The problem with video games these days is that they’re all so focused on being “gritty” and “realistic”. The success of all the Call of Duty games and the two The Last of Us titles have forced just about every other game on the periphery to focus on sadness, violence, and trauma. What the video game industry needs is a true hero. Someone who can get us back to the path of video games being fun and not making us cry. What we need is… no, not Mario. What we need is a character with an irreverent sense of humor, a ton of charisma, and love in his heart. We need a character that stands up for what he believes in, even to the developer that created him and the game around him. What we need, is the main character from Black Ink! The… faceless, sarcastic dude who refused to be a part of his own game unless he had a say in its development. He’s a lot to handle, but he might just be exactly what video games need right now.
In Black Ink, as I mentioned before, you play as a nameless, faceless character whose only significant attribute other than his personality is that he is made of stone. But, for what he lacks in terms of character design, he sure makes up for it with stage presence. On the Steam page for the game, you can tell the project is being made by opposing forces. The developer clearly wrote the introduction and description, While the stone guy took over the reins for the trailer. You can tell the difference because the description is written with an accusatory tone towards the stone guy, and the trailer is filmed in selfie format by the stone guy while he complains about the developer. It’s a hilarious bit, and while these two seem to hate each other, you can tell they also wouldn’t be able to live without each other.
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Aside from the comedic setup and the big personality of the main character, Black Ink is presented as a 2.5D action platformer, where you will take stone guy through multiple locations inspired by classic video game themes like Pirates, Vikings, World War II, Samurai, the Wild West, and… cyberpunk toilets. That must have been stone guy’s contribution. The ultimate goal of the game is to help a stone guy make it to the end so that the developer will give him his girlfriend back. In fact, as is stated in the game’s trailer, the developer made his girlfriend just to take her away, forcing a stone guy to cooperate with the creation of the game. But, in order to get his girlfriend back, he will have to clear every stage of its respective enemies. To kill all of those Vikings, pirates, cowboys, ninjas, etc, you will have an arsenal of weapons including swords, pistols, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, and… a pineapple? I guess if anybody is going to figure out how to kill someone with pineapple, it would probably be a stone guy.
The game’s Steam page lists Black Ink as “coming soon”. Let’s hope the developer and his creation can work together long enough to get this game released before they kill each other. Or at least long enough that stone guy can get his “s**y señorita” back.
