![]() You have to complete platforming challenges to actually make it past certain points in the game.Īnother point in the game’s favor is that it actually controls relatively well. You can platform for one, and while platforming has been in other games of this style before, it’s actually a semi-important focus in this one. However, there are two elements that help it shine. ![]() You can move around and shoot with the left and right sticks, as well as access various powers and melee combos with your face buttons. The gameplay of Blackwind is relatively standard for an isometric hack-and-slash game. You have to admit, this is a pretty cool shot of the mech. ![]() Landing on an unfamiliar planet, surrounded by alien enemies, James and the suit’s AI must locate the boy’s father in hopes of being able to actually go to the bathroom again at some point in his life. As their ship is attacked, James becomes trapped inside an experimental suit and unable to leave. Rather than being a Robert Louis Stevenson character, Jim is a teenage boy who is journeying through space with his father, a scientist who makes mechs. Enter, Blackwind, a twin-sticks shooter/hack and slash game that is the answer to the question: “What if PS2-era mid-budget developers were still around and made a mech game for pre-teens?”īlackwind is a mech-combat hack and slash/twin-sticks-shooter hybrid that puts you into the robot-suit-clad shoes of James Hawkins. The problem is that outside of a few established franchises, giant robot fights can just end up feeling sort of…generic. Sure, you can have something with mechs that occasionally taps into mass-market appeal, like Power Rangers back in the 90s, but most of the time, if you’re into mechs, you have to be really into mechs. They last far longer than most other climbing shoes.Mechs are something of an acquired taste. Like other face shoes in this review, they can do well on cracks too thin to jam, where climbers’ feet are smearing or edging.įive Ten’s new Stealth HF rubber feels extra sticky.Īt the high end of the price range the Blackwings are worth every penny. ![]() The Blackwing last is too aggressive for most cracks. And when you do find yourself on vertical walls, you can feel your way up small holds even without the benefit of a stiff sole. One of the highlights of this shoe is how well you can grab holds, even on roofs. But they’re not designed for smearing in the no-holds, totally insecure, slabby kind of way. These shoes do well padding up on smears between actual footholds on overhangs. They’re great at “smeadging,” which is what our testers did most of the time on the steeps. The Blackwing isn’t quite stiff enough to truly “edge,” but they stick it anyway. Even wearing them skin-tight (which is how they should be sized), some testers needed a full 1.5 size bump from FiveTen’s other models. Beware the sizing on these kicks: a US 10 Blackwing is smaller than a US 8.5 Anasazi VCS. Two Velcro straps seal the deal, but make sure the toe box has a vacuum fit. Though wide footed testers struggled to stay in them for the first couple of bouldering sessions but after a few days they fit like a glove. For a shoe with an extremely narrow last, they fit wide feet quite well. With the most rand, heel, and toe rubber, the Blackwing is the best hooker in the review (one of Boulder’s pro climbers recently stuck the slick and infamous heel hook move on Trice at Flagstaff Mountain sporting the Blackwing). The shoes are soft enough to easily fold in half yet supportive enough for long, sustained pumpfests. With a downturned, asymmetric last and light-on-the-feet feel, the Blackwing is the ideal shoe for plastic, hard boulders, and the steep feature climbing climbers find in Kalymnos, Greece or Rodellar, Spain.
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