Flashback HD remake

Zero-Cool

Absolutely loved Flashback on the Mega Drive so really interested in this remake. Will be interesting to see if it is a direct remake or 'Origins' version.

Teaser pic revealed




and here it is compared to the Mega Drive version

DeSelby83

Loved that game

Not The Real Scarecrow

Jesus, I remember getting this in the day and being blown away by the graphics and the story line. Be well interested in picking up the remake, even if its just for pure nostalgias sake.

super_furry

I enjoyed it at the time but don't really see what upscaled graphics will add to it. Flashback was as much about it's distinctive look at the rotoscoped animation as anything else and making it look like a generics HD platformer does nothing for it.

ScumLord

Meatwad wrote: »

Jesus, I remember getting this in the day and being blown away by the graphics and the story line.

Back when a game having extra colours was a major advancement.

Hercule

I remember as a kid I was stuck on the "running man" gameshow thing you had to do - went back and played it a few years later and thought it got a bit crap when you went to the kind of purple/blue alien world - I remember the original flashback took up nearly all of the old 32mb hard drive I had it installed on.

Darksaga87

I was only playing this on the mega drive about 2 months ago! Savage game.

Still remember renting it out and being amazed at the graphics!

o1s1n

ScumLord wrote: »

Back when a game having extra colours was a major advancement.

And with their limited colour palette, they probably still had more colours than modern FPS games :pac:

Looks like an interesting project. Although Flashback and Another World are still fantastic games and still great to play now.

Pushtrak

The developers who made Amy are making this. Don't get optimistic.

Zero-Cool

Yeah but the original creator is also on board so will have to wait an see. Last HD remake I got excited for was tony hawks and heard that was an awful remake.

It would be great if a HD remake of Another World was made and bundled with this.

deathrider

Aptly named now :P

I loved Flashback, but I think I was a bit too young at the time to really understand what I was doing, so I was rubbish at it. The graphics used to blow me away though. I also enjoyed Fade To Black, even though I knew it wasn't very good.

super_furry

Pushtrak wrote: »

The developers who made Amy are making this. Don't get optimistic.

Amy is straight up the worst game I've played on this generation of consoles.

Pushtrak

super_furry wrote: »

Amy is straight up the worst game I've played on this generation of consoles.

I didn't play it as what I'd read inspired me to avoid it. I don't like wasting time trying out games in the hopes they are so bad they're good. Which it didn't sound was the case, even if I were so inclined.

Fnz

o1s1n wrote: »

Flashback and Another World are still fantastic games and still great to play now.

Though I enjoyed it at the time, Another World's 'learn-by-dying, and replay previous 20 minutes' gameplay has no place in 2013.

Bought the 15th anniversary edition - did not have the patience for it, at all.

krudler

Fnz wrote: »

Though I enjoyed it at the time, Another World's 'learn-by-dying, and replay previous 20 minutes' gameplay has no place in 2013.

Bought the 15th anniversary edition - did not have the patience for it, at all.

*cough* Demon's Souls *cough*

Not having the patience for games like that is more of a sign of how spoonfed we are as gamers now, achievements and unlocks for doing basically sod all in the game, checkpoints every few feet, auto save etc etc. I only replayed both Another World and Flashback recently and still enjoyed them. Remember the opening of Another World? you start in a deep pool of water after materialising there, you can barely make out what it is you're looking at to being with, there are tentacle..things, reaching for you, you mash the buttons, but its not quick enough, you die, start again, mash harder, escape. Learn by doing, no onscreen prompts, no pointers or walkthroughs, just you and figuring stuff out yourself.

I remember playing Flashback for the first time on my MegaDrive and being blown away by the custscenes, and the player animation, be cool to see a spruced up version of it.

good game back in the day but very of it's time. repetitive gameplay mechanic. will have to add some new stuff imo to make it compelling today.

pixelburp

Honestly? That I think that 'HD' shot looks worse. And I'm not just being super-nostalgic for the original design; the 16-bit art has a minimalist charm about it - evocative yet simple - which worked against the fact each screen was effectively a mini-puzzle in itself. The HD shot looks cluttered and from that shot alone it's hard to see what's meant to be platform & what's scenery. Very generic overall, that character art in particular.

o1s1n

Fnz wrote: »

Though I enjoyed it at the time, Another World's 'learn-by-dying, and replay previous 20 minutes' gameplay has no place in 2013.

Bought the 15th anniversary edition - did not have the patience for it, at all.

Thats a problem with you, not the game :P

balkieb2002

Used to like Flashback but used to love Another World.
Man that game was so hard but once it clicked on how to clear a certain area it was very satisifying (like getting past the first level ).

Star Lord

balkieb2002 wrote: »

Used to like Flashback but used to love Another World.
Man that game was so hard but once it clicked on how to clear a certain area it was very satisifying (like getting past the first level ).

Stupid leeches...

balkieb2002

DamoElDiablo wrote: »

Stupid leeches...

Haha it seriously has to be one of the hardest opening to a game. I think you fight meet that black cat monster by the second screen. I died there so many times and I had tried fecking everything expect the one fairly obvious thing.

This lovlely pet:


I just remember everytime I made it to a new level I wrote down that levels passcode (a godsend).

krudler

It was completely trial and error, its a short game if you know what to do, like swinging the cage to make it fall off the chain in the second level. Wasn't it made by one guy?

gizmo

krudler wrote: »

It was completely trial and error, its a short game if you know what to do, like swinging the cage to make it fall off the chain in the second level. Wasn't it made by one guy?

