Back to the Future Part II & III
System: NES
Release Date: September 1990
Developer: Beam Software
Publisher: LJN
Genre: Action
Hop between the past, present, and future in Back to the Future Part II & III! Biff Tannen has already taken the almanac back to his past self and the future has changed in a very dystopian way. Marty doesn’t like what it’s become and is now on a quest to fix the timeline back to what it once was. To do this, he needs to find 30 items that are out of time and return them to their proper places.
There are 16 streets in Hill Valley that Marty must traverse. He jumps with the A Button and can kill enemies by jumping on their heads. Don’t be off by a pixel, or you die. You start with ten lives and they drain down really quickly. The Delorean brings you back to where you die, making me wonder about the role of time in death. Get extra lives by grabbing pizza and pop to accumulate 100 junk food points.
Artifacts are hidden behind a door that holds a puzzle room that only opens if you’ve collected a key from killing an enemy. These rooms are patience testers. You have to figure out the proper way or order to collect clocks. When you get them all, a trophy appears that you have to grab. Putting them where they belong requires you to find the remote control for the Delorean and then collecting enough fuel to make a jump. After that, you need to check every pipe, sewer, and door you see to find hidden puzzle rooms. Decode what is being asked for and then check one off your list.
I sat down and tried to map each time period out when I found the compass at the drive-in in the future, but this became a massive chore. Especially since alleys between streets don’t exist in every time period. So you have to jump through time a lot and each time you do, you create a Marty clone that you may run into. These guys want you dead! Not what I would do to my future self… though past Georg sometimes earns my wrath…
When you finish putting all 30 artifacts back where they go, (or enter the proper password on the title screen) you fix the timeline, but then get a letter from Doc asking you to go way back in time to save him. In the wild west of Part III, Marty gets a gun that he fires with the B Button. Otherwise, it’s the same thing, look for artifacts, find a rock that they should be placed under. In my timeline, Biff reigns supreme. I hope that’s not an ominous prediction of our future…
Graphics: 2.0
Everything looks alright, but what are these enemies supposed to be?
Sound: 2.0
I like the music in each time period. I don’t like the sound effects, especially when a bird comes on screen.
Gameplay: 1.0
Really, it’s a piss poor Mario wannabe. Marty controls horribly. There are too many artifacts and hidden puzzle rooms.
Difficulty: 1.0
You get a lot of lives and can continue forever, but why would you want to?
Fun Factor: 0.5
I don’t think there’s much fun to be had here. I really dislike this game.
Overall Rating: 1.3
Back to the Future Part II & III earns a D+. This game truly does deserve the hate it receives. It’s awful and playing it made me sad.