Black Heart is a horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up

Shoot 'em up

Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...

 arcade game

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...

 released by UPL

UPL

, also known as UPL Co. Ltd and formally known as , was a video game production company headquartered in Oyama, Tochigi, Japan. It was founded as a subsidiary of Universal Entertainment. Even none of the staff remember when exactly it was founded. In 1984, it was renamed as "UPL Co. Ltd"...

 in 1991

1991 in video gaming

-Notable releases:*Microprose creates Civilization, Sid Meier's most successful game .*Electronic Arts releases James Pond 2 and Road Rash for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, starting a series of games that were popular in the 1990s....

. The player controls a fire-breathing dragon

Dragon

A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...

 and shoots enemies with fireballs, collects power-up

Power-up

In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...

s, and defeats bosses

Boss (video games)

A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...

to advance levels.

Story

Taking place in a magical world, the people of the world relish in a time of peace they've maintained for three-hundred years. However, Taranis, the leader of the Black Magic Military, starts a world war when he suddenly attacks the White Magic Military. The attacks continue and the Black Magic Military is on the verge of victory. The only hope the magic world has to stop Taranis lies in two fellow Black Magic users and dragon-riding soldiers of the Black Magic Military, Giroux and Jeanne, who betray Taranis and rebel against him in order to seek peace for an unknown reason.