Back to the Future: the Game-review

“Back to the Future: the Game” has been out for a while as a downloadable game in chapters.  I only recently found a copy of it in it’s entirely as one blu ray disc. The blue ray disc is not a bad deal considering how much space you’d have to allow downloading the entire game on your hard drive.  I honestly think that only the most die-hard Back to the Future fans will even remotely enjoy this game. 

The story is pretty good, as it was written by the folks who helped write the movies.  Six months have passed since the event of the last film and Doc Brown has been missing for all that time. Marty goes to an estate sale at his house and comes across the DeLorean.  The DeLorean takes him to Hill Valley 1931 where Doc Brown is in jail and Marty must interact with Gangsters, his Grandfather, and a teenage Doc Brown.  The story takes some unique twists and really feels like a sequel to the other movies.

The voice acting is fairly decent.  The guy they got to impersonate Michael J. Fox is spot on. Christopher Lloyd plays Doc Brown which is pretty awesome. Here is the strange part.  They couldn’t get any of the other side characters to reprise their roles.  The Biff Tannen guy sounds nothing like Biff.  What were Thomas Wilson, Lea Thompson, and Crispin Glover doing that they couldn’t do a voice over gig? 

The animation is really shoddy.  It looks like cartoon caricatures that were left unfinished or like action figurines.  The game play is some off the easiest I have ever seen.  It’s a point-and-click game and if a puzzle is ever TOO challenging you can hit a button and it TELLS YOU how to solve it.  To top it off, there is never a loose scenario.  You can’t die and there is no fail.  That is how this game took two days to cruise through for me.  It’s not a real brain buster and certainly isn’t a challenge.     

That is why I can really only recommend this game to a super fan of the franchise.  If you are a person who would just love to see how the story would continue beyond the third movie, then this will do the trick.  If you are looking for a good game, then look elsewhere.  I love these movies and it is was great to step into Hill Valley, hear a kicking Huey Lewis soundtrack, and remember what is was like when I could just “make like a tree and get out of here.”