Minabo - A walk through life
Minabo - A walk through life
Game
Game2023
Black Skylands
Developer Hungry Couch Games
Black Skylands is an action-adventure top-down shooter video game developed by Russian indie video game company Hungry Couch Games and published by tinyBuild. It entered early access for Windows on 9 July 2021 and was released 15 August 2023 for Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It is set in the fictional floating continent of Aspya, revolving around the… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
207 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy) · newest Oct 30, 2026 · last updated Nov 4, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
84
LovedLoved
159 positive · 31 negative
95% range 78–88%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 159 | 31 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 2 | 1 | 7 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Lemmy * | 1 | 0 | 2 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
1,628 of 1,987 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
83% recommend · 155 yes, 32 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 187 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (3,790 of 4,534 positive).
Players praise the game's world, art, and story, but many find the gameplay repetitive. [1][2][3] Some reviewers note bugs and a lack of polish, especially in endgame content. [1][3][4] A few players feel the game starts strong but becomes tedious or fails to deliver on its promise. [5][6][7]
Liked
Representative posts
- [16]
I have to be honest about this game, it could be good, but it isn't. To name some issues: Many features being missing comparing what I can see online vs what I played (100% completion), pointless resource management, unbalanced combat, a twist that both comes to late and was foreshadowed too early. I did enjoy exploring and feeling out the world but that feeling chaffs with inconveniences too numerous to count: - …
- [2]
I typically don't leave reviews but I really really loved this game. It's got something very very rare in games nowadays, which is a soul to it, I can tell the developers cared about making it through every minute of gameplay. I loved the exploration and quests in this game. I'd do an optional side quest then the character would appear later in the main story to help me out, you get choices that matter and result in …
- [3]
Really solid steampunk top-down shooter with airship combat. The good: + Compelling story + Cute characters + Fun combat + Weapon customization + Interesting world-building and lore The less good: - Gameplay loop gets boring before the story is finished - Base-building mechanics are completely pointless - Some mechanics feel under-utilized, like fishing - The puzzles are way too easy - Some game breaking bugs in …
- [1]
It's an okay game that has a pretty linear main story, with not a lot of side quests or things to do outside of venturing from island to island. I like the graphics, how the controls feel, and the combat system. However, I can definitely see where people get bored or frustrated easily as it is repetitive; you fly to an island, kill all the enemies and farm materials, then fly off and kill some enemies with your …
- [8]
Short review after 100% the game on hard difficulty: a fun and charming pixel indie set in the sky with sky islands, pirates, monsters and your trusty airship with guns with which you survive your adventure. Pros: - Beautiful world and enviroments, the pixel graphics are great, the sky islands and backdrop of the sky look gorgeous and immerse you into the game - Relaxing music while you sail... fly your airships to …
Summarised from 34 of the 206 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 12, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
83% of the 187 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Black Skylands. The complaint that keeps coming up: gameplay loop becomes repetitive and boring. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Reactions
60 of 207 · most liked firstI have to be honest about this game, it could be good, but it isn't. To name some issues: Many features being missing comparing what I can see online vs what I played (100% completion), pointless resource management, unbalanced combat, a twist that both comes to late and was foreshadowed too early. I did enjoy exploring and feeling out the world but that feeling chaffs with inconveniences too numerous to count: - The ship is fun(ish) but too slow to not incentivize fast travel -…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Starts off fun, but quickly becomes tedious. Combat isn't fun and there isn't much strategy. Dialogue is poorly written. Open world but constrained to linear quests. And they removed farming from the beta??? Good concept for a game, but poor execution.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Black Skylands - Launch Trailer - Nintendo Switch.
