Rumor: Flashback Flashes Back

[Andy Chalk]

Rumor: Flashback Flashes Back

It looks like the classic 2D platformer Flashback is getting a fresh makeover for modern systems.

I was always more of an Another World man myself, but 15th Anniversary Edition [http://www.amazon.com/Flashback-Quest-Identity-Super-Nintendo/dp/B000E15KAU/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1358911570&sr=1-2&keywords=flashback] that brought the game to modern PCs, and now it appears that Flashback will get an even more intensive facelift in a remake called Flashback Origins.

Gameblog.fr claims to have the first screen from the game, courtesy of an anonymous source, as well as a link to a page from the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée [http://cnc.fr/web/fr/7-novembre-2011] [CNC], which lists Flashback Origins as being in pre-production at Vector Cell, a French development studio owned by none other than Paul Cuisset, the designer of the original Flashback. The project has received €300,000 ($400,000) in CNC funding.

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Nothing else is known at this point but the purported Flashback Part Deux screen looks like the real deal, and there are certainly worse games you could remake. We'll keep you posted!

Source: Gameblog.fr [http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=fr&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.gameblog.fr/news/33315-exclu-flashback-premiere-image-du-remake-hd&usg=ALkJrhittOqWKYE3agpWZzZvkaV0wy3wGg] (Google translated)


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[Supertegwyn]

Man, I thought this was about the show FlashForward for a moment.

I got excited....

 

[Squilookle]

It would have been nice if this article bothered to throw in a quick sentence or two about what the game actually was about, for those of us that didn't already know.

 

[J Tyran]

Disappointing, it should have been a FPS with co-op.

It would have been nice if this article bothered to throw in a quick sentence or two about what the game actually was about, for those of us that didn't already know.

Spoiler: Orginal Flashback storyline

The game starts with the protagonist fleeing some kind of facility and stealing a jetbike, he gets chased and shot down by a gunship. He wakes after the crash with no memory of who he is, where he is or how he got there. After eventually finding his way to a city he meets a scientist that had the protagonists memories stored digitally, he was also a scientist and has discovered an alien conspiracy to conquer humans. He doesn't get the full picture though and is missing a lot of information. He has to struggle with staying anonymous and find his way back to earth, he takes on mercenary work and hunts down cyborgs and other dangerous thing before taking part in a running man style game show to win a holiday on Earth. Eventually he gets back, uncovers the conspiracy and ends the threat. He travels across several planets and each of the levels are fairly large. The gameplay is a mix of combat, platforming and puzzles. There are various bits of equipment like energy shields and guns

Spoiler tagged in case anyone wants to play it and didn't know the story.

 

[Tanis]

It looks like it'll be a Bionic Commando type of remake?

Which, if this is real, doesn't bug me none.

 

[dharmaBum0]

I think it's entirely reasonable to say Flashback is the greatest game ever made.

Or, at the very least, under-appreciated.

 

[BreakfastMan]

It would have been nice if this article bothered to throw in a quick sentence or two about what the game actually was about, for those of us that didn't already know.

Flashback is a cyberpunk platformer from all the way back in the SNES days. It was much more story focused and cinematic than many of the other games in the same genre at the time, and had a surprisingly in-depth story. It is more comparable to modern day indie platformers like Limbo, Cave Story, or Iji than anything out of that era. It received one sequel, called Pitch Black, that wasn't very well received.

OT: If this is true... Sweet! Was never able to get into Flashback when I originally tried to play it; could never figure out how to actually get past the first area. Will probably give this a look when(if) it comes out.

 

[Squilookle]

It would have been nice if this article bothered to throw in a quick sentence or two about what the game actually was about, for those of us that didn't already know.

Flashback is a cyberpunk platformer from all the way back in the SNES days. It was much more story focused and cinematic than many of the other games in the same genre at the time, and had a surprisingly in-depth story. It is more comparable to modern day indie platformers like Limbo, Cave Story, or Iji than anything out of that era. It received one sequel, called Pitch Black, that wasn't very well received.

OT: If this is true... Sweet! Was never able to get into Flashback when I originally tried to play it; could never figure out how to actually get past the first area. Will probably give this a look when(if) it comes out.

OK, I appreciate the reply and everything, but literally the only two words you wrote that help in any way are 'cyberpunk platformer'. How it compared to other games of the time is completely irrelevant for those that just want to know what it is!

 

[BreakfastMan]

It would have been nice if this article bothered to throw in a quick sentence or two about what the game actually was about, for those of us that didn't already know.

Flashback is a cyberpunk platformer from all the way back in the SNES days. It was much more story focused and cinematic than many of the other games in the same genre at the time, and had a surprisingly in-depth story. It is more comparable to modern day indie platformers like Limbo, Cave Story, or Iji than anything out of that era. It received one sequel, called Pitch Black, that wasn't very well received.

OT: If this is true... Sweet! Was never able to get into Flashback when I originally tried to play it; could never figure out how to actually get past the first area. Will probably give this a look when(if) it comes out.

