BLACK BIRD

BLACK BIRD is a dark-fantasy shooting game with an operatic twist. It tells the tale of a young girl who dies a pitiful death one day on a street corner and is reborn as the ominous Black Bird, one of the great calamities spoken of in the kingdom since ancient times. As the Black Bird, you destroy the kingdom in a storm of bullet hell, and the girl-turned-bird's fate, along with the kingdom's, is yours to decide.

The game builds a darkly humorous world pixel by pixel, with visuals that recall a classic era of gaming to portray a rich picture-book setting. Clearing each stage peels back more of the mysteries shrouding its dark fairytale exterior. Its standout feature is a unique audio-visual mix: enemy movement synchronizes with an operatic soundtrack sung in a bizarre fictional language.

There are 8 different endings, with a high score the key to the true ending and the story's secrets, so your skill shapes how the tale concludes. A True Mode unlocks after completion with new enemies and hidden characters, alongside a combo system, a bomb system and Score Attack leaderboards. The game comes from Japanese indie studio Onion Games and won the grand prix and an audio award at BitSummit Vol.6 in 2018.