Review - Back to the Future: The Game (PS3)

[Nightcrawler]

Back to the Future: The Game

I am a big Back to the Future fan. Ever since this game was released, I've wanted to play it. I got it for $2.49 on a flash sale for my PS3. You can't go wrong there. This was easily the best Back to the Future game ever released. However, the bar really wasn't set all that high. Most Back to the Future games throughout history have been pretty terrible (NES games, I'm looking at you!). The only other good one I ever played was originally in Japanese on the Super Famicom. I'm talking about Super Back to the Future II! The Japanese were the only ones who were to be able to make a good game out of an American franchise... Oh, the irony! mziab translated that game by the way, so it is now in English.

Story:

The story basically came straight from the original creators. The main story was taken from Robert Zemekis. Exploring prohibition era Hill Valley and Doc's family history was an idea originally conceived as part of Back to the Future II. Bob Gale, co-creator of the films, was brought in as story consultant as well. The story visited several time periods in Hill Valley, had all of the usual Back to the Future staple characters, and tied things together very much like the movies. It's the closest thing we'll ever get to Back to the Future 4!

Graphics:

The graphics on this game looked like Wii level graphics. They weren't that great looking. They were very cartoon in style. I wish they had put a bit more into the graphics. With that said, they got the basics down. You had decent looking Delorean, as well as Micheal J. Fox, and Christopher Loyd models. Everything was clearly recognizable, and you got used to the style after awhile.

Sound/Music:

Winner, winner, turkey dinner! Authentic Back to the Future music? Check! Authentic Back to the Future sound effects? Check! Voice acting from the original cast? Check! There was some original music and sound effects not from the movie too, and they were also fine. I have to say the replacement for Micheal J. Fox was amazing. He did Micheal J. Fox better than Micheal J. Fox could have in his current health. I thought I would be missing the authentic Marty voice, but it was done so well you'd believe it was Micheal. Micheal J. Fox did do some cameo voice work in the final episode, so that was cool that he was also a part of everything. I don't think you could have realistically asked for anything more in this category.

Gameplay:

The game is a point and click adventure at it's core. That's fine for me as I grew up in the golden point and click era. They don't make that many of them these days, so it's nice to play one now and again. Much of the game is conversing with the characters, interacting with objects, and using items.  There was a built in hint system if you needed hints on the puzzles. I like the kind of game where you set you own difficulty level like that. I didn't need to use it much though, but it was nice to have when needed. The game was fairly easy overall. It's not the kind of game you're going to play for challenge anyway. It's the type of game you're going to play when you want to experience Back to the Future 4!

Any Back to the Future fan should certainly check this game out!