Here's The Overlooked Back To The Future Game
March 03, 2014
The classic Back to the Future film trilogy has spawned several video game adaptations over the years. Some are fantastic and keep to the spirit of the films (such as Telltale's Back To The Future: The Game episodic adventure) while most are just compellingly terrible (such as LJN's Back To The Future II And III for the Nintendo Entertainment System). There's one game in the series that often goes overlooked: Universal Studios Theme Park Adventure. This Nintendo GameCube title from 2002 puts players into the world of the Universal Studios theme park and challenges them to complete a series of small games based on the many rides in the park. Jurassic Park, Dragonheart, Backdraft, Waterworld, and other films are represented in what Hardcore Gaming 101 notes is an absolutely terrible game:
The friendliest face you come across at the entrance is Woody Woodpecker who, in a terribly creepy and off-putting voice, informs you of one of the most exciting things a kid can hear - there's a stamp collection contest going on! The goal is to visit all of the rides in the park and master them, so you can get stamps to fill up your card. There are also additional quests, including finding tiny letters to complete the Universal Studios logo and shaking hands with randomly generated patrons dressed as famous Universal movie monsters. The other major subquest involves picking up garbage. The points gained from these dreadful tasks can be used to purchase hats.
Back To The Future is represented as a semi-faithful recreation of the since-demolished Back To The Future: The Ride attraction in which 1955 Biff Tannen steals Doc Brown's DeLorean and goes on a joyride through time. It's up to players to take another DeLorean, chase Biff down, and bump his car in order to send him back to Doc's Institute of Future Technology. If you've never experienced the ride, here it is via YouTube including the preshow reels that set up the story. Christopher Lloyd and Thomas F. Wilson reprise their roles as Doc Brown and Biff Tannen!
How does the game treat this attraction? The guys over at Cinemassacre decided to find out by playing through both it and the Jurassic Park segments in a Let's Play-type video. This may be the best way to experience this terrible game without actually having to endure it personally.
So, to sum it all up: the ride was awesome and is still deeply missed (there's still one operating in Japan), but the game based on the ride was garbage and best left to history.