Back to the Future: The Game

Gameplay

Back to the Future: The Game is a graphic adventure played from a third-person perspective. The player controls Marty to explore the 3D environments using either the keyboard, mouse or game controller to move. The player can have Marty examine objects, talk to non-player characters (initiating dialog through conversation trees), and perform specific actions in order to solve puzzles and progress the game. Some items can be picked up and stored in Marty's inventory, and then can be used later to interact with other characters or objects. The game provides a list of current goals for the player to complete to advance the game. The player can access a hint system, revealing one clue at a time from a number of cryptic clues for how to solve a specific puzzle.

Plot

Six months following the events of the third movie, Emmett "Doc" Brown has long been absent from 1986, leading the bank to foreclose on his home and properties. Marty McFly arrives in time to the foreclosure sale to prevent Biff Tannen from acquiring Doc's notebooks on time travel, but is shocked to suddenly discover the DeLorean time machine, which he thought was previously destroyed, has returned outside his house, with both Doc's dog Einstein and a recording of Doc explaining the DeLorean's automatic retrieval system should Doc have fallen on hard times. Being plagued by a recent nightmare of Doc fading away, Marty sets out to investigate, discovering that Doc, under the alias "Carl Sagan", was arrested for arson of an illegal speakeasy and killed by Irving "Kid" Tannen in August 1931.

Marty returns to 1931 to rescue Doc, using a rocket-powered drill invented by Doc's younger self Emmett, still a legal clerk at the time. Despite the breakout failing even with the invention successfully built and Kid's interference, the rescue is successful, but Marty starts fading away when attempting to return home, discovering his grandfather Arthur "Artie" McFly, Kid's accountant, was killed after being subpoenaed into testifying against Kid, and thus have to make another trip to rescue him. While Artie is saved, Marty and Doc return to an alternate 1986 where, due to Kid never having been convicted, the Tannens have become a powerful crime family who have dominated Hill Valley. They are forced to again return to 1931 to convict Kid with the help of Kid's moll Trixie Trotter, finally saving their supposed future from Tannen control.

However, their actions cause Emmett to fall in love with local reporter Edna Strickland, who takes him away from his supposed destiny in watching Frankenstein — which would inspire him to pursue his scientific career — and this creates an alternate 1986 in which Edna used him and his inventions to turn Hill Valley into a quasi-Orwellian conformist society. Marty, who is considered a model citizen in this reality, is forced to break rules to get an audience with Doc — now called "Citizen Brown" — and painstakingly tries to persuade him about his supposed original destiny. After Citizen Brown learns that Edna usurped his "Citizen Plus" rehabilitation program to brainwash Hill Valley into perfect conformity, he agrees with Marty. Edna detains Citizen Brown and Marty, who manage to escape with the help of the alternate versions of Marty's father George and girlfriend Jennifer Parker.

Citizen Brown repairs the DeLorean and returns with Marty to 1931 to prevent Emmett and Edna from falling in love. However, earlier damage to the DeLorean caused it to arrive several months late. While Marty is adamant in sabotaging Emmett and Edna's relationship, Citizen Brown worries about what would happen to Edna, with the two falling out and Brown driving away with the DeLorean. While Marty successfully destroys Emmett and Edna's relationship and even inspires Emmett to return to inventing even without him watching Frankenstein, Citizen Brown picks up a distraught Edna, explaining everything and offering to help thwart Marty's plan.

Development

Back to the Future: The Game was announced by developer Telltale Games in early June 2010, as part of a licensing deal to create video games based on Universal Pictures' Back to the Future and Jurassic Park film series. The title is split-up into five episodes and was available for Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3, Wii (as a single retail release) and iOS.

The development team sought input from fans on various scenarios by means of an online survey and brought in trilogy co-creator, co-writer and co-producer Bob Gale as story consultant. Several concepts he and director Robert Zemeckis had originally conceived for Part II, such as the exploration of the Prohibition era and Doc's family history, were reworked into the game. Telltale Games found adhering to the films' established timelines to be one of the greatest challenges regarding the development of the script. Many ideas had to be scrapped due to conflicts that would have caused paradoxes with the stories of the films. Gale stated that although the game is not part of the series canon, it is possible that it could take place in alternate timelines.

Three months after its initial announcement, the team revealed the first piece of concept art for the protagonists, created by artist Ryan Jones and based on actors Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, who allowed their likenesses to be used for the in-game characters. Season designer and writer Michael Stemmle emphasized that the game's graphics would take a less realistic and more stylized approach while trying to stay true to the feel of the trilogy. The puzzles were designed to rely on applying items in the inventory to characters and objects as the developers did not think of Marty as a protagonist that would build a gadget from various parts.

Audio

As Michael J. Fox was unavailable to reprise his role as Marty for the game, newcomer A.J. LoCascio voiced the character instead, though Fox later provided voice work for Marty's great-grandfather William in the fifth and final episode of the game, as well as for the three futuristic versions of Marty who appear in the game's final cutscene. LoCascio was able to get the part when his audition sample ended up in the email inbox of voice director Julian Kwasneski, and managed to impress both Gale and Lloyd with how closely it resembled the sound of Fox's voice during the time the trilogy was filmed. Lloyd returned to voice Doc Brown and began his first recording session for the game in late September 2010. Later, Claudia Wells joined the cast, reprising her role as Jennifer Parker from the first film. Kid Beyond provided the voice for Biff Tannen in place of actor Tom Wilson in the game's original release, but Wilson returned to voice the character for the 30th anniversary re-release. James Arnold Taylor voiced the younger Emmett Brown. Though the game features other returning characters including George and Lorraine McFly, voicework for these characters are provided by a variety of voice actors in the Bay Area. The song Back in Time by Huey Lewis and the News, which was written for the first film, appears in the game.

