FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZNOOOOOOOOOO! I'm boooooooooooooooooooooored!
Wait, how did I get here? ...No wait, that's not entirely important and neither I nor the readership should question this. The more important issue is, how could you be bored? There's a million things you can do to entertain yourself. Let's see, what to suggest... For you, I think you'd be best firing up some
Back To The Future Part II on---
Back To The Future Part II? Like, one of the greatest movies to come out of the 1980s -- nay "one of the greatest movies ever made",
Back To The Future Part II? Back when sequals actually got
better Back To The Future Part II? Fuckin' time travel, the goddamn FLYING De Lorean, that amazingly surreal depiction of the future in 2015 with flying cars, instant pizza, and auto-lacing sneakers? Oh man, and that ridiculously awesome Hoverboard chase, that weirdo alternate 1985 where Biff is god damn KING PIMP DADDY, and Marty Solid-Snaking his way through the Enchantment Under The Sea dance in 1955 while trying to avoid Biff yet again AND his other self?
HA HA! Boredom? Where we're going we don't need boredom, Frezpot! You just sit tight and fire up that DVD player, I'mma go nuke the popcorn right now!
Aww yeah, I love that movie and every little subtle in-joke they stuck in there, like the Roger Rabbit doll in the retro store. I'm gonna grab a Pepsi Perfect and we can watc-- NO!
Hell ye-- Wait? What? No? What do you mean no?
Well, you didn't quite let me finish my sentence.
Back To The Future Part II is a fine movie with wonderful time travel antics and alternate timelines and all that other cool shit. This is indeed true, but I wasn't talking about the movie. I was suggesting... THE SUPER FAMICOM GAME.
Game? GAME? Frezno....you are aware of the implications of what you're saying, correct? "Back To The Future" + "Game"? Are you trying to subject me to some god damn crappy LJN crappy crap? I thought we were friends!
I'm perfectly aware of what I'm saying, but hear me out a little. Yes, it's common knowledge that the LJN
Back To The Future games are complete piles. Hell, they make
Ninja Gaiden III look good by comparison, and that takes some god-damned high-level mastery of shitty sorcery to pull off. But, not this game. This is an import
Back To The Future game, and in some sort of strange twist, it's GOOD!
Good you say.... hmmm... well.... You do know that I'm very very very very (read: very) skeptical of licensed games, even if they happen to be based on one of my favorite movies of all time. But I'm gonna take your word this time, and if you're wrong SO HELP ME, FREZNO I WILL...
It can't be worse than the last time I played it,
where my future roommate tried to brutally murder me in a jealous paradoxical rage of insanit-- I mean have fun Polly =)
FREEEEEZNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Wow, you had a raging good time with that game, didn't you?
Raging good ti-hihghlhglhglh.... You butthead, what the hell did you just make me play? I feel like right now if I could go back in time I'd whoop your silly little ass for that. Did you just troll me good or something?
Whaaaaaaa? This is heavy, Polly, you didn't like it? I think it's a pretty fun little game.. Well, let's hear you out, what didn't you like about the thing? Go on, let 1.21 jigawatts of rageahol out.
Okay first... Ya know what? Maybe this isn't entirely gameplay related, but this game scares the living shit out of me! Ya wanna know why? Have a gander at this...
Marty's god damn head! That's creepy like some
Silent Hill shit there! WHY IS HE CONSTANTLY STARING AT ME? No matter what he does, even if he has a GUN POINTED AT HIS FREAKIN' HEAD, he just stares at me....smirking. This is the kinda thing nightmares are made of.
Oh yeah, maybe I should have mentioned that. It IS a Japanese game, and they sure as hell did make everyone in it SUPA KAWAII DESU ANIME BAKKU TU ZA FYUCHA~.
I kinda like it though, I mean, it's loads more colorful than either of the LJN games... or that shit
Back To The Future III game on the Genesis where he looks stoned out of his goddamned fourth-dimensional mind.
Alright, I'll give you that. The game does have quite a bit of character to it. While they don't really suit the subject matter they're based on, it's colorful and has a lot of interesting and strange charm. The SUPER KAWAII DESU NE renderings of characters in the cutscenes is almost a brilliant mix of cute and disturbing.
That head still scares the shit out of me. No amount of KAWAII, DESU, or NE can change that!
Let's not forget the fodder enemies, too, some of those are really god damned bizarre. Especially the part where bald British guys with their heads on fire attack you, holy shit Japan you've done it again and made some weird nonsense.
But going back to my original point and Marty-chan always staring at me. I think that may be one of the big reasons that the controls in this game can freakin' blow sometimes. If he's not looking where he's going, accidents are bound to happen, I guess.
Granted, the controls aren't the shittiest I've ever experienced, but they always seem to shit out when you need them the most. Forward momentum can feel really off sometimes, and jumping can sometimes feel incredibly stiff. I think those are some pretty big no-no's for a platforming game.
Oh yes, I can see why that would put you off at first. It is a strange control style, and there are dick parts where you'll need to build momentum really quick in order to get any damned distance with your jumps. It's not the most perfectly controlled platformer, no, and Marty doesn't exactly handle like second nature. I think it just takes a little getting used to, is all.
I've played the hell out of it and now I can whiz through the first half of the game like an ace.
