Back to the Future: The Game, is soon-to-be (May 11th 2012) available on hard-copy for those who missed it on the PSN last year. The story plays out over five chapters like a few of Telltale’s newer games and picks up six months after the events of the films.
The game is filled with special in-jokes and treats for the true ‘Future’ Fans, such as being able to dispatch Kip by blasting him away with some HUGE speakers, and awarding a trophy for completing the opening dialogue word for word with the film.
Game-play is easy to use and works in much the same way as all 3D adventure games have since “point and click adventure” became 3D. The player is tasked with speaking to various people (some old faces from the films, some new), gathering clues and items. These items, in turn enable you to progress through the story.
Games like this, regardless of the story always give me a twang of nostalgia, I grew up a PC gamer, I didn’t own a console until the Sega Megadrive was almost dead and I got a PS1 about 2 years after all my friends.
As a result of this, I spent a lot of time playing things like Sam ‘n’ Max , Day Of The Tentacle and The Monkey Island games. So, I know what a story adventure needs;
• Laughs
• Puzzles
• A storyline that will drive you PAST the annoying bits (all adventure games have them)
• More Laughs
Back to the Future does NOT fall short. The story is great, written with Bob Gale (the guy who wrote and produced the films for all you younglings), and with voice actors including Christopher Lloyd (Doc for all you poor unfortunates who haven’t seen the films), Claudia Wells (the actress who played Marty’s Girlfriend in the first, but not second and third films) and a cameo from the one and only Michael J. Fox (If you need me to explain who he is, I don’t think you should be playing this game until you’ve watched the BTTF films!).
The game looks O.K. too! The graphics aren’t likely to win any awards, but it’s crisp, and inviting. In modern gaming it’s all too easy to get carried away with how pretty a game is and ignore the reason you’re playing it. FOR FUN! And BTTF is certainly fun.
Admittedly at times it gets frustrating, but that’s the challenge with these games. If you just walked through the story with no thought needed, it may as well be an animated cartoon!
The point of these things is to allow you to really live through the game, be the characters and talk to them.
You need to ignore a few things along the way, the lip-synch isn’t 100%, and the game slows a bit when there’s a lot going on, but this didn’t make the game unplayable. I think Telltale have made a REALLY good go at a game that not only adds to the BTTF franchise (it was nominated for Best Adapted Game at the 2011 Video Game Awards), but might even draw some new fans in!
Overall? It’s worth a play. More so if you’re a BTTF fan and you’ve ever wondered what happened after the films. The people at Telltale have done something I would have told you wasn’t possible, they’ve made a GOOD movie-game. I guess Marty McFly was right: “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything”.
Platform: PS3 (reviewed) Wii and PC
Developer: Telltale
Publisher: Deep Silver
PEGI: 16
Release Date: May 11th 2012
For more info visit: www.telltalegames.com