I'd love a remake of the original Flashback

[Turbo Nozomix]

Keeping the hand-drawn graphical style and the richness that it brings, and with no voice acting or design liberties taken. I'm not really interested in this, though.

[AuldWolf]

The original Flashback is terrible by today's standards.

It's artistically flat, for one thing, given how much of the rendering resources were used on rotoscoping sprites. It actually doesn't look very good at all. I replayed it on the same day that the remake was released just to come in with a fresh perspective.

The controls are clunky due to the limited amount of buttons at the time -- you have go go into menus and press up to jump, and the level design is just confusingly bad, too. Furthermore, it's riddled with poor design choices which impact the fun of the game. There are jumps, for example, where you have to run from one screen to the next, so you run, you get a black screen as it does the transition, then you have to jump as the next screen loads.

That's just bad design.

What the remake does is it smooths over all of these rough edges and provides a well constructed Flashback for modern audiences. Yes, this remake has its quirks, but it's so, so much more playable and enjoyable than the original. As I was playing the original, I almost ragequit a bunch of times as I was blindsided by a robot or soldier they'd placed right on the other side of a screen transition. So you'd walk to the right edge of the screen, get a black screen as it transitions, then you'd die.

It required rote memorisation of where they put these traps in order to actually play it, and that's just not good game design. When viewed with a modern perspective, it's riddled with problems. And the remake fixes these.

I feel the game is for real Flashback fans and for people who still play retro games, rather than for those who have this rose-tinted glasses view of the original game being a flawless thing of beauty. It really wasn't. I fully encourage you to go back and play it. You can play it from the title screen of the game, or you can buy the original for the PC at Amazon.

I'm just baffled by people who think the original was better, it really wasn't.

[Turbo Nozomix]

That's like saying the original Another World is terrible by today's standards. It isn't, and it's still sold in its original form. You could say that this remake is terrible by today's standards.

I have the original Flashback, and I like what it is. I don't like the new graphics, the new attitude, the new mechanics.

http://youtu.be/nOMP-5_OApY

The Sega CD version is the one I would like a PC release of.

[GAMING_Alligator]

Originally posted by the.vagrant.werewolf:

The original Flashback is terrible by today's standards.

It's artistically flat, for one thing, given how much of the rendering resources were used on rotoscoping sprites. It actually doesn't look very good at all. I replayed it on the same day that the remake was released just to come in with a fresh perspective.

The controls are clunky due to the limited amount of buttons at the time -- you have go go into menus and press up to jump, and the level design is just confusingly bad, too. Furthermore, it's riddled with poor design choices which impact the fun of the game. There are jumps, for example, where you have to run from one screen to the next, so you run, you get a black screen as it does the transition, then you have to jump as the next screen loads.

That's just bad design.

What the remake does is it smooths over all of these rough edges and provides a well constructed Flashback for modern audiences. Yes, this remake has its quirks, but it's so, so much more playable and enjoyable than the original. As I was playing the original, I almost ragequit a bunch of times as I was blindsided by a robot or soldier they'd placed right on the other side of a screen transition. So you'd walk to the right edge of the screen, get a black screen as it transitions, then you'd die.

It required rote memorisation of where they put these traps in order to actually play it, and that's just not good game design. When viewed with a modern perspective, it's riddled with problems. And the remake fixes these.

I feel the game is for real Flashback fans and for people who still play retro games, rather than for those who have this rose-tinted glasses view of the original game being a flawless thing of beauty. It really wasn't. I fully encourage you to go back and play it. You can play it from the title screen of the game, or you can buy the original for the PC at Amazon.

I'm just baffled by people who think the original was better, it really wasn't.

</gasp> I do believe there was a time when people got burned at the stake for having opinions less controversial than Flashback being a bad game!

[Yakumono]

Originally posted by Captain Sum Ting Wong:

That's like saying the original Another World is terrible by today's standards. It isn't, and it's still sold in its original form.

Umm Another World isn't so terrible by today's standards, since you could perform so few actions it was rather straightforward to play it at once.