Okay....I guess I'll give you that point too. In any case, I guess practice
can make perfect. I mean, hell, I got through
Tomb Raider 1/2 that way.
But you SHALL NOT QUELL THE FLAMES OF POLLYRAGE! In fact, I may even be able to incite some Freznorage as a counter attack.
Really, now? There are only a few things in this world of ours that light the flames of Freznorage. I'm curious as to whatcha got.
Okay then....do you remember this?
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!
So, I heard you liked games where spiked balls and other such hazards appeared out of thin air a lot of the time causing about a majillion unfair and frustrating hits and deaths!
This has to be the biggest problem with the game. So many damn obstacles just appear out of fucknowhere and hit you, and a lot of the time there's almost nothing you can do about it. It's a common theme when you reach the later stages of the game to have randomly placed spiked balls phasing in and out JUST as you're about to clear a jump and then knock you back.
And don't you EVEN get me started on the segements where you rely on fans to float you around. You really don't have much control of Marty-kun during these times other than moving back and forth, and the designers were ever so kind to put many cheap and nigh unavoidable obstacles in these areas to eat away at your lifebar relentlessly.
God. GOD. I can do nothing but completely agree on that point, the spike balls are complete horse shit at times. ESPECIALLY in those goddamned tunnels where they disappear and reappear. It's just like "HEY GUY STAY IN OUR LEVEL FOR AN ARBITRARY PERIOD OF TIME!". And the fans.. ugh. Thankfully they're only in like, one section of the game. Like I said, the game ain't perfect, and this is partly why.
It boils down to really awful choices in level design for the last 1/4 - 1/2 of the game and the sometimes wonked-out controls really getting in the way of a game that's honestly trying to be fun.
I mean, you realize how off-putting this game can be at first? After the first few stages I was almost ready to give up, but I kept telling myself that "maybe it's just me." Then I'd finally overcome an obstacle and feel like I was getting better at the game, only for it to come back and punch me in the face a few stages later with bullshitty god damn obstacles, more than questionable hit detection, and even a flat out confusing boss or two. I mean, I couldn't even figure out if my attacks were hurting them or if it was the other obstacles in the room doing damage.
It gets to a point of being so frustrating sometimes that I really had to ask myself if it was worth seeing it through to the end.
Come on now, it's not all that bad. There really are some good things to this game, and I don't think it's as unfair and bullshitty as you're making it out to be. This isn't just a good game when compared to the shitty-ass LJN games, I think this is a good game in itself and it has good points. Like, the music is top-notch. This isn't some fly-by-night composer, either, this is HITOSHI SAKIMOTO!
The guy manages to take the classic Alan Silvestri
BTTF theme, and put enough twists on it for each level that make it feel right at home in each era, and that's not even counting the tracks that don't draw from the film scores. This is goddamned good stuff.
Hmmm... Alright, that's fair, I can give credit when credit is due. I'm really not a fan of most SNES music to be quite honest, but this is one aspect of the game that really did impress me. Most every tune in the game is catchy and brilliantly composed and with a name like HITOSHI "GOD DAMN" SAKIMOTO behind it, there really are no arguments.
Going back to the gameplay though, I did play the game a second time, ya know. In that second playthrough, I did come to appreciate more of what the game did right.
Did you now? Yeah, like I said, it takes a while to get used to how the game works, so let's hear what you liked about it.
Well, the game has a pretty neat "bounce-jump" mechanic where Marty-san can bounce from one enemy to another while maintaining forward momentum, remaining completely unharmed so long as he's still spinning. See?
There are a lot of neat jumping puzzles toward the end of the game entirely designed around this mechanic and when it works it provides some of the best fun that the game has to offer.
You kinda almost get the sense that this is a game trying really hard to be a
Sonic clone in some way, but it just falls a bit short of that greatness.
Ahh yeah, the chain-flipping was a really great touch. You're spot-on with the Sonic comparison, what with the fact that jumping pretty much gives you some invulnerability. Not AS good as ol' spiky blue, but it's still a pretty neat mechanic. When the game's not full of douchey traps it's actually done pretty well!
And I have to admit that while going through grabbing screenshots for this review, I found myself actually stopping to play the stages once again that I was taking screenshots of. So, I guess my initial reaction was a bit over the top.
I guess the real obstacle for anybody wanting to try and dig into
Super Back To The Future Part II is that first impression is going to be a son of a bitch. It's probably not what you're used to in a platformer due to both being different and the awkward controls and sometimes douchey level design.
And as you've totally mentioned, at least it's not as crappy as those crappy crap LJN crappy craps!
Oh god no, nowhere near THAT level of shit. It is not perfect at all and could really have used some polish, but for a licensed game it is god damned amazing. I'd go so far as to call it the best
Back To The Future game, and it really bites that it's the ONLY one that never came out on this side of the ocean.
So, in the end, I'll give
Super Back To The Future Part II Two Creepy Marty Heads and a Biff Covered in Manure.
Oh hey look! It seems Biff was playing
Ninja Gaiden III
I'll be nice and unconventional as well. Three and a half Bald British Hooligans With Heads On Fire!
Shitty games? Where we're going we don't have.. shitty games.
BUT WHAT WILL MY WEBSITE BECOME?
We'll still have shitty animu!
...gurk...
