Flashback (1992 video game): Difference between revisions
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[[File:Flashback_Title.jpg|frame]]
'''''Flashback''''' (also titled '''''Flashback: The Quest For Identity''''' [[Market-Based Title|in America]]) is a platform/adventure game released in 1992 on the Amiga, and later ported to the Mega Drive/Genesis and SNES in 1993. It pays homage to many classic [[Science Fiction]] films like ''[[Total Recall]]'', ''[[Blade Runner]]''
You play as Conrad Hart, a government agent. Using [[See-Thru Specs|molecular-density scanning glasses, he discovers alien impostors among the population]], known as [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|Morphs]]. Attempts are made on his life, and he creates a log of his memories as a backup. Kidnapped, his [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|memory wiped]], he escapes his [[The Guards Must Be Crazy|inattentive captors]] on [[Hover Board|hoverbike]] and is shot down over the jungles of Titan. [[No One Could Survive That|Left for dead]], he finds a [[Hologram|holocube]] log of himself that instructs him to go to his contact in the city of New Washington and retrieve his memory. He must make his way back to Earth, find the Morph base of operations, and stop their plans to conquer the galaxy.
Gameplay is similar to ''[[Prince of Persia]]'', but with a gun. You get a [[Deflector Shields|personal force field generator]] in the second level that lets you block shots- this, along with [[Unnecessary Combat Roll|rolling]], is the key to winning battles. The levels can get quite long, although checkpoints (misleadingly called Save Points) are scattered throughout.
Made by the same company that created ''[[Another World (video game)|Another World]]'', ''Flashback'' used a similar method to create polygonal cutscenes and rotoscoped animation that could be played on an Amiga, Genesis or SNES. It billed itself as "the CD-ROM game on a cartridge/floppy", and was stuffed with cinematics, most notably [[Item Get|when you pick up items]]. Later, it was ported to the CD based consoles of the era, with a replacement soundtrack and CGI cutscenes.
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* [[All There in the Manual]]: A comic outlining the backstory was included with the manual.
* [[Artificial Human]]: Flashgun.
* [[Badass Longcoat]]
** [[Cool Shades]]: In the Amiga/Genesis versions.
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]:
* [[Bottomless Magazines]]
* [[Bowdlerise]]: "Death Tower" becomes "Cyber Tower" in the SNES version.
* [[Brain In a Jar]]
* [[Broke Episode]]: The second level has you doing odd jobs for cash.
* [[Casual Interstellar Travel]]: Conrad's prize for surviving the Death Tower game show: a first-class ticket to Earth.
* [[Cinematic Platform Game]]
* [[Collapsing Lair]]: Level 7, after
* [[Deadly Game]]: Death Tower.
* [[Death Course]]
* [[Disintegrator Ray]]: ''Flashback'''s most irritating obstacle
* [[Dramatic Chase Opening]]: The beginning starts with a cinematic chase focusing on Conrad and his pursuers' feet, followed by a first person flying car chase.
* [[Easily-Thwarted Alien Invasion]]
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* [[Humanoid Aliens]]: The mutants.
* [[In Medias Res]]
* [[It Got Worse]]: The sequel
* [[It's All Upstairs From Here]]
* [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]]: Played straight, and then literally flipped right around when Conrad's memory is reimplanted by... lasers.
* [[Laser Sight]]: Appears ominously on Conrad's back in a [[Flash Back]] sequence, right before he's tranquilized and tossed into a car.
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* [[Marathon Level]]: New Washington is particularly obnoxious with its sheer size, tedious subway travel, and a surprise [[Timed Mission]].
* [[Meat Moss]]: Planet Morph (though it looks more like bubble gum).
* [[Multi Platform]]: Oh, so very much; ''Flashback'' is one of the most widely available non-puzzle games in existence, being published on the Amiga, ''several'' PC models, the Macintosh, [[Sega Genesis]], [[Super NES]], [[Other Sega Systems|SegaCD]], [[Atari Jaguar]], [[Philips CD-i]], [[3DO Interactive Multiplayer|3DO]]
** Interestingly, the SNES port was released a year after the Genesis version, yet each of the cutscenes have different music.
* [[Mysterious Middle Initial]]: Conrad B. Hart.
* [[New Neo City]]: New Washington.
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: While on planet Morph, Conrad finds another human survivor. Unfortunately, you can't reach him without triggering a motion sensor, which leaves the stranger wide open to getting shot by an alien lying in wait.
** [[I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin]]: At least he's nice enough to hand over all the info you need to
* [[No Body Left Behind]]: Flashmen (quite rightly) explode once defeated. Fallen cops, on the other hand, vanish into a purple flash of light. It could be that they carry teleportation devices to warp them out of danger -- or maybe the dev team just didn't want dead cops' bodies littered around.
** The Morphs revert to a plume of blue smoke and disappear. Which is a pretty unique way to expire.
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* [[Nothing Is Scarier]]: The cartridge versions have no music, only brief leitmotifs.
* [[Pistol-Whipping]]: Replaces the standard gun attack when an enemy stands too close to Conrad. Can also be used to [[Window Pain|smash out windows]]... too bad there's only one breakable window in the game.
* [[Pixel Hunt]]: A lot of the items on the ground are hard to see. Some of them blink, others
** Lifts can also be hard to see. Like the one at the very end of the game
*** This very lift even became a [[Guide Dang It]] for some.
* [[Police Are Useless]]: Extortion, corruption
* [[Post Cyber Punk]]
* [[Real Men Wear Pink]]: Conrad wears a magenta shirt that mysteriously turns white for cutscenes. Except in the Genesis and original Amiga versions, where it's white all along.
* [[Recycled in Space]]: It's ''They Live''... in SPACE!
* [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent]]: The Morphs are blue-skinned lizards in red pajamas.
* [[Scenery Porn]]: The Death Tower and the Morphs Planet levels.
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* [[Sentry Gun]]
* [[Shapeshifter Weapon]]: Morphs LOVE to pop up under you and attack.
* [[Shout-Out]]: The final image of the game is
* [[Spirit Advisor]]: During the final sequence of the game, an "inner voice" (implied to be the survivor from earlier) guides Conrad in planting an atomic bomb in the planet's core.
* [[The Taxi]]: Conrad's first task upon returning to Earth is to hail a hover-cab.
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* [[Used Future]]
* [[We Will Spend Credits in the Future]]
* [["What Now?" Ending]]:
* [[Wretched Hive]]: New Washington. Strikingly empty of actual people, but filled with mutants and [[Going Critical|volatile energy reactors]].
* [[Zeerust]]
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