The full voice cast for the games is listed below:

A.J. LoCascio — Marty McFly/Leech

Michael J. Fox — William McFly/Future Marty McFly

Christopher Lloyd — Dr. Emmett Brown/Citizen Brown/Jacques Douteux

James Arnold Taylor — Young Emmett Brown

Andrew Chaikin (original release) / Thomas F. Wilson (2015 re-release) — Biff Tannen

Owen Thomas — Kid Tannen/Beauregard Tannen

Michael X. Sommers — George McFly/Arthur McFly

Aimee Miles — Lorraine Baines McFly

Claudia Wells — Jennifer Parker

Promotion

To promote the title, Telltale brought a replica of the DeLorean time machine as part of their booth display at the 2010 Penny Arcade Expo which occurred shortly after the game's announcement. Prior to the game's release, Telltale Games published their first Facebook game, Back to the Future: Blitz Through Time, with mechanics similar to Bejeweled Blitz, to tie in with the episodic series. It has been taken down as of 2012.

A voucher for a free copy of the first episode of the series was included in the 25th Anniversary Blu-ray release of the Back to the Future trilogy on October 26, 2010. A promotional offer was made on Telltale's web site to download a free copy as well. Via this promotion, however, the first episode began distribution on February 16, 2011. As of April 2011, Telltale offered the first episode for free for anyone with a registered account at their website. As a pre-order bonus, Telltale offered buyers a free copy of Puzzle Agent, access to a pre-release insider forum on their web site, and stated that they would donate one dollar to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research for each pre-order.

Release

The first episode of Back to the Future: The Game was released for free via Telltale Games' website, for both PC and OS X on December 22, 2010, with a later release for the PlayStation 3, also made free on the PlayStation Store, on February 15, 2011, and iOS two days later.

Subsequent episodes were later released for each of these platforms on the following dates:

Episode 2 was released on PC and OS X on February 16, 2011; on PlayStation 3 on March 29, 2011; and on iOS on April 20, 2011.

Episode 3 was released on PC and OS X on March 29, 2011; on PlayStation 3 on May 3, 2011; and on iOS on May 26, 2011.

Episode 4 was released on PC and OS X on April 29, 2011; on PlayStation 3 on June 7, 2011; and on iOS on June 2, 2011

Episode 5 was released on PC and OS X on June 23, 2011; on PlayStation 3 on July 26, 2011; and on iOS on July 21, 2011.

The same year, a full retail version consisting of all five episodes for PC was released on September 29, and on PlayStation 3 and Wii on October 25, across North America; EU versions for all three platforms were released the following year. Additional releases for PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One were released globally in October 2015.

The game was free for PlayStation Plus subscribers in January 2012.

The game was delisted from all digital storefronts by the end of 2018, following the closure of Telltale Games.

Reception

Back to the Future: The Game received generally positive reviews. The first episode, "It's About Time", was praised by several reviewers as an effective start to the series. IGN's Greg Miller gave the episode a score of 8.5/10, writing, "it's a movie-inspired game that doesn't suck. Instead, it pushes the characters in interesting directions and whips up a good story". Miller praised Telltale Games for recreating the Back to the Future universe with attention to detail and for the iteration's witty dialogue. Nathan Meunier of GameSpot gave the episode a 7.5/10 score, saying the series "shows a lot of promise with its debut installment". The review added that "the entertaining story that follows is enhanced by believable character interactions, imbuing the adventure with a great sense of authenticity". Meunier did note that the installment was "surprisingly light on challenge and content". Ben PerLee from GameZone summarized his praise of the game by saying it is a "feel good cinematic experience that any fan of Back to the Future will want to check out, and everyone else would do well to check it out". PALGN gave the installment a 7/10, saying that fans of the films "will find plenty to love with all of the callbacks and nostalgic moments", but calling the game's pace slow and the 1930s setting uninspiring. The review concluded: "Fans will delight in the more nostalgic and clever moments of "It's About Time", but it's a short, easy and somewhat bland introduction to the series, which we hope still has time to get a lot better". In a 2/5 stars review, The Escapist said the first episode of the game "doesn't quite get the tone [of the films] right and fails to offer up much compelling gameplay". The reviewer called the setting, situations, and characters "bland", further describing the characters as "cardboard nobodies", and did not review the rest of the series. The consensus among critics was that the voice acting was exceptional, with particular praise directed at A.J. LoCascio's impersonation of Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly. Most reviewers were critical of the episode's puzzles as being too simplistic and easy. Review aggregator Metacritic assigned the episode an average review score of 74/100.

Back to the Future: The Game was Telltale's most successful franchise prior to the release of The Walking Dead: The Game.

The game reached number 3 in the PS3 sales charts.

Other media

In 2016, IDW Publishing released Back to the Future: Citizen Brown, a comic book of the game and adapted by Bob Gale and Erik Burnham. It was released over five issues from May to September. The comic follows the story of the game albeit with some minor changes, which according to Bob Gale: "...I convinced IDW to go back in time with me to correct a few mistakes we made the first time around, as well as to set up some things that pay off cleverly in true BTTF style".