neutral · AI labelView post →The gameplay loop becomes monotonous. After putting in around 10 hours, I abandoned exploring and side quests to focus solely on the main quest until completion. The top-down view is not ideal and a different perspective of the character would be more appropriate. Additionally, the camera is too close for effective use of the sniper rifle outside of some boss fights. The majority of enemies are melee fighters so you will use the shotgun or submachine gun most of the time anyway. The story is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →after the blast bossfight i experienced a glitch where the cutscene in which i hand over shipparts to the miners to repair there giant mining ship wouldnt play no matter what i did as far as i know this hasnt been fixed, is known about, and the game is still being sold and even put on sale while a literal game breaking, save neding glitch is around. incredible game made literally unplayable. Shame
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TL;DR: A fun experience in the first few hours that fails to live up to its promise and falls flat on its face in the ending. This is yet another game where I wish I could leave a mixed/meh review. This game has a strong start, teasing multiple mechanics and a strong story, only for the story to become more and more sparse and terse as the game goes on and for all the mechanics to boil down to "shot massive waves of enemies." Just another indie game that fell prey to lack of money, time,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's an okay game that has a pretty linear main story, with not a lot of side quests or things to do outside of venturing from island to island. I like the graphics, how the controls feel, and the combat system. However, I can definitely see where people get bored or frustrated easily as it is repetitive; you fly to an island, kill all the enemies and farm materials, then fly off and kill some enemies with your ship, and repeat. There are noticeable bugs in the game, none of the materials or…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →When I saw this, I was expecting an airship game. To explore an archipelago of sky islands, upgrading and customizing my airship as I go. I was very disappointed. The game advertises itself as having both airship and on-land combat, but airships are obviously a lot more central to its visual and conceptual identity. However, the airship combat seems to take a backseat in favour of the same generic "twin-stick shooter with a dodgeroll" gameplay that many roguelikes have, to the extent that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've been playing more single player games. My PC has mostly been for multiplayer stuff with friends - Siege, Deep Rock etc. My Deck has opened up time to a load of Single Player things - AAA things like Spiderman, Control, Mad Max and indie stuff like Black Skylands. Plus I had a load of work travel in the first part of this year. The Deck made hotel rooms much more pleasant!
neutral · AI labelView post →I typically don't leave reviews but I really really loved this game. It's got something very very rare in games nowadays, which is a soul to it, I can tell the developers cared about making it through every minute of gameplay. I loved the exploration and quests in this game. I'd do an optional side quest then the character would appear later in the main story to help me out, you get choices that matter and result in deaths. Also loved the story and side characters, yes the story is predictable…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gameplay is intuitive but deep, with decent freedom to decide how you want to play and build your character in that direction. Ship combat is a lot of fun. Lots of quick, satisfying smaller goals and a really impressive overarching plot. The world and aesthetic of the game are really impressive, and I really enjoyed exploring the map and seeing what bits of flavor I'd find. A lot of fun, and probably good replayability for people who really enjoy this kind of game. I think I'll be satisfied…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's too long to be so simple and too simple to be so long. Fine in the beginning and boring after 10 hours.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TL,DR; Fine for about 10 euros. Nothing special, storywriting is boring teenager essay, gameplay is mobilegame-level simple and shallow, there is terrible end-game grind present but it is optional. It's not an entirely bad game, but it is far from a recommendable game, from me. At no point did I find the story interesting, there's just your über generic story arc, no choices, no dialogue. Except one single choice, that is not clearly marked as such, which is an awful design choice. To get the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One of those hidden game titles that's overall good. It has good world-building and a story that's neither good nor bad. But this game actually has potential if the developers were bolder with gameplay and character development.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really solid steampunk top-down shooter with airship combat. The good: + Compelling story + Cute characters + Fun combat + Weapon customization + Interesting world-building and lore The less good: - Gameplay loop gets boring before the story is finished - Base-building mechanics are completely pointless - Some mechanics feel under-utilized, like fishing - The puzzles are way too easy - Some game breaking bugs in endgame content Verdict: It's worth a few dollars on sale to…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Black Skylands (airship adventure game) and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (rollerblade platformer, spiritual successor to best game of the PS2 era, Jet Set Radio Future) are out on switch, they are both everything I love
positive · AI labelView post →pretty fun experience. everything felt fairly smooth and plays pretty well on the steam deck. Decent story that was fun to go through. Can experience everything the game has to offer in about 30 hours and is easy to pick up and put down, which is nice for me since I tend to be pretty busy and do not have much time to just sit and play games for more then an hour or two at a time.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun and motivating. But I felt that the upgrade path ends too soon and/or there are too many ressources out there.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is actually an exceedingly generic open world rpg that only superficially mimics the structure of space sandbox (with a sky/airship coat of paint, instead of space, obviously) But what really turned me down is how braindead it is, if you asked any AAA slop dev to make a ship/vehicle based """sandbox""" this is what you would get, you don't manage crew, fuel, ammo or anything meaningful. You can fast travel despite not having the fuel to do the trip normally, so fuel is 100% pointless, i…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just completed this visually amazing pearl, left with with a good vibe overall, it's a challenging game and has a cool story. Let me be more specific without spoiler: it blends some plot twist and an astonishing ending we have already seen in a famous Blizzard game, but that's a very cool story so it's not a problem to rewatch it. The gameplay is cool, puzzles are ok and the free roaming experience is the best part. Not much customization but i found this a good game to relax after more complex…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bought this game in early access. the game that relesed isn't what i bought.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Seriously, this turned out to be one of the best games I’ve ever played. I went into it expecting something pretty average, but it completely surprised me. The last three days I’ve been playing it nonstop, totally hooked on the story, the gameplay, and the overall experience. It’s rare for a game to grab my attention this hard, but this one absolutely did. Easily a 10/10.