Flashback: The Quest for Identity

"Not a mindless shooter."

I was one of those rich kids you all hated growing up. I had (and still do to this day) 600 SNES games and Flashback was one of them, can you believe its on my top 10 list?

In this game you controlled Conrad, A likable enough guy who (surprise) lost his memory and now has to find out who he is, where he is and of course save the world.

The game is very reminicent of the Prince of Persia ( the originals not the Sands of Time trilogy) where you have to work a series of climbing and jumping puzzles, and because this is the future a few gun battles too.

The controls are I admit a bit convoluted with the "Y" button mapped to be run, grasp, fire gun, hit switch, all at once. but once you get some practice it will become second nature. The "A" button draws your gun, the "B" button is jump. To do a say running jump, you need to hold "Y" press the direction you want to go and hold "up" as you reach the cliff edge, and Conrad will make a mighty leap and automatically grasp the ledge on the far side...or go splat...if you didn't make it. There is a defensive roll also by holding Down and rolling to forward(Hadouken motion) Conrad will roll along the ground for one second and be immune to all damage, which is extremely useful against the end game enemies you face.

The graphics are...ok I won't lie...not great, Conrad himself animates fluidly while running, climbing, rolling. It seems they took a regular person doing all those actions and painted Conrad over him and put that in the game, the animation of Conrad and his enemies are the graphic high point in this game, while the backgrounds are rather large...but bland.

Music...not much there, a few bass notes here and there when you enter the screen but no, no music. Sound effects are okay, the sound of bullets hitting your forcefield are satisfying.

Replay is not a issue with this game, beat the game once and you've done all there is. A difficulty setting is available but it only makes the enemies take a hit or two more.

The Story is what drives this game. After you make off the first stage and jump a few ledges you get your memory back and it explains the memory loss and what you mission is. the story is what I like the best about this game. I wont spoil it, but i will say that to this day, it has one of the most Original endings ever, (in that when it is all said and done you do win against the big evil in the game, however Conrad doesn't exactly ride off in to the sunset either.

The story is the only reason to play this game. It does take A LOT of patience to play it but the game play is there if you are. However the story will pull you in and and leave you kind of sad at the end. How many games can claim that?

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/03/06