Back to the Future.

Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan, and told me if I didn't talk about Back to the Future this week, he'd melt my brain.

So dear Readers I want you to come back with me, back to the 80's to the year before I was born, and to the birth of one of my all time favourite franchises.

Among other things I'll give you a very quick run down of the films, review the BTTF card game and take a look at the new(ish) episodic games from telltale.

Films.

The back to the future films are undeniable classics, Michael J. Fox gives a great preformance as Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd is unforgettable as Dr. Emmett Brown. I think I first saw the films when I was about 5 or 6, and I think I fell in love with them on that very first viewing. Since then. I've seen them countless times, I've seen the original twice in the cinema, once with the original 1985 film stock that actually broke during the screening. I even had my very first kiss to the opening of BTTF part 2. Its pretty safe to say they have a special place in my heart.

I'm not going to talk much about the story, as if you don't know the plot of BTTF at this point you should stop reading immediately, and go and watch all 3, then when your done come back and finish reading

What do you mean they have never seen Back to the Future?

.Not only are the films cinematography impressive they have an awesome and memorable score, the humour is well-placed and appropriate and unlike most time travel films they don't fall into the larger possible plot holes.

In my option the most impressive parts of the film are the changes to Hill valley, in the films we get to see Hill Valley at 3 different points in its history (and one alternative version of Hill Valley), and in my option the masterful way the film makers showed how history, and the events of the film, changed Hill Valley is why, of all the films of the 80's, BTTF will always be my personal favourite.

Card game.

You might not know about this one, but I recommend checking it out.

Made by loony labs in 2010 the Back to the future card game is essentally a remake of the older loony labs game “Chrononauts” like Chrononauts this game revolves around a central time line laid out with cards in the centre of the table, you play as a descendant of characters from the films and you must alter history to ensure your own existence, then win the game by un-inventing time-travel itself

That's where the similarity to Chrononauts ends, in the BTTF card game they removed the “patch” system so you no longer have to patch paradoxes to prevent the universe ending, instead time ripples and changes in a way much closer to the films, they also removed the mission cards simplifying what you need to do to win.

This makes for a very entertaining game that works well as a simpler version of Chrononauts perfect to introduce people to Chrononauts as well as being a fun game based on a great series.

I highly recommend it if you can get hold of it.

Telltale games.

This series of games set after the films is not only fun to play, but gives a great wrap up to the series.

The story goes that after the end of the last film, Doc went off to live his life with his wife and kids, still travailing through time, the doc gets stuck in prohibition era Hill Valley, the DeLorean's safty feature kicks in to return to 1985, just in time for Marty to return to save the Doc from once again dying in the past.

I'm not going to go much into the story beyond that, since unlike the films, I don't expect you to have played the games, and the story is actually pretty good, and I don't want to spoil it for you.

The voice acting is great in this game, some of the original actors returned to voice characters, but they got some amazing sound alike to voice the ones that did not, the story is just a joy to play through, you get to see another couple of versions of Hill Valley and learn much more about the Doc, including getting to interact with his younger self.

There are a couple of cheesy premises, the DeLorean you use in the games is not the original, but a “temporal copy” created when the DeLorean was struck by lightning at the end of the second film, unlike its counterpart destroyed at the end of BTTF 3, this version is intact, right down to its time circuits and its a hell of a lot of fun using it to explore the times of the games.

I have been playing the games on my iPad, and that's a real treat, but it is available for the PC and Mac and you can download them, or buy a physical version of them here http://www.telltalegames.com/bttf I highly recommend it.

The animated series

You read that right, believe it or not, there is in fact a Back to the Future animated series, although its bloody hard to get hold owing to the fact that it has never been (officially) released on DVD, you can watch some of it on YouTube

Unlike the films the animated series focused on The Brown family and Doc's children with only occasional appearances from Marty and Jennifer, The show also featured a much upgraded version of the DeLorean including voice activated time circuits, the ability to travel in space as well as time and the ability to fold up into a suitcase.

The creators of back to the future have said that the events depicted in the animated series are an alternative time line for the story and should not be considered cannon but either way, its worth checking out if you get the chance, just for the weirdness of it, I remember watching it fondly as a kid, but the information you see here is about all I can remember about it, so make of that what you will.

The animated series also had a very brief comic series detailing further adventures, I have never seen it personally, but it is spoken about fondly in some Back to the Future circles, if you have any of it, let me know, I would love to see it.

The Ride.

One of my biggest regrets on this earth, is that I never got to ride BTTF the ride at universal studios, as it was sadly removed in 2007 to be replaced by The Simpsons ride.

All I know of the ride comes from internet research and the video footage on the blu-ray release of the trilogy, so I'll keep this really short.

Basicly in this version of the BTTF time line, Doc and his family moved back to the 20^th century after the events of BTTF 3, doc opened the “the Institute of Future Technology” and continued inventing.

Riders play the part of "volunteers" testing out Doc's newest invention; the eight-passenger DeLorean time machine. Only Biff turns up and steals the original DeLorean, leading the riders on a chase through time to bring him back.

It looked like great fun, and a nice tribute to the films, but sadly without your own DeLorean time machine, your never going to be able to ride it in the future, and in this fan's option, it will be sorely missed.

Other games.

There exists more BTTF games that just the Telltale ones, they are all pretty terrible, but i'll give you a super quick run down, just for completions sake.

Back to the Future (1985)

Available on the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC. In this 'adventure' game you try and get George and Lorraine to spend enough time together to fall in love,

Back to the Future (1989)

Available on the NES. A bizarre game, you bassicly collect clocks to win levels, its so bad it hardly counts as a game and even Bob Gale, the screenwriter of the films called it “one of the worst games ever” insisting that fans of the films don't buy it.

Back to the Future Part II & III (1990)

Available on the NES, this game as the title suggests follows the events of the second and third film, and is a side scroller, you play as Marty and do a bunch of stuff. Its major problem is the fact that its really long, completely lacking any sort of save or password function, and frankly, quite boring.

Back to the Future Part III (1991)

Available on the Mega Drive, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Master System, and the ZX Spectrum. I know this game has 4 levels, but frankly the first (that has you riding a horse as doc to rescue Clara) is so frustrating that even though I owned the mega drive version of this I've never played the other 3, I guess it follows the story of the 3^rd film, but its one to avoid.

Super Back to the Future II (1993)

Only available in Japan as far as I know, for the super famicom, this is a 2D platformer where you play as Marty on a hoverboard, it has hardly anything to do with the film, but its pretty good compared to the other games on this list.

Universal studios Theme Parks Adventure. (2001)
released for the Game Cube, I was unfortunate enough to own this 'game' most of it is really rubbish mini games based on rides at universal studios, but it also featured a really rubbish mini game where you get to drive the DeLorean, so that's something.

Back to the Future: The Pinball

One word. WANT!