Black Future '88

While persevering against impossible odds is a staple of this genre, this game manages to drain the enjoyment out of this fast-paced action shooter. Black Future 88 is a game with an intriguing premise -- people have given up on the passage of time, because their lives are so bleak that they only expect to live around 20 minutes or less. The only option for the survivors of the apocalypse is to try to fight their way into the lair of the villain that destroyed the world, blast through his minions, avoid his traps, and finally take his life. To help you on this quest, you've got the ability to dash through some projectile attacks and even explosions. You'll also pick up new weapons from fallen enemies along with cash that you can spend with merchants scattered through each level, who will sell you gear, health items, and even power-ups to give you an edge in the next battle.

Unfortunately, the fact that you'll need every advantage you can get is where Black Future 88 starts to fall apart. Usually, roguelikes are notoriously hard games, so you want to take some time exploring levels, looking for secrets or weapons to make you stronger for the next stage. But the constantly counting down clock on your life decreases the amount of exploration you might do, because you don't really have the time to check your surroundings, including going out of your way to reach a merchant. Since each level is randomly generated, you can't memorize a path for a level. As a result, the time pressure can cause you to rush through stages to reach the boss in time, which can make you die faster by running into enemies you weren't expecting. Even worse is that some special abilities are cursed, and some power-ups are infected, causing you more harm than good and making an already difficult game much harder, unfairly intensifying the odds against you. As a result, while you may be entertained by Black Future 88 for a little while, its issues will quickly make you move to a different game.