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game has a very strong start. Mechanics, art and the overall feeling are excellent. The middle gets a little repetative, but still enjoyable and fun. The ending though... The game has three? final boss fights. And the last one is absolutely awful. The game does not prepare you for it, and there is no chance to change your loadout before being thrust in. That combined with the disasterous ship fixing mechanic (you have to leave the wheel to fix damage, all the while enemies continue to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Lovely simple game with beautiful per-pixel graphics and brilliant setting in the world made of floating islands. Very cool old-days action with a variety of weapons and features. Great story and narrative. There is also a glimpse of management gaming with science and building of all kinds of departments on a base ship, but it wasn't developed into its full potential. Which is a shame. But at the end, very good game worth of playing.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This was one I saw before that seemed interesting, but got left unplayed and that was a mistake. The artwork and storytelling are great, the gameplay loop is rewarding and you never feel like you're grinding or going through the motions. The quests are fun and interesting, and well written. Nothing wholly original but competently done. It's not a huge game (23 hours to finish it with all islands saved but a few sidequests missing), and if I have one gripe it's that the normal difficulty is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good pixel art style, decent soundtrack, interesting boss fights. Gameplay is a mixed bag of exploring the open world's sky (and getting interrupted by random encounters and stranded ships), clearing waves of enemies on islands (and failing to be stealthy while doing so) and treasure hunting on islands (and having to fast travel back to base a couple times to empty your ship's very limited inventory). Good enough, though. The game's world and general story are not bad; I like the vision…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i didnt play alot of open world games but i rank this game very high, if you really wanna chill and really have fun on a game i recommend this ,its pretty easy for you mental every loot is assigned in The map no need to farm every corner the world is full and fun to explore good mechs am really having fun real fun playing it. just get it especially on sale.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cute little game, it could be much more...
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bought it when was in alpha. WTF is the ending? She was stolen! They forced her to shoot her own 'people', they turned them into profit. Her 'father' wanted to shoot her. And in the end? She's still decided to fight swarn and ruin their 'community'... And i'm not even given a chance to chose another side... Nope. Sorry. I first wanted to recommend it, but not anymore.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great fun and cute art style, nice story. One issue is I wished there was more ship combat it felt like 80% on foot and 20% air combat.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is as close to perfect as I think we can reasonably expect a game to be. Do I have zero criticisms? No. Are they minor and negligible? Absolutely.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Black Skylands is a top-down shooter a la Hotline Miami but also featuring airship piloting and combat that more resembles games such as Escape Velocity or Space Pirates and Zombies. For the most part, this combination works together well, though the fact that you have to walk around on the deck of the airship itself to perform basic tasks like refueling, repairing or grabbing cargo, while embodying the authentic "sailor" vibes, can get a bit annoying over time. The game's setting most…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great top down action game, that adds ship battles. Controls for the ship feels right and so does the combat and weapons you get, you can find and purchase upgrades for weapons and ships.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short review after 100% the game on hard difficulty: a fun and charming pixel indie set in the sky with sky islands, pirates, monsters and your trusty airship with guns with which you survive your adventure. Pros: - Beautiful world and enviroments, the pixel graphics are great, the sky islands and backdrop of the sky look gorgeous and immerse you into the game - Relaxing music while you sail... fly your airships to new adventures, great for chill playthrough - Strongest point of this game is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this is the first game i have played until 100% completion and i can say this is a pretty Solid Game ! The character is so likeable, especially our main character eva wick. the enemy cone of vision is wide so it felt pretty satisfying to stealth or far shot an enemy. I love the art too. especiallly in game environtment really captured floating islands well. So many details like monster under the sky, clouds, various weathers, even sky kraken really make me immersed and enjoy playing the game…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →game is good. not perfect, but without any obvious flaws. like a good slice of pizza
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've enjoyed this game enough to purchase the dlc. The gameplay is really fun, the artstyle is lovely, the story is there, but the ending is utter dissapointment. Feels a tad rushed, plus has some tropes that i've grown to loathe. Overall 8/10, definitelly recommend.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fantastic hidden gem of a game. Could not recommend enough to those who enjoy the game Heat Signature or just top down shooters in general. Perfect blend of ship and on foot combat, really makes you feel like a Sky Sailor. The Sky is always hungry!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Recently re-tried this after years, hoping there was something worth it here almost 3-4 years later.... Couldn't get past the writing, and intro. Whoever they keep hiring to write for video games, are the luckiest people working right now, cause in any other industry, if you sucked this bad at your job, you don't get hired. Chat GPT could do a better job, and that's not a complement to Chat GPT.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall okay game if you like flying airships and hotline miami-like combat. ABSOLUTELY not worth 20$. I got a key for it on kinguin for like 0.50$, that's the only reason I gave it a try.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Live now! with Black Skylands, might be beating the game today! www.twitch.tv/khrono_hammer
neutral · AI labelView post →I liked the direction of the beta/demo better, but all things considered it is ok. It takes a lot of inspiration of SNES-type action "rpgs". It starts out strong: You explore the map, upgrade your airship, find/buy new weapons and upgrade them, solve some puzzles, find resources, mods and treasure, liberate islands... ...but it's rather janky, all upgrades are just +% damage, you find way more resources than you ever need to upgrade everything and they have no other use, your starting airship…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoyed it for first two hours of so but the combat isn't all that exciting, the upgrade paths are very linear and thus rather boring, the storyline isn't thrilling at all with main characters displaying behavior befit of angsty teenagers and the graphics are nothing to write home about. It's a sort of bullet-hell kind of game but the projectiles often come from outside your screen, making it difficult to target the enemy. During boss fights the difficulty level is all over the place. Dying…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →2. Black Skylands Top-down sandbox RPG with island hopping, some puzzle solving, and upgrading your airship. I found this game pretty fun, with combat *like* hotline miami, but not nearly as hectic (so I guess not like hotline miami) store.steampowered.com/app/1143810/...
