Acclaim sure knew how to turn a good property to bile, didn’t they? Who here remembers getting excited over Bart Vs. The Space Mutants only to find that someone threw Bart Simpson on a video game box, took a huge steaming crap inside it, and then packaged and shrink-wrapped it in a box? Yeah, they pretty much did that to every game based on a movie or franchise. But before that, remember Back to The Future? Not only was it a horrible game, but it had almost nothing in common with the original movie. You look at any given image of the NES game and tell me if you see anything that remotely resembled the movie outside of the logo and that one stage with the DeLorean. And then we somehow managed to get a sequel. I remember renting this game as a kid thinking "Oh wow, Back To The Future II AND III as a single game! This has to be worth playing!"It was one of only two games ever that I rented, took back within 15 minutes, and demanded the video store give me a refund. And apparently there’s some justice in this world because they actually did it.
I’d bring up their Sega Genesis adaptation of Back To The Future 3, but making fun of Acclaim for doing stupid things like releasing a literally impossible and unplayable video game without any sort of testing would be like playing a game of Operation with Michael J. Fox; too easy, and too mean. Besides, this isn’t about how those guys failed the Back To The Future franchise, because Acclaim wasn’t the only one guilty of making horrible games from movie franchises (that’s right, THQ, I haven‘t forgotten.) No, instead, we’re going to take a look at the resulting product of what happens when you give a movie license to a company with actual QA testing, a sense of ethics, competence, and the lack of the "I can shit in a box and sell this" mentality.
Super Back To The Future 2 made it’s way on the Super Famicom three years after the original movie’s release, courtesy of Toshiba-EMI (Sword Maniac/X-Kaliber 2097, Master of Monsters, Thunder Spirits). In the video game world, it was a time of wannabes. If someone wasn’t trying to rip off Street Fighter II, they were trying to rip off Sonic The Hedgehog. When I first tried this game, my initial feeling while playing this was that this was going to fall under the latter category. If you’ve ever played any of the speedy-mascot games of the 16-bit era such as Road Runner Death Valley Rally, Socket: Time Dominator, and the countless others which aren’t worth remembering, then you know what I’m talking about. Super BttF2 has the speed element that the mascot games at the time were incorporating. But then I have to tell myself that this was intended for a market that wasn’t all that fixated on fast animals with sassy attitudes, so I can only speculate that making a Sonic clone was not Invictus‘ concern.Nonetheless, as unfair as it may be to treat it as such, it is probably in all of our best interests to walk into Super BttF2 knowing that it’s gameplay alone classifies it under the “Sonicwannabia” suborder. Even so, this is not an automatic dismissal, as Super BttF2 is far from generic. With that and everything this article describes, I have to wonder just why didn't we get this. Perhaps it was a matter of American publishers fear of exposing a very Japanese-style interpretation of a well known western property? Or might it have just been that the franchise was dwindling in popularity to the point where the name would have shunned? My personal theory is that it was either some or all of those factors taken in combination with licensing issues. Regardless, we missed out on a solid title, especially with the attraction to Sonic style gameplay which was all the rage on Western shor
es in those days.The story more or less follows that of Back To The Future 2 with a few liberties then and there. And by “liberties” I mean “cute super-deformed anime caricatures.” Yes, we’re talking cute miniatures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown. Yes, we get SD Biff/Griff Tannen with a Jay Leno chin. We even get a squatty and dot-eyed recreation of the cranky bald principle who was fixated on the word “slackers“. He looks kind of like oldschool Popeye. And yes… they will probably make the average anime fangirl yelp the word “kawaiiiiiiiiiiiii“ or something close in the most annoying high-pitched squeal you will ever hear. Leave it up to the Japanese to actually make Christopher Lloyd look adorable. But you know what? I’m not going to make jokes about that, because even with that and the random kung-fu baddies that pop out, it’s still looks closer to the movie than the western video game adaptations. Once you get over the cartoon designs, you’ll find some very solid gameplay. Because this was intended for a Japanese audience, obviously all the text is in Japanese. Fortunately you don’t really have to know anything about the dialog or even the original movies to enjoy the game, but for all you fan translators out there that may be reading this piece, the game‘s worth taking up as a side project.
You take control of Marty McFly, bounded on the trademark pink hoverboard as seen in the movies as he “hover-shreds” his way through six different stages broken into five parts (with a boss character waiting at the end), all of which correspond with the original story, traveling through various eras of the years 2015, the altered 1985, and finally back to 1955. Now being of the Sonicwannabia suborder, Super BttF2 is a very speed oriented set in very large and wide opened stages full of nooks and crannies that are uncovered with just bit of skill, a feat that only Bubsy managed to pull off. Actually, now that I look back at it, Bubsy only scratched the surface of what Super BttF2 did in terms of level design. In fact, the levels alone may just be able to take on those of the Sonic series, the very alpha order of the species itself.
