The land is under the cruel control of three evil demonic dragons, who descended on a kingdom to bring darkness and destruction. From the ruins emerged a barbarian hero, who seeks to slay the dragons and restore the kingdom to its former glory.
Gameplay
The player controls the barbarian hero to navigate through eight levels infested with enemies and destroying the levels bosses. The player can find a number of "wise men" who give rewards when rescued. Though the wise man rewards often consist of self-evident "advice", most come in the form of "Zenny coins", currency that allows the player to buy various items, such as an upgrade to their weapons and armour, keys for treasure chests, and anti-poisoning potions. Hidden special items that reveal coins, grant upgraded armour, full vitality, extra lives, extra time, or simply bonus points may be found by attacking certain walls. The player's vitality bar will also increase up to four times as a reward for reaching score benchmarks. The player can also find hidden dungeons in the level for extra points and items. The Japanese version has a few changes that makes it more challenging than its American counterpart:
Several of the "falling rock" obstacles are added
The prices of many items are higher
More points are needed to increase maximum vitality
It is not possible to avoid taking damage from bosses by crouching under them
Development
"Black Tiger" was planned for released around October 1986, but programming placement difficulties delayed it. During conversion, the game was one of ten games included in a $2,000,000 deal between U.S. Gold and some Japanese coin-op specialists.
SonSon II for the PC Engine was a game heavily based on Black Tiger, but targeted at a younger audience.
Reception
Black Tiger received a number of positive reviews. In Japan, Game Machine listed the game on their October 15, 1987 issue as being the sixth most-successful table arcade unit of the year. Computer and Video Games put the Atari ST, Amiga and Commodore 64 ports as among the top 20 games of the respective computers of 1990.
