Flashback Review (Switch)

Set in the year 2142, Flashback follows the story of Conrad Hart, member of the Galaxia bureau of investigation. After discovering that an alien race is infiltrating earth, Conrad is relentlessly hunted down and kidnapped by the non-human race. Awaking aboard their craft (without his memory), the only thing in his mind is to escape. After stealing a hover bike and making a break for freedom, Conrad is shot down and crash lands on a strange jungle-type planet. Conrad must now find his way back to earth, but first he has to remember what he is going back for.

Flashback presents itself as a sci-fi action adventure game with more than a passing influence from classic platformer Prince of Persia. Indeed, it does contain a great deal of gap jumping and hanging from ledges, though to say the game is just a Prince of Persia clone is way off the mark, as a heavy adventure aspect runs through the core of the experience. Upon its release (for a few months), Flashback was the only game anyone was playing, and even now the sci-fi storyline (bordering on Cyberpunk at times) remains a very interesting and engaging tale to discover.

Flashback introduced a definitive version of a graphical style that had been tried in games such as Prince of Persia and further developed with Another World. Due to this style the title’s main character appears to move much more realistically than any games character before. The characters in Flashback are (if anything), a little small, but this does not detract from the fact that each sprite is well animated and contains a considerable amount of detail. Furthermore, each area within the game is absolutely beautiful, high in detail and uses a wide colour palette to represent the future circa 2142.

This new version of the game has a new sound track, which unfortunately does not quite live up to original. Sound effects are crisp and the music still works to enhanced by the cinematic style of the game which often switches to a small cut scenes when something of interest is discovered. This acts to make Flashback feel more like an interactive movie, and keeps the plot moving along at a steady pace.

The unique graphical style allows Conrad to perform a wide variety of moves with ease, which is a good thing, as to get through the game you need to use every advantage available. Our hero can jump, grasp ledges, roll around and all manner of other things - even being able to decide whether after an action he will draw his gun ready to fire. For this type of game the control system is just about perfect. The Switch version of the game also runs much more smoothly than before meaning many of the frustrations surrounding positioning Conrad are eased considerably.

Despite the claims of the advertising blurb there are few new additions in this Switch re-release. As mentioned before the new soundtrack doesn’t quite work and the saving system should have been overhauled for a much better experience. The rewind feature is very useful (allowing you to wind back time if you make a mistake) and this will undoubtedly help players progress through the more frustrating moments but that is about it. The physical version of the game also comes with a very badly designed case that doesn’t fit the manual and also won’t hold the game card steady. This is ridiculous and just screams of poor design.

Overall, Flashback remains outstanding title, a highly interesting plot underpinned by decent graphics and a solid control system that means you are always wanting to push on to see what piece of information will reveal itself. This Switch re-release is pretty bare bones in terms of features though. Much more could and should have been done to give the game the love and respect it deserves. It’s still worth playing but returning fans won’t find much here that they couldn’t get by booting up the original and the physical edition is nothing short of pathetic.

Overall 7/10

Flashback Review (SNES)

Set in the year 2142, Flashback follows the story of Conrad Hart, member of the Galaxia bureau of investigation. After discovering that an alien race is infiltrating earth, Conrad is relentlessly hunted down and kidnapped by the non-human race. Awaking aboard their craft (without his memory), the only thing in his mind is to escape. After stealing a hover bike and making a break for freedom, Conrad is shot down and crash lands on a strange jungle-type planet. Conrad must now find his way back to earth, but first he has to remember what he is going back for.

The title presents itself as a sci-fi action adventure game with more than a passing influence from classic platformer Prince of Persia. Indeed, it does contain a great deal of gap jumping and hanging from ledges, though to say the game is just a Prince of Persia clone is way off the mark, as a heavy adventure aspect runs through the core of the experience. Upon its release (for a few months), Flashback was the only game anyone was playing, and even now the sci-fi storyline (bordering on Cyberpunk at times) remains a very interesting and engaging tale to discover.

 Flashback introduced a definitive version of a graphical style that had been tried in games such as Prince of Persia and developed with Another World.Due to this style the title’s main character appeares to move much more realistically than any games character before. The characters in Flashback are (if anything), a little small, but this does not detract from the fact that each sprite is well animated and contains a considerable amount of detail. Furthermore, each area within the game is absolutely beautiful, high in detail and uses a wide colour palette to represent the future circa 2142.

Accompanying the lush graphical style are some very effective mood building sound effects and an excellent soundtrack. As Conrad digs deeper into the plot, music lays subtle but broodingly sinister tunes over proceedings - something that really helps to make the player engage with the story. This feeling is further enhanced by the cinematic style of the game which often switches to a small cut scenes when something of interest is discovered. This acts to make Flashback feel more like an interactive movie, and keeps the plot moving along at a steady pace.

The unique graphical style allows Conrad to perform a wide variety of moves with ease, which is a good thing, as to get through the game you need to use every advantage available. Our hero can jump, grasp ledges, roll around and all manner of other things - even being able to decide whether after an action he will draw his gun ready to fire. For this type of game the control system is just about perfect, the only problem is that sometimes it can be a little slow to do things due to the large amount of animation for each movement. This  rarely has a negative impact on the game however.

