Flashback.. Wow

[Curlypaul]

So some of you may be aware that recently I have developed an interest in platforming for the first time ever. Saw Flashback for the MD at a market recently and impulse bought it.

What a great game! I always thought that this was way to hard back when it was new, so its all the more pleasing to make progress now.

Its not just the gameplay though, the graphics and presentation really push that MD hard.

When I get to the end is it worth trying out the original Prince of Persia? they look very similiar in terms of gameplay and rotoscoped animation

[Quiet Flight]

Im not a big fan of Persia. I do love Out of This World and Heart of the Alien. They are extremely hard trial and error games but worth a pick up.

[Curlypaul]

Hmmm I'd not heard of Heart of the Alien, but it looks like its worth a shot. Thanks

[Bootaaay]

Heart of the Alien has not aged at all well - especially the Genesis version. Still worth a look though, but fair warning; the game is hard as nails.

Also, if you have a 32x you MUST own Blackthorne - fantastic adventure game in the same vein as Flashback, but with more focus on action. There is a Genesis version, but the 32x version is undeniably the best out there, with a wider colour pallete and a whole new area of levels not found in any other version.

[Ivo]

I'm fairly sure that Heart of the Alien only exists for the Mega CD (or Sega CD), not the Genesis itself. The CD comes with Another World inside as well.

If you are going to play just Another World / Out of this World, maybe try it on the PC or something. I think the old version is open source but I may be wrong. There is also a sort of HD version of it remade fairly recently.

Heart of Darkness is from the same designer I believe, and is also a good game of this type - of this type is the most recent example I'm aware of.

The original Prince of Persia is good and probably worth your time. There is also Prince of Persia 2 which is still that type of game and has better graphics and some gameplay twists. You may want to check it out.

Blackthorne (from Blizzard) has been mentioned, I agree that is also high quality and considering the shooting style might be more reminiscent of Flashback's action (but not of Flashback's "puzzles").

Most of these games are available on PC or other platforms.

Ivo.

[Pulsar_t]

Heart of Darkness was one of the longest games in development of the 1990s but the end result wasn't that stellar, especially the resolution which didn't even achieve VGA!

Blackthorne (or Blackhawk as it is known in the UK) is a SNES/32X/DOS/GBA game. I don't believe they ever made a port for the standalone Megadrive.

This subgenre is called cinematic platformer by Wikipedia. I don't normally have the patience to go through with these games, but thanks to savestates I can at least try finishing some of them

[Ivo]

Heart of Darkness was one of the longest games in development of the 1990s but the end result wasn't that stellar, especially the resolution which didn't even achieve VGA!

The graphics aren't stellar for the time and of course not for now... But the gameplay is very good, IMO of course.

Ivo.

[Pulsar_t]

Again, the game was low-res which was critical since cinematic platformers were in large part popularised by the visuals. The cutscenes and concept art were pretty good however.

[fastbilly1]

The original Prince of Persia is easily in my top five hardest games of all time. I am very disappointed that so many kids nowadays think that the series started with Sands of Time.

[Lord_Santa]

Flashback is the top dog of my platform/action/puzzle games (hmmm...) "cinematic platformers"

eventhough I love Another World, it's just not in the same league

Another World focuses more on slow progressing coupled with more puzzles whereas Flashback feels more action-oriented

there were made two sequels to it, the first (released) one being Fade to Black, for the PSX/PC

avoid this at all costs, it's got nothing to do with the first one in terms of gameplay/style, it's merely a spiritual successor

then, on the other hand, if you're willing to get your hands dirty, there is the true sequel:

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/flashb ... shback.htm

it's available through various sites, which deals with ROMS and (IIRC) there's an English-translated version floating around out there

it may not be as flashy as the MegaDrive version, but it holds up pretty well, even emulated on a 44" TV

mind you, it's not the complete game, but it's at least something and it won't cost you money (since it never was released, I personally consider it perfectly fine to download)

and I'll cast my vote for Prince of Persia as well, albeit I grew up with the Amiga 500/PC-DOS version (4D Prince of Persia, anyone?), the MegaDrive/SuperNintendo has vastly improved graphics/animation

still at it's core, Prince of Persia is a fantastic platformer