3/5 ★ – james_i_think's review of The Black Heart.

Finding this game on Steam after a decade was a real blast to the past for me. I remember picking this up as an edgy teen that enjoyed weird and gross character designs, and now I've picked it up again as an adult that enjoys novel fighting games. It's a solid, voilent horror-themed fighter with good character variety and a host of special moves that are enjoyable to pull off without being too difficult or easy. The story is better than most fighting game stories and the boss Final is always a highlight to fight, if not just for his crazy design alone. The only real issue I have with the gameplay is the Fatal Moves. They're great Fatality style gory animations that require a full power gauge and the enemy to be on 1/3rd of their health. It's not a worthwhile attack when you can just fire off a couple of specials instead. The improvements to the artwork are welcome, but otherwise the new port is a little wanting. There are small issues, such as spelling/grammar errors in the story segments, but those are easier to overlook than the bigger problems. For some reason it doesn't natively support 720 or 1080p so it doesn't fit properly on any monitor in fullscreen. There is also no online support, which hurts the shelf life of a pretty standard fighter (since Steam's stream play option causes input delay). It's not exactly a compliment to say this game has the same resolution and multiplayer options as the original Mugen game from a decade ago. That said, I'm happy this little game has come back into my life and I wish it all the success in the world. I for one want to spread the good word of it, because I'm sure there's many Indie fighter enthusiasts who would very much like to know The Black Heart exists.