Flashback: The Quest for Identity (MD, 1993)
Graphics-8 Sound-7 Control-7 Challenge-7.5 Story-7
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-8 Fun-7.5 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7.5
+
Lots of moves (similar moveset to Prince of Persia but can also do running jumps onto ledges here)
Some innovative gameplay (portable teleporter beacon item - similar to Rad Gravity or Exile, force field shield - Another World)
Interesting missions overall
Some nice cutscenes
Some good puzzles involving item/switch interaction (use thrown stones to either distract certain enemies or trigger defensive turrets (Castle Quest BBC Micro), teleporter beacon can also be thrown)
Enemies only collide with the player if performing an attack (can move past them otherwise)
Three difficulty levels
Compared to SNES: More music track variety and ambient sfx compared to SNES (it is missing the subway song on SNES though), Higher framerate in cutscenes and much less slowdown during gameplay, No censorship
+/-
Linear structure (can move back and forth between some areas though)
Password save and battery save with some save points
Shield regenerator stations
Basic world map but no area maps
-
A bit short
Slow paced
Poor hit detection
Somewhat sluggish controls
A couple of fetch quests
Some backtracking
No real boss encounter
Some rare movement bugs (enemies get stuck in the air, conrad gets stuck in the wall)
Less memorable than Another World (partially due to the more generic Alien invasion story and uneven cutscene quality later on)
Very little music (and not much interesting ambience to make up for it)+it doesn't make very good use of the hardware
A bit repetitive
Saving is slower than on SNES
Notes:
-Originally from 1992 (AMI)
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-8 Fun-7.5 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7.5
+
Lots of moves (similar moveset to Prince of Persia but can also do running jumps onto ledges here)
Some innovative gameplay (portable teleporter beacon item - similar to Rad Gravity or Exile, force field shield - Another World)
Interesting missions overall
Some nice cutscenes
Some good puzzles involving item/switch interaction (use thrown stones to either distract certain enemies or trigger defensive turrets (Castle Quest BBC Micro), teleporter beacon can also be thrown)
Enemies only collide with the player if performing an attack (can move past them otherwise)
Three difficulty levels
Compared to SNES: More music track variety and ambient sfx compared to SNES (it is missing the subway song on SNES though), Higher framerate in cutscenes and much less slowdown during gameplay, No censorship
+/-
Linear structure (can move back and forth between some areas though)
Password save and battery save with some save points
Shield regenerator stations
Basic world map but no area maps
-
A bit short
Slow paced
Poor hit detection
Somewhat sluggish controls
A couple of fetch quests
Some backtracking
No real boss encounter
Some rare movement bugs (enemies get stuck in the air, conrad gets stuck in the wall)
Less memorable than Another World (partially due to the more generic Alien invasion story and uneven cutscene quality later on)
Very little music (and not much interesting ambience to make up for it)+it doesn't make very good use of the hardware
A bit repetitive
Saving is slower than on SNES
Notes:
-Originally from 1992 (AMI)