If you hadn’t have guessed from the name of our blog, we like to think of ourselves as somewhat of the 80s movie connoisseur.
So it goes without saying that we have more than a little crush-fest on Robert Zemeckis’ classic Back To The Future trilogy.
And while there hasn’t been a ‘proper’ (i.e., non-pinball/pub machine) BTTF video game since the release of Back To The Future 3, there’s still a healthy demand for fans of the series to relive the adventures of Doc Brown, Marty and the Delorean.
Telltale, creators of the critically acclaimed Sam & Max reboot, are back with a similar model, reimagining a post BTTF 3 tale as a point-and-click game that finds the player in control of Marty after Doc Brown loses himself in time – again.
Driven by nostalgia but not beholden to it, Back To The Future The Game is a brilliantly realised, story-led revisiting to some of cinema’s most beloved characters.
As a point-and-click downloadable episodic, it’s perhaps obvious to state there’s a somewhat languid, methodical approach to gameplay. A lot of the item finding and problem solving is more often a case of simply trying every combination of options rather than specifically calculated brain-work.
But that’s no slight by any means. Allowing the pace and story time to breathe means that the script and voice acting can hit all the right comedic and adventurous notes required to reimagine the magic of the originals.
The stylised cartoony visuals serve the story well, nailing each character’s likeness while providing enough exaggeration for comedic effect. Similarly, the voice performances are astonishingly dead-on – obviously with Christopher Lloyd behind Doc Brown again that’s no surprise, but A.J. LoCascio does a spookily reminiscent turn as Marty, and Alan Silvestri’s original score is regularly traipsed out to evoke the playful nature of the films.
All in all, it’s more an interactive story than a fully fledged video game, but one that manages to stand up strong against a heritage that could have easily have overwhelmed it.
Great Scott!
[Rating:4/5]
Back To The Future is on General Release now, and available on the Playstation Store and PC as five downloadable episodes.
