Blackthorne (released as Blackhawk in some European countries) is a cinematic platform game developed by Blizzard Entertainment.

[5] In celebration of the company's 30th anniversary, Blackthorne was re-released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One as part of the Blizzard Arcade Collection in February 2021.

Knowing of his people's doom, the ruler of Androth, King Vlaros, with the aid of the Androthi magician Galadril, sends his son Kyle to Earth to save his life.

After breaking out of prison facing court martial, Kyle begins having strange dreams, and is eventually confronted by Galadril.

The gameplay involves large platforming sequences, in which Kyle can run and climb around the environment, find keys and items and progress to the end of each maze-like level.

The game has seventeen levels within four areas—the mines of Androth, the Karrellian forests/swamps, the Wasteland desert and Shadow keep.

[7] For the first versions, the sprites for game characters were done using rotoscoping techniques just like Prince of Persia, using over 1000 frames to get smooth, lifelike animation.

[7] Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the SNES version their "Game of the Month" award, praising its dark tone, amazingly smooth animation, complex and intelligent gameplay, and the ability to kill prisoners after getting information from them.

They particularly praised its detailed graphics and stronger emphasis on action over puzzle-solving as compared to similar games.

noting its animation and sound quality and stated that it had better play control than games like Out of This World, Prince of Persia and Flashback but was "still a bit slow".

[23] They gave the 32X version a positive review as well, remarking that "with a solid graphical overhaul, Blackthorne delivers where many of the 16-bit conversions flounder in the 32X library".