However, controlling Marty does have a pretty steep learning curve. The first thing that most players notice is the fact that you’re not controlling Marty on foot but rather on the hoverboard. Fear not, as that change of the standard actually plays a part in what stands Super BttF2 apart from the rest of the suborder. In the grand scheme of things, you’re playing this game as you would most any other action game rather than some bizarre skateboarding sports title. I wanted to emphasize this, as I’ve seen this game get a “sports” sub tag in other web listings of this game. The board alone is where the “sports game” connection is, and even with that, anyone giving it such a tag never bothered to really look at the game. There are virtually NO sports elements to this game. It’s purely cosmetic.
This is not to say that the control scheme is different. Far from it, as a matter of fact; Super BttF2 does not have the orthodox button settings most seasoned platform action players are used to.
If you’re playing with an original SNES/SFC pad (or something close), you’ll notice that unlike most games of the action genre, you’re using the button normally designated to jump (Button B) is instead used to speed up. Likewise, Button Y that is usually the standard as the “action/attack command” in other titles of the genre is instead used to jump. Granted, Marty’s flip jump doubles as an attack, it’s not completely backwards, but because it is the only real jump button in the game, players used to the common setting of other titles will be thrown off quiet a bit. However, while there’s no way the designate any sort of different control methods through the options prompt, there
are other methods of control initially available. Button A is also used to jump. If you wanted to, you could play the game “NES controller” style and play it much like you would a Super Mario title. Another option, since Button X an alternate button to that of Button B, would be to place your thumb over X and A as if you would with the standard Y/B scheme of other Super NES/Super Famicom platformers.Of course, if you’re playing this on an emulator, then you can set your own layout, so that probably doesn’t matter to you, now does it?
Regardless of how you want to hold your controller, basic movement is still something that requires a deal of getting used to. Speeding up can and will throw you completely off course, so don’t go into this expecting that constant speed is a good thing as it is with just about any given Mario title. Hoverboards do not exactly stop on a dime if you know what I mean. When it comes to attacking, those familiar with the genre will probably take the mentality that simply landing on your enemy’s head is going to do the trick. I am both happy and sad to say this is not going to be the case. Shades of Sonic here again my friends as falling off a ledge and on top an enemy will hurt.
You’ll notice quickly that there are coins scattered everywhere, as just about every other action game of this caliber has some sort of constant item of mass quantities. Unlike most of the others, Super BttF2 doesn’t take the formula of x number of coins = an extra chance. Rather it’s actually used as a currency. Along the way you’ll find extra bonuses such as invincibility, extra lives, health and shields. Yep, Sonicwannabia kicking in again, but with another slight twist. They’re not free for the grabbing. You actually have to spend coins to access these power-ups, and unless you’re exploring every area and actually bother to defeat enemies in your path (most which do drop coins), you’re going to have a hard time ahead of you. This game does not give you any favors for you here. You’re in for a challenge, and this is another strong element as to why.
It’s not all The Sonic Clone School of Hard Knocks however, as you are given a slight break from the challenge
from time to time, and strangely enough, it’s in the form of the boss battles. They’re actually rather easy. I dare say some of them are painfully easy, such as the case of the final showdown with Biff. Granted there are a few that do provide some challenge (most notable being the showdown against the second to last boss, Biff’s three cronies which I dare say is the hardest boss battle of all), but for the most part, some may find these end stage bosses more like an interactive comedy intermission than anything else.Gameplay aside, I have to really point out another major element that sets Super BttF2 apart from other games period. Probably the most admirable element about this game as a whole was it's music. I’m not one to write about a game’s music when I review, unless it’s really awful or really good, because usually it‘s a trivial thing. In this case, it‘s good enough to want to write an article all it's own about. Rather than taking Alan Selvestri's beloved theme and dwindling it down to a series of bland midis, the famous overture was not only properly translated and well synthesized, but outdoes itself compared to most 16-bit soundtracks of it's time. Not only is the initial theme present on the title screen, it's also given a number of remixes to serve as background music that really blends in well with the stages. Considering that SBttF2's composer went on to make a hell of a resume for himself, including work on the twelfth installment of a certain little fantasy RPG known for not living up to ever being "Final", that should tell you that you'll probably want to have the sound on your emulator up for this one.
Despite it’s more than obvious gameplay influence, Super Back To The Future 2 is certainly worth a look. If you only liked Sonic, but want something with a little bit of a different pace and interesting twists, I highly recommend you give it a go
MANURE! Biff HATES manure!!!
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