Nope, it was developed by DSI and designed by Paul Cuisset who is now head of VectorCell, the developers of the remake. As others have pointed out, their only other game to date is Amy which, if the demo is anything to go by, was an interesting idea with utterly awful execution.

jill_valentine

EeeeeeeEEeeep. I'm quite excited by this prospect. The sight RPG type elements - I HAVE A JOB!!!!! HOLY ****!!!!! I CAN USE PUBLIC TRANSPORT!!!! - blew my mind at the time, but I never did get past the stupid alien world? ship? where everything is purple, and sometimes, that failure still haunts me.

Fnz

krudler wrote: »

Not having the patience for games like that is more of a sign of how spoonfed we are as gamers now, achievements and unlocks for doing basically sod all in the game, checkpoints every few feet, auto save etc etc. I only replayed both Another World and Flashback recently and still enjoyed them. Remember the opening of Another World? you start in a deep pool of water after materialising there, you can barely make out what it is you're looking at to being with, there are tentacle..things, reaching for you, you mash the buttons, but its not quick enough, you die, start again, mash harder, escape. Learn by doing, no onscreen prompts, no pointers or walkthroughs, just you and figuring stuff out yourself.

Right, kinda creating a stawman from what I actually said. Dying in the first moments of the game (the deep pool) does not involve replaying 20 minutes of content in order to attack the challenging part from another angle. That's fine. I was referring more to fail states brought about in the corridor sections. The random sequence of *shoot - shield - shield - charged shot* that you would have to learn did not (apart from a few instances) make me feel big and clever for having 'solved it'. It merely meant I had redone that part enough times to commit the sequence to memory...

- 'Shoot guy 1 immediately',
- 'Guy 2 will exit screen before I can shoot him'
- 'Don't follow as he will always be able to kill me first'
- 'Run a bit to the right'
- 'Put up shield behind me'
- 'Charge pistol shot to take down shield of guy who's about to enter from left... otherwise situation becomes unwinnable as a pair of enemies endlessly create shields'

No section probably plays out exactly like that, but you get the idea. Lots of opportunities for random fail states. Hardly fantastic game design there. Now, on top of that, having to replay a section, over and over till you could do it 'in your sleep', just to get to the one room you're stuck on? How is that a valuable part of the experience and not, simply, 'bad check-pointing'?

gizmo

Here's some in-game footage and an interview with Paul Cuisset...

Zero-Cool

Class!

Mr E

Looking damn good....

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

will this be on pc or is it console only... or do we know yet

gizmo

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

will this be on pc or is it console only... or do we know yet

All of the original announcements said it was coming to the PC at least.

Grimebox

I dunno about this. The graphics were great back then and, given the style they went for, they still look good now. I can't see it being a bad thing to replaying the game in any case. The idea of leveling up Conrad; please no!

Myrddin

It looks nice, but can't help but think its gonna be a qte & handholding exercise. Thankfully the original is still very playable

gizmo

EnterNow wrote: »

It looks nice, but can't help but think its gonna be a qte & handholding exercise. Thankfully the original is still very playable

So, like Amy then? :pac:

Myrddin

gizmo wrote: »

So, like Amy then? :pac:

Flashback is a remake though, it has a formula to follow/ape. Amy just got it wrong

gizmo

EnterNow wrote: »

Flashback is a remake though, it has a formula to follow/ape. Amy just got it wrong

You didn't get my joke, boo.

Lone Stone

loved that game when it came out, In the trailer for it though i found the voice acting in it just put me off right away.

Myrddin

gizmo wrote: »

You didn't get my joke, boo.

The same company made a notoriously difficult game with no qte's or handholding...

Edit - Insert I See What You Did There Meme

jaykhunter

New trailer up. Ah man I love(d) this game on the SNES. Marked out when I saw him getting up in the jungle. I'll be buying this. I can still hear the cube thingy chirping at me off-screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsL1E4zSNrA

pixelburp

So it seems at least one element of the remake is staying routed in the 1990s - that voice-acting is horrendous.

The game looks better in motion, though it still seems like there's a lot of visual noise & clutter in some of the levels. I am curious to know how it'll play, and how much/little they'll change the levels. I always enjoyed the portion set within the city, when it became a partial RPG, as you performed jobs to earn money for a ticket (iirc)

Retr0gamer

While the original had a unique art style with the gorgeous background are and the rotoscoped polygons of the characters this just looks so bland and boring, a bit like the equally bland looking Shadow Complex but worse. No sale for me especially since I only beat the original a while ago and while I enjoyed it I don't feel the need to go bakc to it.

Big Knox

Loved the original, must have finished it 100 times on the Amiga back in the day but this just looks extremely meh unfortunately.

pixelburp

Bumping the thread if only to note that this remake has hit the shelves & appears to be as bad as we all feared. Interestingly, you can apparently play the original game via the remake too, which probably doesn't help comparisons. It's a shame because I would have loved to play a genuine HD remake, upscaling the art-style and simply refining the core mechanics...

Mr E

Yeah I heard they made a balls of it. Shame.

Zero-Cool

Yupp, watched a review and it looked like a mess, shame. Why did they add those bike sections? Like above, a hd exact remake of the original would have done the job.