Flashback: The Quest for Identity (1992)

This title is one of the most ambitious cinematic platformers of its era, a game that bridged the gap between traditional 2D action and the emerging world of story-driven, film-like experiences. The MC is called Conrad B. Hart, a young agent who wakes up on an alien planet with no memory of who he is or how he got there. As the mystery unfolds, you piece together his identity and uncover a plot involving alien infiltration and political conspiracy. As much as the videogame industry is immensely saturated with amnesia tropes, this is without a doubt, one of the most unique experiences when it comes to it's narrative.

On the SNES, Flashback retains the game's signature rotoscoped animation, which was groundbreaking at the time. The team behind this displayed a great deal of evolution when it comes to their previous delivery, which was Out of This World (or, Another World), which both use the exact same art-style and animations. Every movement, from running and climbing to drawing your gun, is smooth and realistic, lending the game a unique cinematic quality. The environments are richly detailed, with futuristic cities, jungles, and alien landscapes that create a strong sense of atmosphere, even within the system’s limited color palette.

As for the gameplay, it blends platforming, exploration, and puzzle-solving. Unlike typical action games of the early ’90s, it rewards patience and observation over reflexes. Movement is deliberate and grid-based, meaning timing and precision are essential for climbing ledges, dodging traps, and engaging enemies. I advise an insane amount of patience when playing this, not only because of how old this game is, but even for the standards at the time, it's implementation and genre makes it so that you get frustrated for trying to perform the utmost basic actions.

The combat is simple but tense, with your energy shield and pistol serving as your lifeline in a hostile world. There is but only a single weapon, with infinite ammo, and while this may sound appealing, you cannot go guns blazing. The shield can be recharged on certain areas, which is somewhat like a checkpoint for a quick breather, enabling you to be hit at least five times before the game-over screen. And lastly, later on in the game you'll find an item that can stop enemy projectiles, making the combat a bit more dynamic from that point onward.

Between the action, you’ll interact with NPCs, use items, and navigate dialogue sequences that feel more akin to an adventure game than a standard platformer. The story-telling is a highlight, told through cinematic cutscenes, mysterious journals, and Conrad’s own discoveries. It captures the tone of classic sci-fi films like Blade Runner and Total Recall, mixing cyberpunk aesthetics with philosophical undertones about identity and humanity. The music and sound design reinforce this mood, with atmospheric effects and a hauntingly minimalist soundtrack. This is one of the titles that helped define the "retro" landscape when it comes to it's aesthetic. It is something that will stick to the back of your mind when you listen to things like Synthwave for example.

That said, this is absolutely not an easy game, the controls can feel stiff and unforgiving to modern players, and trial-and-error is often required to progress. Still, mastering its rhythm is part of the appeal, it’s a product of an era when games expected you to learn through failure and persistence. Overall, this game remains a landmark in cinematic storytelling and animation in video games. Its combination of atmospheric design, thoughtful pacing, and sci-fi intrigue makes it a timeless experience, even if its dated controls and difficulty may deter newcomers. For fans of classic adventures and 16-bit experimentation, it’s a must-play piece of gaming history.

OK. I remember playing this game long ago for like 10 mins and just realizing it was too hard to ever play. Well, now that i'm older and wiser I thought maybe I could figure it out and get it done with the aid of emulation technology.

So first up, this is the second game by Éric Chahi, creator of Another World/Heart of the Alien, a game well known for its use of rotoscoped animation (Just a few games at this point in time did that that I know of, the best known is probably Mortal Kombat). That makes it kinda like Prince of Persia with shooting. This game is also done in the same rotoscoped style and would appear to have more detailed background and art style. Sounds awesome right? Well, first impressions arent so great. For some reason the videos in this are all grainy and washed out. They are probably using some prehistoric shit codec. Also theres videos everytime you pick up almost anything, like really? It wouldn't be so bad if it didnt cut the music, do a fade to black, a fade into a 3 second movie clip of you picking something up, a fade to black again... Plus slight load times. It's just so annoyingly jacking you right out of the immersion. Music however is awesome. And the animations are pretty good too (I think I like the first one more but i'm not going to say either is better) Background detail is great. Overall I still think Another World is nicer looking and even sounding But maybe it's just a personal preference. The game also has a lot of fluff and stuff that make it feel less immersive than Another World. For example you have random ass NPCs that have text call outs and yes recorded speech playbacks brought to you by Mike the Janitor and other professional staff. Now I'm laughing at the next redneck I talk to in the game. Nothing like the sleek minimal approach in Heart of the Alien, where the only other person you really meet in the game can only say something along the lines of "GRUNT GRUNT" (OOGA BOOGA!)

