A one-on-one fighter with a dark story behind it
The Black Heart is a 2D versus fighting game in the tradition of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Six creatures, some from our world and some from a parallel one, hunt a monster called Final, who tore the heart out of a murdered king. That heart holds the power the king used to build his world, and whoever carries it is said to gain enormous strength. Each fighter wants it for their own reasons. The fighting sits on top of that story, so matches are tied to the narrative rather than being a plain arcade ladder. Expect pixelated blood, Capcom-style fluid play, combos, and weird painted landscapes, all wrapped in a gothic, dark fantasy look.
Playing it with friends
The game is built around local multiplayer: two people on the same setup can pick creatures and fight each other directly. Steam's Remote Play Together is supported, so one person owns the game and others can join their session over the internet as if they were sitting on the same couch. That makes it easy to settle a group argument with a few rounds instead of everyone buying a copy. There is also a singleplayer side for when nobody else is around.
Before you start
The whole game was made by one person, Andrés Borghi, over seven years, covering graphics, programming, story, music and sound. This release marks the tenth anniversary and updates the game to modern specs with visual and audio improvements, so it should run cleanly on current machines. Going in, the tone is deliberately grim: horror and dark fantasy themes, tragic and epic music, and a complex story told through the fights. If your group wants something bright and casual, this is not it. If you want a hard-edged old-school fighter with a strange world behind it, pick your creature and start swinging.