Ah Flashback. Every time I fire up my 3DO I have a flashback. Back to the halcyon days when CD was an exciting new media. Where the difference between the floppy-disk based version of a game and the CD based version was a CD icon on the loading screen and six months of pre-rendered, pretty but ultimately pointless, 3D graphics.
Flashback is not the sequel to Another World (U.S. Out of this World). It maybe by the same genius developers - Delphine. It may have a red headed lead character. It may well involve a left-to-right platform game - but - and repeat after me: "This is not the sequel to Another World". That was called Another World 2. Shocking - yes - I know.
The graphics have dated badly, unlike its sister game and the story is slightly more blase. Other than that Flashback supercedes its counterpart in most technical ways. There are more levels, based around more varied locations. Pixel perfect jumping is not so relevant as in Another World and there is a greater variety of items to collect and use. The emphasis on object based puzzle solving is used more than in Another World. Which for the most part was obstacle based puzzle solving.
Overall Flashback is more rounded than its predecessor - however it has lost a lot of the charm and chic that Another World had - even though it's not a sequel.
Rare? Not really. A very good game, certainly one worth playing today but not a scratch on its shorter, graphic deficient, pixel perfect, none-sequel sister game. It is simply not as good.
3DO Kid.