positive · AI labelView post →This is fuc*ing joke. I have done everything before final mission i got all the mods all weapons everything max lvl and when i was going for final boss before starting a mission i forgot to change weapons on my ship for those for Swarm. I thought "o i can go back in time to before the final mission" and it just straight ahead rewind my progress like 6 or 7 hours before i was flying and fighting for those weapons and deleated my progress. Fu*k this game, fu*k the developer and fu*k this hours i…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Advent Calendar Day 13 - Spinning for tomorrow's game - Today's game: Black Skylands #VTuber #VTuberEN #BlueskyVTuber #cringe www.twitch.tv/aredrino
neutral · AI labelView post →game starts out ok but becomes a bit of a chore towards the end. Once you progress to the swarm area, the enjoyment of the game takes a drastic turn for the worse, as your fully upgraded ship now travels at a snails pace. ♥♥♥♥ you whoever decided to do that
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →i liked it , just remove peter
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Wait since when is the cover of this game ai
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game was fun - even addicting - for the islands exploration, then less fun for me personally in the end game. Here are my gripes - do note that they're fairly minor, and only touch on the optional content: The kraken didn't give any unique rewards at all, not even an achievement. The raids felt too long and slow, and the only reason to do them was to complete special challenges to get special materials to trade for special weapons. And yet there was also an option to do them without…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game wasn't too bad, wasn't that great either. A lot of cool concepts with a very shallow implementation. Gameplay is very linear, even with the 'open world' setting. Gathering resources is quite pointless as there is no use for them other than one time upgrade you can get in the city which kinda kills the joy of exploring, gathering stuff and transporting the loot to your base. Weapon upgrades are very simple, just pure stats with no extra effects for the entire game. The only way you can…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Was looking like a 9/10. now it's 7/10. Why? If you need me to do something with a restricted loadout then RESTRICT THE BLOODY LOADOUT, if X must not be used, then make it unequippable, if melee must not be used, disable melee, if some ship must be used, lock it for the duration of the challenge. You put me in a separate instance, you can replace my entire for the duration of the mission. Some of this you can at least un-equip yourself, but some you cannot.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →great indie ship battler and top down shooter with a nice story and good twist ending. if this looks at all interesting to you, I highly recommend getting it. 8\10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Love this game. Played on a steam deck. Mostly 60FPS, a few stutters here and there, one time it went down to a few frames a second, but it was during the heat week(s) in the UK so it might just be that. A save and restart of the steam deck fixed it. The storyline is fun, the missions are varied, and there's an unmarked quest line that you might want to look into, if you want all the achievements too. The combat in the air is satisfying, wheeling around to get the main damage via the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is good game with a nice story. I enjoyed the gameplay with its wide variety of guns and amulets. I liked Eva. Just took my time while I finished it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A nice little indie game with an interesting setting, sweet artstyle and the story was surprisingly good, it can get a bit grindy eventually, the only bug I encountered was during a raid where a enemy got immortal so my weapons only passed through, except for that so where the game a pleasant experiance.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Simple and predictable writing, some mechanics feel either incomplete or cut during the production. But the game is fun. Time well spent, and this is all that matters.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Would love to like the game, but it's too slow
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun game for the price I really enjoyed it. The ship controls need a bit of work but you can get somewhat use to it over time.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is simple, both story and gameplay, but was a decent enough play. It kept me engaged and interested, but never wow'd me. Overall, I'd recommend it, but wouldn't call it anything special.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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