Though I agree that the original Flashback isn't without flaws. It had so much actions to perform in so few buttons you really had to be used to it (I honestly did without much trouble though but when I died a lot back then it wasn't really pleasant at all). The remake is to me a logical evolution on the gameplay. But honestly, I hate remakes that tries to be the same game. It isn't interesting enough for me (that only applies to games I played, which is a good bunch of them), Another World doesn't really count as a remake though, it's just an enhanced port (and I know what I'm saying).
Flashback HD isn't a remake that tries to be the same game. It tries to be different, yet similar to each other. I like that kind of thing, it makes me interested in playing it as I don't know that game by heart, unlike the original that I can finish in an hour now.

But let's say it, a remake rarely can be better than the original, except if the original game was really BAD and they somehow made it better. The original Flashback was good, but so many things just weren't clear enough to the story itself (why Paradise Club? why going to that place at the end?) which the remake tries to tell you why going there. Both games aren't without flaws but I think both games are good to me.

[grimwold]

I actally prefer the old graphics of flashback. It was mostly the forgiving nature of remake i didnt like. I dont really hate the remake, i just wish they had a bigger budget to fully undertake a full remake. It was the difficulty that kept me hooked on the original.
Hopefully though if enough people enjoy flashback we might one day get a sequal.
And yes the orginal wasnt flawless the inventory system was so terrible.

[The Faceless Man]

I don't mind the 3D at all, it's just not the same gameplay as the original. Games back in the day were made with technological limitations to graphics, so Flashback would've been 3D - if it could've been. That's a given.

What's upsetting is the gameplay - something not so limited to technical limitations back in the day - was changed almost completely from a rigid watch-your-step platformer to... a run and gun action game.

[Bobby]

Oh come on guys, one of the most frustrating things about Flashback was aiming. You had to time shots so that the enemy were standing and you crouched, or flying along the exact same path as your shots - which usualy meany firing continously in the hope they would fly into your stream. You could only aim horizontaly. Flashback was and is a classic. Having played it on day of release on Megadrive .Never forgetting it, despite the decades. Shooting along the horizontal was 'normal' Megadrive action for a lot of side-scrollers.
Now give me a complete remake of, Fade to Black, (Gourad shaded polygons, indeed!) and i'll be in heaven!
Btw, like a few guys here, i still have all my Top Megadrive (Landstalker,Shining Force,Darkness,Star Flight,Rings of Power, Another World etc) and some Mega CD games (Night Trap, anyone.lol)
This is beautiful, and i'm buying it

[Herreken]

Hi Captain. I'm not sure what the point of such a remake. Werewolf has some good arguments but I stil think the original Flashback (well the SNES & Sega Genesis versions) still look good are still quite playable. The controls are a little awkward but I get used to them, the game plays very well.

As far as shooting mechanics, I actually find shooting to be annoying in this remake. The flying things can come at an angle and the analog stick isn't always precise. Maybe I should try the demo again with auto-aim? I thought that would be too easy but I'll see how it goes.

[Bobby]

Originally posted by Herreken:

As far as shooting mechanics, I actually find shooting to be annoying in this remake. The flying things can come at an angle and the analog stick isn't always precise. Maybe I should try the demo again with auto-aim? I thought that would be too easy but I'll see how it goes.

Erm.. the mouse is made for this. Hold right mouse to aim wherever you want with precision, then left mouse to fire. In fact, the keyboard is perfect for this also; W=up S=down Ctrl=crouch Alt= roll A=left D=right Tab= menu Middle mouse=lob bombs etc,etc.

[Mexicutioner]

Originally posted by the.vagrant.werewolf:

The original Flashback is terrible by today's standards.

It's artistically flat, for one thing, given how much of the rendering resources were used on rotoscoping sprites. It actually doesn't look very good at all. I replayed it on the same day that the remake was released just to come in with a fresh perspective.

The controls are clunky due to the limited amount of buttons at the time -- you have go go into menus and press up to jump, and the level design is just confusingly bad, too. Furthermore, it's riddled with poor design choices which impact the fun of the game. There are jumps, for example, where you have to run from one screen to the next, so you run, you get a black screen as it does the transition, then you have to jump as the next screen loads.

