Fellow Bloggers, I have a confession to make. I've never really seen any of the Back to the Future movies. I know, right? What kind of shut-in has never experienced this trilogy of cornerstones of pop culture? Honestly, I've made attempts. I've looked them up on my DVR for potential upcoming airings to record more than once, and come up short. And I do know the general gist of the series- Marty is the cool dude who inexplicably hangs out with a crazy old man with a DeLorean time machine. In the first movie they go back in time (I think to keep Marty's mom from ending up with Biff Tannen?), the second one takes them to the future (I have no idea what happens in this except for the generic "we have to save your kids!" + hoverboards and the Cubs), and the third is the Wild West and most people didn't like it. I really should get around to seeing them.
This was a roundabout way to explain that my most recent beaten game is Back to the Future: The Game. It was made by Telltale a few years ago, who seem to be gaining steam with more and more successful adventure games adapted from pre-existing material, including the current Game of Thrones game. That, and The Walking Dead game are both heavily focused on story, rather than any real 'game' to speak of (Keith, back me up), whereas games like the three seasons of Sam and Max and Hector: Badge of Carnage were really puzzle-heavy with less of a real storyline. Back to the Future seems to be that awkward transition from the old style to the new; while it easily has the most interesting story of any Telltale game I've played so far, full of duplicated characters and like six separate timelines by the start of the second episode, the puzzles and gameplay seemed to suffer and feel a bit tacked on. They're also really easy, with each object's use being immediately apparent when you receive it, adding together to feel more like a series of fetch quests in the 1930's version of Hill Valley than a true 'adventure'. Still though there were some improvements here- of particular note is the voice acting, which managed to get Christopher Lloyd and a young Michael J. Fox sound-alike; Fox even shows up for a cameo towards the end of the game. There were some references here that I'm sure true fans of the series would appreciated, but overall the game didn't leave much of a strong impression either way. But hey, next up from Telltale on my backlog is The Walking Dead, which is supposed to be amazing, so that will come soon.
I've got to get in on these Telltale games.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, you're mostly right, with regard to the Back to the Future plots. But Marty's mom isn't in danger of getting with Biff Tannen until the second movie - in the first movie, it's Marty himself she has the hots for! (Gulp.) Seriously, he goes back in time and inadvertently interrupts his own parents meeting one another, and he has to coach up his hapless dweeby dad-to-be on how to win over his smokin' hot future mom. She also calls him Calvin Klein because that's the name written on his underwear.
Anyway, great movies. You really should see them.