Back to the Future, One of the Worst NES Games

I’m going to revisit some of the games I played with my friends. This time, it is Back to the Future on the NES. It was published by LJN, which is normally the kiss of death for most retro games.

Movie-based games get a bad wrap, because most of them aren’t very good. Many times, this gets blamed on them “not being like the movie,” or people’s opinions are based on an Angry Video Game Nerd episode. While the show is over the top, it doesn’t mean they’re wrong.

It has been a very long time since I’ve played this game. I don’t even remember how long we played it when I was a kid, but I do remember that my friend Joey was the one who rented it. We probably didn’t get too far into the game.

TLDR: A Strange and Baffling Attempt at a Movie-Based Game.

Narrative

The game is loosely based on the movie. Some elements from the movie are present, but they’ve been altered by the developers to serve as ideas for the game. It is a strange game that takes way too many liberties with the source material.

Gameplay

The game consists of four stages. Most of it involves walking or driving down a street in Hill Valley, where the movie took place. The gameplay isn’t awful, but it isn’t something I would want to go back to again.

Most of the game has Marty walking down the street and avoiding random obstacles. It feels like playing a terrible version of Paperboy. You spend your time dodging giant bees, oil slicks, and an assortment of random people.

Why is everyone mad at Marty? Is it Marty? I have no idea, but it makes me wonder where the police are in this town, or if they’re hoping that Marty will run around hitting people with bowling balls.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out what is going on in this game. This is an example of my genuine interest in understanding what the developers were thinking. So many of the decisions in making this game are baffling.

Between the walking stages are some things that sort of feel like the developers took inspiration from the movie. You have the guitar stage where you need to catch music notes, a stage where you smack people in the face with milkshakes, and where you’re trying to drive the car.

Back to the Future comes so close to being a fun game, but it is so disjointed and punishing. If you mess up the “boss” stages, then you go back to walking. It is like there is an average game in here, but you can’t quite get to it.

Visuals

I don’t have a problem with the way the game looks. This is an NES game from 1989, and it blends in with all the other games. Nothing stood out to me as I played through it.

The visuals didn’t have an impact on the game during the walking sections. During the other stages, I found it a little hard to stick with what was happening. It felt like the graphics were fighting with the gameplay.

What is a little strange is the streets and the enemies. I can suspend belief for the random crap that is in the game, if it looks good, which it doesn’t. Nothing in these stages looks like they were taken from the movie.

That is the biggest issue with the graphics. Things don’t look like anything from the film. This could’ve been any game on the system; it just happens to be a Back to the Future game.

Reviews at the Time

Even back in the day, this game got torched by reviewers. Outside of the protective bubble of Nintendo Power, the game was hammered by critics. It gets worse, the movie’s screenwriter called it the “worst game ever made,” which is hyperbolic, but it doesn’t change the fact that the game isn’t good (Link).

Nintendo Power gave the game a 2.5/5, I think. It is a little hard to tell what the score is. They didn’t say much about the game, only giving a brief description of the gameplay. While this sounds bad, it isn’t too different from what the publication did for other games released around this time.

Video Games and Computer Entertainment gave the game a 4/10. As I read through the review, I found some similarities with the AVGN script for the game. I don’t think it was plagiarized, because these are common complaints about the game and its weirdness. The review is from the March 1990 issue of the magazine, and I doubt that anyone remembers it.

While I don’t think this is one of the worst games ever made, I do believe it is one of the worst on the NES. If you discount the unlicensed games, then this game would be in the bottom 25 on the system.  

5.5/10. As I was playing this walking trash fire, there were moments when I started to enjoy the challenge. Then Marty would graze a fence, bump into a bench, or fall flat on his face in the middle of the street. The best thing I can say about this is that the game is playable.

Pros

• You can play it.

Cons

• Horrible Hit Detection
• Annoying Music
• Bad Gameplay

Conclusion

I remember playing this when I was six or seven years old. It was frustrating enough to make us keep trying to play the game. While I don’t remember how far we got, I’m sure that we never beat the game.

There are worse games on the NES than this one. I know that is hard to believe, especially when it comes to people on the internet yelling about the game as loudly as they have over the last few years.

Back to the Future on the NES is one of the worst games on the NES. It comes so close to being a fun game to play, but keeps falling apart. This is such a strange game, and I don’t think it manages to be an average game.

If you liked this post, please check out my posts on Superman and the Best NES Games I’ve Played.