OK, I appreciate the reply and everything, but literally the only two words you wrote that help in any way are 'cyberpunk platformer'. How it compared to other games of the time is completely irrelevant for those that just want to know what it is!

I dunno, I thought it was helpful for understanding just what type of platformer it is, since the term "platformer" is pretty broad.

Captcha: Get out... No u.

 

[dakkster]

One of the must-plays from the SNES library. If you want a cinematic, engrossing adventure with lots of action and puzzles, this is for you. I still put in the old SNES cartridge from time to time.

 

[Frezzato]

Imagine a time when televisions weren't HD and in order to play a console game you had to change the TV channel to either 3 or 4, and movies were bought on 'video tapes' . During that same era, the game Flashback showed your character, Conrad, opening his leather jacket every time he takes out his gun. Every shot fired had a shell casing flying over his head, all with your character shown at less than 1/6 total screen height. All character movement was fluid, almost rotoscoped, and the death animations were especially jarring with their eerie realism. If you fell from more than two stories you would bounce a little when you hit the ground and then...nothing, no cutesy death animation or jingle.

They should also do an HD port of the original and call it "Flashback: Ahead of its Time".

 

[Darks63]

No sure if i should be excited that such a good game is getting an update or being annoyed that the game devs are raiding the graveyard again instead of making new ips.

 

[number2301]

I'm all for a rerelease but that screenshot looks awful. Lets hope they do better than that with the final product.

It would have been nice if this article bothered to throw in a quick sentence or two about what the game actually was about, for those of us that didn't already know.

Flashback is a cyberpunk platformer from all the way back in the SNES days. It was much more story focused and cinematic than many of the other games in the same genre at the time, and had a surprisingly in-depth story. It is more comparable to modern day indie platformers like Limbo, Cave Story, or Iji than anything out of that era. It received one sequel, called Pitch Black, that wasn't very well received.

OT: If this is true... Sweet! Was never able to get into Flashback when I originally tried to play it; could never figure out how to actually get past the first area. Will probably give this a look when(if) it comes out.

OK, I appreciate the reply and everything, but literally the only two words you wrote that help in any way are 'cyberpunk platformer'. How it compared to other games of the time is completely irrelevant for those that just want to know what it is!

Wow. Just what do you want? If you really don't get anything from that guys reply other than cyberpunk platformer I don't think anyone can help you. But to summarise, platformer, focused on an in depth story, cinematic.

 

[Squilookle]

I'm all for a rerelease but that screenshot looks awful. Lets hope they do better than that with the final product.

It would have been nice if this article bothered to throw in a quick sentence or two about what the game actually was about, for those of us that didn't already know.

Flashback is a cyberpunk platformer from all the way back in the SNES days. It was much more story focused and cinematic than many of the other games in the same genre at the time, and had a surprisingly in-depth story. It is more comparable to modern day indie platformers like Limbo, Cave Story, or Iji than anything out of that era. It received one sequel, called Pitch Black, that wasn't very well received.

OT: If this is true... Sweet! Was never able to get into Flashback when I originally tried to play it; could never figure out how to actually get past the first area. Will probably give this a look when(if) it comes out.

OK, I appreciate the reply and everything, but literally the only two words you wrote that help in any way are 'cyberpunk platformer'. How it compared to other games of the time is completely irrelevant for those that just want to know what it is!

Wow. Just what do you want? If you really don't get anything from that guys reply other than cyberpunk platformer I don't think anyone can help you. But to summarise, platformer, focused on an in depth story, cinematic.

Granted- I may have seemed overly harsh- I'm more critiquing the original article than the reply, but as he said, 'platformer' is a broad term, and so is 'cyberpunk'.

For example, I could call Deus Ex a cyberpunk first person shooter, and that doesn't even come close to describing the game and doing it justice. I could tell you that it had better story than it's contemporaries, had a rubbish sequel, tell you it's review scores etc etc etc and it still doesn't tell you much about the game itself. The original article didn't even tell us the game was cyberpunk!

 

[Diegolomac]

I feel the need to post this here: a let's play of the original Flashback, made by Yahtzee from before he was famous: http://lparchive.org/Flashback/

 

[Doom972]

This is the first game I ever had on my first PC. I can't wait to play the remake.
I hope that they'll improve the way you control your character, since it wasn't very good in the original.

 

[Gunner 51]

I think the word "Squee" is very appropiate here. Flashback was one of my favourite games while growing up and I'll be eager to see how it turns out. Let's hope they keep the spirit of the game intact.

 

[Terramax]

Wow, I didn't know it sold that well. I had and loved the demo on the MegaCD. Always wished I couldn't owned the actual game.

BTW, is anyone aware that there was actually a sequel to Flashback on the PSX, Fade to Black?

 

[Xerosch]

I hope they take the music form the Amiga-version. The title theme alone was epic! But I'll get it anyway, 'Flashback' is one hell of a game!

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

I only have one thing to say... Won't someone take my money for it now?