Flashback: The Quest for Identity (SNES) Playthrough

A playthrough of U.S. Gold's 1994 cinematic action-platformer for the Super Nintendo, Flashback: The Quest for Identity.

Played on the normal difficulty level.

Conrad Hart, a secret agent who has lost his memory, has just awoken to find himself being hunted by the police on a foreign world. Following the trail of clues, Hart discovers that he has stumbled into the crosshairs of the "Morphs," a shape-shifting race of beings who plan to infiltrate and ultimately take over human society. As Hart, it's your job to find out what's going on and to make it back to Earth to warn everyone before it's too late.

Flashback is often likened to Out of this World/Another World (   • Out of this World (SNES) Playthrough  ), and it's easy to see why. Both games were initially released for the Amiga by French publisher Delphine Software, and both are sci-fi themed platformers that feature smoothly rotoscoped animation, vector-based 3D cutscenes, and Prince of Persia-like (   • Prince of Persia (NES) Playthrough  ) control schemes.

The games are not related, however, and they're not nearly as similar as they first appear to be. Out of this World is a character-centered adventure that's shaped by its evocative set-pieces, a grounded sense of place, and its otherworldly vibes.

Flashback, on the other hand, feels more like an action film moonlighting as a video game. It's not interested in subtlety, nuance, or character arcs. Like the movies it draws upon for inspiration - namely Schwarzenegger classics like Total Recall and The Running Man - Flashback is all about high energy violence. The North American release's manual even went so far as to include a fourteen-page Marvel mini-comic to set the stage.

Hart has a full stuntman's complement of moves at his disposal. He leaps, rolls, climbs, and shoots like a pro, and much of Flashback's fun comes from learning how to choreograph his moves fluidly and effectively in combat. The controls pose a steep learning curve, and the game is overall quite difficult, but if you have the requisite patience, it's a satisfying challenge to overcome.

I can't say as I'm a fan of the presentation - the art style doesn't appeal to me at all - but I can certainly understand why people heap praise on it. It's a handsome game.

It took me a long time to warm up to Flashback, but I'm glad I finally gave it a chance. I didn't love it, but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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