Combat is weird. Its a lot like the first where its just tedious puzzle platform shooting (not unlike Blackthorne) but its also much more straight forward. You have this recharagable shield thingie, which acts as hit points and you can charge it up from station to station (like why not just have a life bar with health stations???) At least you dont run out of ammo or find yourself in situations where you dont have a working gun. The 4 HP shield thingie helps a lot. It felt like the puzzles are from a similar mind that did the first. They are kind of simple purely mechanical puzzles many involving switches in the right order, series etc, elevators that move when you step on a laser trip wire that you have to jump over etc. There aren't many cool puzzles that are really creative like the Caverns Water Puzzle in the first game... Nothing like that.

Oh and if you thought the controls were a bit funky/squirrely in the first game wait until you learn how to jump in this game, and then wait until you figure out 'Ledge Leaping' LOL. The game actually controls okay but it has some of the dumbest, stupidest design scheme for controls in a game maybe. So, you actually have two different buttons to 'shoot' One to take your gun out (or press again to put back in) and another to shoot... Feels like the idea was 'lets just have a game about a badass who pulls a gun out in full-frame rotoscoped animated glory.' trouble is this makes shooting something take twice as long. twice as confusing and at least twice as likely to not work out as planned. Jumping is also very non intuitive and i knew i had to jump across one of the first 'puzzles' in the game (there was nowhere else to go) but after ten minutes of not being able to figure it out i had to look it up in a guide. OH Press and hold one of the buttons to RUN then when you want to jump just swing your D-Pad UP.... like WE COULD HAVE JUMPED BY PRESSING THAT BUTTON YOU USED TO DRAW WEAPON. I mean hell why not let me just swing up to use an item instead and let me jump proper in a platform game by giving me an exclusive button to actually go and do that? So yeah, maybe the worst design scheme in history of vidya. Also to top it all off, there is this annoying need to contiinue to pressing up on the dpad to finish climbing up a ledge, dont do taht and you drop! Similiarly, you have to hold down the use item and action buttons when performing an item or you wont actually use the item or inspect something.

The game gets really hard. the last level was no fun at all. Its large, kinda mazy, wraps around, and there are tons of very diffficult enemies to make pixel perfect roll dodges and timed force field bursts to.

Finally, the game really does go in a different feeling direction than Another World. It feels more like a generic adventure game, full of NPCs, red herrings and features a city hub where you do six side quests before advancing onto the next story.

While I really didnt like it, it's actually an okay maybe even decent game though with its tech upgrades and kinda cool style, but its a downgrade in pretty much every way to the first game. It's in general less fun to play due to you wanting an experience more on par with Another World/Heart of the Alien It even starts you out with a barebones story of finding yourself with a holographic video version of yourself saying 'you dont know who you are and why you're here, i could explain everything but there's no time!' Ah yes, thats way more exciting that running up the particle accelerator gone wrong blowing up your quantum computer and teleporting you to an alien dimension sigh The only thing it really has IMO that the first game doesnt is a bigger budget for videos obviously. In them we have not only the aforementioned shit codec with weird square artifacts, but we also have super low res blobby 90's geometry that ages like gasoline.

Do not be like me and play this with hopes riding high off of Heart of the Alien because you'll surely be every bit as disappointed as I am. The game had high aspirations and tried to soup up it's look and in the process aged worse than the better known classic. Best played first maybe. Two stares for the highly tedius platform-shootintg and puzzle gameplay, One star for Music. Probably nothing for the tech upgrades (but the game looks better in some places, such as that vent on the start of Area 2)