullets and very little health, but once you've found a few powerups and gotten the hang of combat, making progress gets a lot easier. There are a handful of unfairly-positioned enemies here and there, but they don't detract much from the big picture.

The only glaring difficulty problem I see is with the first boss, Chrosios, as his cave-in attack can be very difficult to avoid. If you're having trouble, I recommend skipping him and moving on to the second boss, Anyos. Anyos is much easier, and his key will let you pick up at least one more heart container, which will make a big difference against Chrosis.

All in all, there's a lot to like about Project Black Sun for fans of Metroidvanias, and there's a fair bit of content here for such a low price (my first playthrough took me a bit over seven hours to complete). Starflower Games has definitely gotten my attention.

Demo: Controls sometimes remap themselves after you die (ie. left and right become flipped). You only die in a couple of hits, even from trivial enemies like rats and bats. Still, I love the look and ambience of this game.

Full Version: There doesn't seem to be link to download the full version for Mac, only for PC. What's up?

While Project Black Sun has a lot going for it, it suffers from an extremely unforgiving level of difficulty. You begin the game with a mere two hit points, and it just gets worse from there. I like the graphics, music, and setting very much, and the controls are actually pretty good. This is one of those hard games that is legitimately hard - it's part of the design and not a by-product of sloppy coding. However, I will probably not get to see much past the first boss fight, since I have died literally a hundred times trying to not get hit by the boss's main attack. I have never avoided it once. This came after going through a series of many, MANY rooms between inconveniently located checkpoints, and I think I'm going to have to throw in the towel on this one.

It looks nice, but please proceed at your own risk - and that of your sanity and keyboard as well.