Reviews

Tie-in licences have an uncomfortable history game-wise. For every "Batman" there is a hundred "Basil The Great Mouse Detective"s, and probably a thousand "Beverley Hills Cop"s. But there is only one "Back To The Future", mercifully, and the reason for that is abundantly clear.

I like to think the scenario behind this was some guys in suits with HUGE SUITCASES of money walked into Electric Dreams's prestigious bedsit and said "We'll give you these cases if you make Back To the Future, but it has to have a unique hook, different from all those other film games, you have to really push the envelope on this one" and Electric Dreams couldn't believe their ears and immediately shovelled their noses full of high-grade brainstorming caffeine, in a 24 hour whore-fuelled design session and really pushed the envelope, the mailbox and basically the entire postal system. They emerged sweaty and triumphant, clasping the valuable spools of data to their chests, exhausted with their efforts. They were pioneers. Riding electric highways, chasing electric dreams (yuk). They had done it. The envelope was truly pushed and they made possibly the most desperate, heinous, monstrosity of a game the world has ever witnessed.

There's a good chance that you think I have an axe to grind with this game. Boy, do I. I paid for this game (budget! in my defence) almost 20 years ago and the purchase still ranks as one of the worst.

Okay, let's be fair. The positives. It loads. Actually that's maybe not a positive. Er.... it *does* follow the plot of the film fairly closely, in that you are the youthful Marty Michael J McFox (in the game) and you must stop your parents changing the course of history. This is achieved in the film by making Lorraine McFly fall in love with George McFly instead of creepy future-son. In the game this is achieved by pottering around a drab 2d side-on environment and being ignored by characters. I'm serious, unless you have whatever arbitrary object they desire, they won't function. This leads to the feeling of jaunting around a town of road accident victims or especially oblivious zombies. George McFly becomes some sort of bilious loping Frankenstein. Delorean-ricing nut Doc Brown is recognizable by the white hair and spasmodic lack-of-recognition of Marty unless you present him with a cup of coffee or something. Biff is a memorable character in that he hits you instead of ignoring you. All the characters move like they were wired with canes for limbs. If by chance Lorraine and George hobble into the same area, the game decides you are "winning" and starts giving you pieces of a photo of your siblings back. This makes a lot of sense in the film but its hardly compelling stuff to entice a player into playing with, and certainly not enough to force them to perservere with this garbage. But hey! There's a skateboard, which incredibly manages to be an even worse experience than simply walking around because of its erratic speed and the presence of inconvenient walls.

In case you didn't notice, I did not find any redeeming qualities in this game. The only redeeming quality it has is that no other game will be Back to The Future.

1985 Electric Dreams Software (UK)
by Mark Eyles, Mike Saxby, Herv Jones and Martin Walker.

Why spend money on making a good game if you know its gonna sell?
The movie made millions of fans worldwide so any game with be money in the pocket.

I've to shout out loud that this is one of the worse movie conversions I've ever played. Its pointless, boring, badly executed and irritating and doesn't even pay enough tribute to the movie.

The other two movies both had a respective game of its own. And both were a lot better than this. But the funny thing is that this is the only of the three games that wasn't allowed for free distribution.

This must have been eagerly awaited, but it turned out a crappy and clumsy arcade/adventure. I spent quite some time on it when I was a kid, though, until I solved it.

It's been over 30 years, and I still have no idea how to play this game.

I bought this game back in about 1986, or 1987, thankfully I bought the Firebird Re-Release, and didn't end up paying the ridiculous original asking price of £9.99, that would have psychologically damaged me beyond repair.

As I'm sure with most kids back in the 80's full price games came along usually at birthdays, and Christmas, maybe Easter if you were lucky. Wasting one of those opportunities on this drudge fest would not have been a good thing.

First things first ignore the instructions they are lies they don't work, just make the game up as you go along. Skateboard into things, punch people, get punched, and walk backwards and forwards across the same few screens over and over. I have no idea if there is anything else beyond that? I don't think I have ever successfully used an item, I think I've had them vanish, from my inventory, but nothing actually appeared to happen.


So....

In a nutshell it's Shite!