Welcome to another edition of Playing With Power. The review article that looks at all things Nintendo Entertainment System. It’s time once again to cover one of the more infamous titles on the NES. A game with a legendarily poor reputation that it has been looked at by reviewers of the past. Be they angry or irate, everyone has talked about this title. So, it’s time for me to step in the ring and give my thoughts? Do I follow the norm, or does this game give me the power of love? Somehow don’t expect the former. Great Scott, it’s time to review Back to the Future.
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1989
PUBLISHER: LJN
GENRE: Top-Down Action
I don’t really have to talk too much about the impact Back to the Future the movie has put not just on film itself, but pop culture as a whole. A rare example of a film that has proven to stand the test of time, and manage to remain a tried and true classic with every generation it passes. The movie of course helped to springboard the career of Michael J. Fox from lovable sitcom kid star to film icon. It is an almost flawless sci-fi comedy, and one of my favorite movies ever.
And of course there was a video game based on it. And as you’d expect, LJN got the rights for it. And unfortunately they didn’t get Rare to make the game, where you’d at least expect a decent title. They went with Beam Software, a company that had previously been making stirctly hone computer games. The game was released in 1989, around the time of Back to the Future Part II, so it was wise timing. However, the game would get bad reviews as expected from LJN games. It is often considered by many as one of the worst NES games ever. And it was one of the earliest reviews of the AVGN, who burned the game not once but twice in classic reviews. But were these bad reviews justified? Let’s go further.
COVER STORY
As usual, it’s just the movie poster reused for the game cover, with that weird diagonal border that LJN games had. I’ve never liked the border mainly because it feels like its so much wasted space. Other than that, it’s still a decent cover if only for one of the most iconic posters of all time.
STORY
While watching his scientist friend Doctor Emmett Brown test out his time travelling Delorean, Marty McFly’s life changes forever. During a situation with the Libyans that Doc Brown stole the plutonium from to power his flux capacitor, Doc Brown ends up shot, and Marty tries to escape in the Delorean. However, once the car hits 88 miles per hour, Marty ends up going back in time to 1955. Now Marty’s stranded in the past, and worse yet, he accidentally screws up the moment where his parents fell in love. Now it’s up to Marty to unite his parents, and get back to the future before he’s history.
GAMEPLAY
Back to the Future is a one player top down action game. You control Marty McFly as he has to go from street to street as he eventually makes it to certain movie events to progress in his hopes to go back to the future. You control Marty in the main game with the D-Pad, you can shoot with the A button, and jump with the B button.
The main part of the game are street levels, where you will have to go from start to finish to complete the stage, while avoiding all the enemies on the screen. You will see clocks all over the level. You will also notice a picture of you and your siblings on the bottom of the screen. The object of survival in the game is to collect all the clocks so that the picture doesn’t fade completely. You also have to pay attention to the clock that rapidly counts down. Once the picture fades entirely, you lose one life.
The game is littered with enemies. Everything from bullies, hula hoop girls, guys with invisible glass panes, and bees (My God). There are also tons of hazards that will get in your way from bushes, benches and oil slicks. And as the game progresses, these get far worse, and fill up the screen more and more. The only way to combat all of these enemies is by either dodging them, or picking up the bowling ball to attack them with. You remember that classic scene in the movie where Marty went bowling? No, neither do I.
Once you have the bowling ball, if you can hold on to it long enough, you can then find the skateboard. This will make you move much quicker through stages. This is good since it means easier progression, but it’s also bad because you can slip up and hit hazards far easier. If you get hit, you lose both items. The streets of Hill Valley are indeed hazardous. It’s a good thing Goldie Wilson eventually cleaned things up.
Yes, for the most part this is the game. Walking through the hell that is Hill Valley’s streets. And already, the game feels nothing like the movie. Thankfully there is some levels that cut from the treackle that keeps this game from being totally unfamiliar to the film. After you complete several street stages, you’ll head to an area where you will have to compete in a “bonus level”.
In the first stage, you’ll be in Lou’s Cafe, where you’ll have to face Biff’s gang. You move up and down the counter, throwing milkshakes at bullies. You move with the D-Pad, and throw milkshakes with the A button. You can also do what appears to be an atomic belch with the B button if you get a milkshake from the waitress after defeating about 25 bullies. The biggest downside to this level is the isometric angle, which can sometimes hinder you shot, as you may sometimes be above or below the bully, and miss. If one bully makes it to the counter, you get tossed into the doors. If you managed to hit a whopping 50 bullies, you move on to more walking. Lose, and you have to go back to the previous walking level.
The next stage has you in school. Lorraine, your future mother is infatuated with you, and that’s just not right. You have to move up and down, deflecting the hearts she throws at you with your book. Again, the isometric angle can be a big screwover here, and you can easily lose. Not to mention the color of the hearts blending in with the floor of the classroom. Once you get another 50 goal completed, you move on to more walking. And again, if you don’t get 50, it’s back to the previous level with one less life.
Next up is the big moment where Marty plays “Johnny B Goode” at the Fish Under the Sea Dance… I mean Enchantment Under the Sea Dance. You control the guitar as music notes bounce back and forth. With the D-Pad, you move left and right, and up and down as you have to catch enough notes to get the meter on the right high enough to get your parents to have their big kiss moment. Once you do that, it’s on to… MORE WALKING!!
The final level of the game has you in the Delorean (Finally) as you have to dodge lighting and keep the car at 88 miles per hour, as you hit the wire that the lightning that strikes the clock tower flows through. If you hit it, you beat the game. If you don’t… it’s game over. Even if you have a load of lives. Just like the movie, you only get one chance to go back to the future, and that’s just wrong. The game has no continues or passwords, as well as a difficulty that gets annoying as the game goes on. No real hit detection issues to report, but in the end of things, it still lacks in the fun factor.
GRAPHICS
The graphics are mediocre. While sprites are decent looking, and the moments from the movie are captured as best as possible, it just all comes off very boring and bland looking. Not to mention Marty with the black mop top and black sleeveless shirt. Nothing ever comes off interesting to look at.
MUSIC
The game has two songs, and Great Scott are they atrocious. First is the game’s main theme, a very short annoying theme which barely sounds like any song from the movie and plays in pretty much every stage of the game, meaning these mangled notes will be forever stuck in your head.
Update: As revealed to me by a friend of mine, it’s actually a sped up version of Power of Love’s main rhythm, as you can see here.
The other is a butchered version of Johnny B Goode, which sounds sped up and annoying. A terrible soundtrack that will be stuck in your head for all the wrong reasons.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
This game is bad. The main gameplay is annoying, as well as the few stages that actually resemble the film. This is the finest example of why LJN is notoriously known for butchering any franchise they made a video game out of. It’s annoying, unpleasant, and an insult to one of the greatest movies of all time.But even for its badness, I don’t think it’s one of the worst games of all time, not even one of the worst on the NES. You can find some fun in the walking stages, and they try at least with keeping to the film, albeit quite mildly. In the end of things it’s just a very mediocre game at best. I will say one more thing in closing… It’s still a million years better than this piece of crap.
But that’s a story for another TIME.
RATING: Thumbs Down