That's just bad design.

What the remake does is it smooths over all of these rough edges and provides a well constructed Flashback for modern audiences. Yes, this remake has its quirks, but it's so, so much more playable and enjoyable than the original. As I was playing the original, I almost ragequit a bunch of times as I was blindsided by a robot or soldier they'd placed right on the other side of a screen transition. So you'd walk to the right edge of the screen, get a black screen as it transitions, then you'd die.

It required rote memorisation of where they put these traps in order to actually play it, and that's just not good game design. When viewed with a modern perspective, it's riddled with problems. And the remake fixes these.

I feel the game is for real Flashback fans and for people who still play retro games, rather than for those who have this rose-tinted glasses view of the original game being a flawless thing of beauty. It really wasn't. I fully encourage you to go back and play it. You can play it from the title screen of the game, or you can buy the original for the PC at Amazon.

I'm just baffled by people who think the original was better, it really wasn't.

I havent played the newest one yet, but the gameplay was completely altered from the original from what Ive seen. Gunplay in the new one is way too frequent and easy, the controls are way too easy, the game itself is way too easy! The original one although having awkward controls is what makes the game challenging and great. The game is meant to be a slowpaced take your time and think game, not this get to the end of the level with your gun out rambo crap. I recently beat the original and everytime I've died was because I wasnt paying attention or I wasnt executing something properly. Never had I gotten any cheap deaths. If your too used to modern games, stay away from the classics. If you can appreciate both, then give the original flashback a try.

[Herreken]

Originally posted by zoo:

Originally posted by Herreken:

As far as shooting mechanics, I actually find shooting to be annoying in this remake. The flying things can come at an angle and the analog stick isn't always precise. Maybe I should try the demo again with auto-aim? I thought that would be too easy but I'll see how it goes.

Erm.. the mouse is made for this. Hold right mouse to aim wherever you want with precision, then left mouse to fire. In fact, the keyboard is perfect for this also; W=up S=down Ctrl=crouch Alt= roll A=left D=right Tab= menu Middle mouse=lob bombs etc,etc.

I just tried the keyboard and mouse controls. The walking speed is too slow. I was afraid of that. I like having variable walking speed rather than choosing between a snails pace and a flat out sprint. Guess I'll have to live with the less accurate analog sticks.

[racdavies]

what part of the word "reinvented" is confusing people, as for the comparing to todays standards....the game is old by todays standards and probably some of you were not even born.

Perhaps they should of turned it in to an fps just to make you happy lol.

[Turbo Nozomix]

What part of "I'd love a remake of the original" confuses you?

Also, what part of people complaining about style changes makes you think they'd want even more style changes, such as turning it into a FPS?

With undeveloped logic like that, I think you're one of the people who weren't even born yet when the original came out.

[AuldWolf]

I was alive when the game came out. And I'll say it again.

Going through a screen transition and being killed/hurt on the other side. -- Bad game design!

Going through a screen transition and having to do an immediate jump the moment the next screen loads in. -- Bad game design!

Why? Because the only way to beat Flashback is rote memorisation of the levels. A game like Super Castlevania, Contra IV, or even Super Mario World on the SNES was more about reflexes, observational awareness, and quick thinking than it was about rote memorisation. Rote memorisation doesn't make for a fun gaming experience for most people, that's why it's disappeared from gaming as a whole as a necessity. It's as bad as MMO grinding, you're just wasting your life doing something that won't ever benefit you.

The remake doesn't have any of those on-transition shenanigans, and as such it's a better game.

[Turbo Nozomix]

I was probably around 12 when playing the original, at a friend's, who had some asian Snes add-on that would rip cartridge games onto soft disks, which would then be read by the add-on machine and loaded into the Snes. He had Flashback on soft disk.

I like the presentation of the original. Though, I find myself wondering if I'd have similarily appreciated Flashback if I hadn't found its style reminiscent of the original Prince of Persia and Another World.