When I first played Back Track, my instincts screamed at me that this was a terrible game. The graphics are messy; the enemies look awful; the explosions have a really bad horizontal raster-style visual effect; health packs are called “Band-Aids“; the weapons are unimpressive; the draw distance is masked with a solid black shadow, which is disconcerting; the environments appear flat, empty and uninteresting, and the premise of the game – to rescue kidnapped humans from inside tubes – doesn’t seem very exciting. BUT… I persisted with it and found Back Track to actually be quite absorbing and challenging, when I eventually got into it.
Tag Archives: Rescue
The Willow Pattern Adventure, Commodore 64
Published by Firebird in 1987, The Willow Pattern Adventure is an Asian-themed maze game that is actually an unashamed, almost carbon copy remake of the 1984 game, Treasure Island. Both games were created by Greg Duddle.
Lemmings, Atari Lynx
The Atari Lynx version of Lemmings was developed by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis in 1993, and it is an enjoyable port of this great puzzle/rescue game.
Action Force II, ZX Spectrum
The sequel to the first Action Force, Action Force II is a game that I knew had reviewed well at the time of its original release (in 1988), so I was expecting good things from it. Having never played the game before, I sat down and gave it a go, but was disappointed with what I found…
Splatterhouse, FM Towns
The FM Towns version of the controversial Namco arcade game, Splatterhouse, was developed and published by Ving – in Japan only – in 1992. It doesn’t suffer from any of the censorship, that some versions of the game do, and is a completely uncut and almost perfect port of the arcade original.
Halloween, Atari 2600
Halloween on the Atari 2600 is another “classic” horror movie license [that was sarcasm, by the way], developed by VSS, Inc. and published by Wizard Video Games in 1983. It is based on John Carpenter‘s classic 1978 film of the same name, and in it you play as a babysitter, trying to save children from the unstoppable murderer, Michael Myers.
The NewZealand Story, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum version of Taito‘s The NewZealand Story was programmed by Gerald Weatherup of Choice, and was published by Ocean Software in 1989. And it is a decent port of the cute and colourful arcade game – except without the colour…
Choplifter III, Super Nintendo
The 1994 Super Nintendo version of Choplifter III is an updated/enhanced version of the classic 8-bit scrolling shooter, Choplifter, in which you fly a helicopter over enemy territory, rescuing hostages. The game was developed by Beam Software and was published by Extreme Entertainment in North America, Ocean Software in Europe, and Victor Entertainment (JVC) in Japan.
Choplifter III, Game Boy
Choplifter III on the Game Boy was developed by Teeny Weeny Games and published in the UK only by Ocean Software in 1994. It is essentially a straight port of the Game Gear version – except without the colour.
Choplifter III, Game Gear
The second Choplifter sequel, Choplifter III, was first released for the Sega Game Gear, in 1993, before coming out on the Super Nintendo, in 1994. The Game Gear version was created by Teeny Weeny Games, for Beam Software, and published by Extreme Entertainment in North America only.
The King of Grabs 