Overall, Flashback is an outstanding title, a highly interesting plot underpinned by decent graphics and a solid control system that means you are always wanting to push on to see what piece of information will reveal itself. If there is a criticism it would be that the game does rise in difficulty quickly, and finishing it will require reflexes that even the most hardcore player may not be able to produce after a diet of Playstation and Xbox games. In spite of this, players are likely to persevere simply because the quality of the title is so high. The game is still fairly easy to get hold of and well worth hunting down should the opportunity arise. Flashback is a classic game that for a while was the next big thing, and in such a competitive era this was not easily achieved.

8/10

Cruise for a Corpse (PC Review)

We love point-and-click adventures here at Retro101. Even though we've completed these games many times over, we're always compelled to go back and experience them again and again. Unfortunately some games receive less attention than the others, perhaps a brief go on a cover disk demo many years ago failed to capture our imagination, or our busy gaming schedules left some titles out in the cold. Cruise for a Corpse is one such title I'd never given much attention to. However, after playing it recently, I couldn't quite figure out why.

You play as Detective Raoul Desentier, who is invited on a cruise by wealthy businessman Niklos Karaboudjan. On the second day Niklos is murdered, and it's your job to find the culprit. Every passenger aboard has their reasons for killing the host, so you have to search for clues, ask questions and use your skills of deduction to solve the mystery.

Based on that summary, chances are you will have decided whether you're going to like this game or not. It's a title aimed at a more adult audience than most other adventures, and will no doubt appeal more to fans of Christie's Poirot novels, but we ask you give it a chance. If you do, you'll find a game which requires plenty of concentration, memory, and more than a little patience.

Upon release, Cruise stood out from other titles in the genre due to its good looks and streamlined control system. A click of the right mouse button brings up your inventory, and by clicking on an item you can carry out an item-specific action. Lucas Arts used a more refined system in some of their post Monkey Island 2 classics. The lack of verbs filling a third of the screen allowed the graphics more breathing room, which is a good thing as the characters are pretty huge.

The rotoscoping technique from Another World (and later, Flashback) was employed here, yet felt nowhere near as smooth. The adventure genre isn't always renowned for its fast moving gameplay, but Cruise can, at times, really push the player's patience. On investigating one room, Desentier knelt down to pull out a suitcase, then stood up. Then he knelt down to open the suitcase, and stood up. Then, to put the case back, he – yep, you guessed it – knelt down again. The fact you have to wait for the animations to finish their cycle can grate a little, yet the game allows you to travel around the ship by using a map instead of walking, which is a nice touch.

Another positive feature to the game is the clock. After you've found some crucial information, the clock will appear onscreen and advance by ten or twenty minutes. It's a good way of telling you you're making progress, and also suggests the other passengers have moved around the ship, allowing you to investigate rooms without hindrance. So, Cruise for a Corpse is worth playing. Just keep in mind you will need to be patient and accepting of its flaws.

I advise you to keep a notepad and pen with you, as the questions you ask people keep growing and growing, and you may get to a point where you can't remember who's been asked what. It's also advised to check areas previously investigated, as items often appear from nowhere, as your line of questioning triggers a key object in solving the case. It's not a game for everyone, but those who do make it to the end of the cruise, will be glad they did.

Written by Dan Gill

7/10

Future Wars Review (PC)

Future Wars was the first of Delphine's games to use the cinematique engine. This would later be used in a number of other point and click adventures, as well as being adapted for classic game Another World. The game follows a curious window cleaner who discovers a time travelling machine in his boss' office. The machine sends you into the past and future and along the way some evil aliens turn up for good measure.

As interesting as the setting is the controls really are irritating. Right clicking on the mouse brings up a panel with various options such as examine, talk and use. You select the one you want and then move the cursor over the place you want to use it. Those brought up on the later Scumm engine games, such as Monkey Island, may struggle here. Having to press examine every time you want to see something really is a chore. It seems mad now after the Scumm engine that simply highlights what something is without any need for button pushes. We shouldn't forget though that Lucas Arts titles Zak Mckraken, Loom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade all worked in a similar way.

Adding to the frustration is the fact many of the items appear as a couple of vague coloured dots on the screen. Only when highlighted do they reveal themselves to be flags and pieces of paper. This means many players will be completely oblivious to objects that they need to collect. You can click examine and move it around the screen, but often you need to hit an exact pixel to activate the description. When you theoretically (unless you are looking at a guide), don't know if there's an object on the screen or not it becomes an exercise in frustration.

When you do get a run of puzzles solved it does move at a nice pace. The worlds are well drawn and contain a fair amount of character. You can certainly see some of the graphical style in later Delphine games as well. Aside from this though it is hard to recommend the game to first time players. Most gamers will be completely lost and frustrated due to the archaic control system. Future Wars may well have the set the blueprint for things to come, but there is little reason to go back to it now.

5/10

Flashback Review (SNES)

A review of the Super Nintendo version of Flashback. The game is also available on many other systems such as the Amiga, Megadrive and Jaguar and also know as 'Flashback: The Quest for Identity'.