Dark Void™ Zero

I mostly enjoyed my time with Dark Void Zero. This is a retro 8-bit style game made in 2010 despite the intentionally misleading store page description. I'm not at all familiar with the game Dark Void which this is a spin-off of but that didn't matter at all. It's a short 3 level platform shooter that really reminded me of Bionic Commando with a bit of Solar Jetman, both from the NES. There's a handful of different weapons to use, although you can only carry/use one at a time, and a small variety of enemy types. The music was literally forgettable, I don't remember if it even had music, but the sound effects and graphics were fitting for era represented. The controls were sticky and took some getting used to, especially the jetpack toggle, but it's impressive that they stuck to what was possible on the NES controller where many retro games cheat and use modern controls. Overall this is a good title for a small dose of fresh retro-like gaming and the price is fair.

Difficult to get working, difficult to swallow DRM, difficult to see anything, difficult to play...

TLDR, if you like difficult and retro inspired games this is probably for you though it is a bit rough in a few places (And you can no longer purchase it as of 2022). *Story: As with most action NES titles, it has a simple "Kill all of enemy faction" story. What is more interesting than the in-game story however, is the made up story for this game's release. Supposedly this was another game developed by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System Circa 1987 like Mega Man or Bionic Commando, and was recently found in the possession of a former contest winner. In-game story gets a 7/10, it's inoffensive, and it gets the job done. The story they made up for the origin of the game is a 9/10. *Graphics: They generally stay true to the limitations of the NES which this game is based after. There are a few sprites which have a few too many colors in the same place for this to have been believably released on the Famicom. Since this game was once a DSIWare exclusive and uses a lot of low resolution PNGs for its visuals, it looks really blurry if played on large monitors. I wish they would have upscaled the game for the PC release. In terms of accuracy, it's decent, but the blurriness sets it back some: 6/10. *Gameplay: It plays a lot like similar action platforming games that actually released for the NES back in the 1980s and early 1990s. As is expected of a game of its type, it has very tight controls and a few beginner's trap moments that will likely catch you off guard the first time. For a familiar comparison, it plays a lot like how Contra would if you had a could fly and had to complete objectives. Due to how common the life restoration hearts are in the game, this is generally not that difficult of a game if you're used to playing stuff like this. Regardless, this game has three difficulty options: Easy, Medium, and Hard. If you want to get as much mileage out of this game as possible I would recommend hard, though easy is good for when you want to get some of the achievements. 8/10. *Sound: The sound effects and music are generally fine, though again due to this being a port of a DS game the quality is a bit crunched and should have been improved in this release, though you look past it after a while. Really as far as I can tell the music and sound effects are NES authentic, no issues here. Now in terms of music variety, I believe this game only has 7 or so music tracks, most of those are story and boss themes. Since the game only has three levels, those three levels get one track each, and it can get monotonous after long play sessions. The music isn't really anything special among NES games, but it's not bad if you look past the slight sound crunch 6/10. *Achievements: This game's achievements are a mixed bag, it isn't that long of a game so they really had to reach to get 30 achievements. On one hand you get completion achievements and collectible achievements, on the other you have a ton of grueling grinding achievements; one of which can take you an hour or more to get. In between those there are a few that don't belong to either category which are pretty fair. 7/10 Play this game if you want to, though you're probably going to have to via other means since it was taken off Steam. If like me you're a huge retro junkie, this game is worth a shot and works as a B range NES title if you can look past the auditory and visual crunch from porting this game.

oh ♥♥♥♥....good game but has awfull controls.... A W F U L L

As of 4/28/2023, I had no issues getting this game running on Win 10. Even with the whole "CD Key" thing. I'll hundo this someday, but for now I just wanted to help get the msg out that this game does run. And it seems very much a work of love, cos you don't get that kind of intro and music without at least some of the devs caring about the game. Or at least that's the vibe I get. Oh, and this game is getting delisted soon, probably because of the whole "CD Key" activation tech debacle. Why now though? Why do this as more and more players of games are growing more and more disgusted with companies making games unplayable? Why not stick a big warning label on it that says "buy at your own peril" or some such? And why not get some fan to patch out the security gate? I bet there's been plenty of research on the matter by now.

This game should have been left in the dark void...

Dark Void Zero segue a mesma premissa que Mega Man 9 e 10, lançados pela Capcom no começo dos anos 2000. Ele é um jogo no estilo retrô lançado muitos anos depois da época de glória 8-bits. Neste caso, ironicamente, a versão com jeitão mais antigo é muito melhor que o jogo principal, Dark Void. O jogo é o típico jogo de ação 9-bits, com fases que você explora a procura de chaves e itens específicos para avançar. isso sem falar em melhorias de armas e do foguete, que te permite voar e alcançar altas alturas. É bastante divertido e quem se sente nostálgico pelo Nintendinho com certeza irá se divertir com este daqui.