Flashback: The Quest for Identity

aka: Flashback, Flashback (Enhanced CD-ROM)
Moby ID: 555
Amiga Specs
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Description official descriptions

The year is 2142. The player takes control of Conrad B. Hart, a man who has lost his memory. After barely escaping from hostile aliens, Conrad's bike crashes on an unknown planet. Conrad finds himself in the jungle, and from that moment on his quest for survival and his lost identity begins.

Flashback: The Quest for Identity incorporates elements of platforming, shooting, and problem-solving. The game can be described as a "cinematic platformer" (commonly referred to as Prince of Persia-style), following a design philosophy that was also manifested in Delphine Software's previous work, Another World. Compared to that game, Flashback focuses more on platforming and exploration of large levels.

While a large bulk of the gameplay is dedicated to running, jumping, and shooting enemies, there is also a considerable exploration element in the game, as well as some puzzle-solving. The player navigates Conrad through platform structures, performing various moves. It is possible to simply jump or do a longer run-and-jump, run, climb, hang off ledges, and pick up objects lying on the ground.

To defend himself, Conrad can shoot enemies with his gun and also use various objects (such as stones) to harm or distract them. Crouching and rolling are possible (and often essential) moves that can be executed during combat. The gun has unlimited ammunition; however, shields that Conrad uses to protect himself from attacks are depleted when he is hit and can be recharged at special stations. Though most environments in the game are hostile, there are a few locations that are devoid of enemies. The player is usually required to talk to characters, gather information, and complete tasks in an adventure-like fashion in these areas.

Most of the versions utilize cutscenes with polygonal vector graphics. The CD versions replace those with pre-rendered 3D animations. The Sega CD version also features voice-overs.

Spellings

  • פלאשבק: זיכרון גורלי - Hebrew spelling
  • フラッシュバック - Japanese spelling

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Amiga version)

25 People (20 developers, 5 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 86% (based on 60 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 308 ratings with 12 reviews)

Awesome game, the Genesis version rocks!

The Good
Flashback! This game is definitely in my top ten list of all time... so there must be lots of good things about it right? The graphics are top notch; rotoscoped animation is the flavour, over the top of handpainted backdrops. I'll probably get persecuted here, but I think it's much more attractive and stylish than Another World (the prequel).

The sound is good, with some digitized snippets even on the genesis and the music is really, really good, not because of the music itself, but the lack of it. By this I mean that most of the time the game is eerily silent, and only when something very significant happen does the game pipe up with the music. It gives the game a great atmosphere!

Gameplay-wise I love it! Another World was much more artsy and story driven; this is a hardcore platform game. The controls are sublime - especially the run-jump feature which is activated by running, hold jump and release run and the character will keep running and then do a running jump to a higher ledge. It's hard to explain but opens up much more possibility for navigation than in games like Prince of Persia.

It's quite a hard game and I admit to having finished it (after quite a lot of play-time!) There are a few less interesting levels (the game show level springs to mind) and your success is fairly dependant on your skills with the shield, but all in all this is as good as puzzle-based platforming gets.

I should point out too that the Genesis version is much, much better than the SNES version, despite the console's limitations (and gives the others a run for their money too!). The SNES CPU just isn't clocked fast enough to do this kind of animation. Full marks to the developers of this Genesis version!

The Bad
The only things that are a bit irritating is the repetitive nature of some of the gun fights (particularly later in the game against the blobby alien doods) and the difficulty which is pegged pretty high.

The Bottom Line
Still fun after all these years, I play through this game fairly regularly still! I was never a huge fan of Another World, but loved this game to death ever since it was released. It's a different sort of game, not much of a sequel and is more like a cyberpunk Prince of Persia. Pick it up and give it a go, you won't regret it!

Genesis · by Tibes80 (1543) · 2002

Slighty Better then the Genesis version

The Good
Flashback: The Quest for Identity (1994) is a fast paced game that brilliantly combines the fast paced, action elements of a traditional side-scrolling, platformer with the more intellectual elements of an adventure game. Its superior graphics, character animation and tight game play similar to "Out of the World", without the bitterly high difficulty level. Movie buffs will note some homages to cult class films such as 'Total Recall', 'They Live' and 'Phantasm II'. In the distant future, our hero has discovered that a race of space aliens have been impersonating humans! Before he can go public with this information, his space ship is shot down over a tropical jungle, causing him to crash land and lose his memory.

The Bad
The lack of a hardware upgrade for the Sega CD forced many of its games to offer only slight improvements from their cartridge based counterparts. If you played the Genesis version you will notice no differences in the graphics or game play. Instead, the CD version features better music, more character animation and improved CGI sequences. Along with different passwords, the only addition to the cartridge version is decent voice acting to go alongside the text based conversations.

The Bottom Line
Flashback: The Quest for Identity (1994) is a difficult game to judge. In comparison to the Genesis version, the extra features are nice, but do not drastically improve the game. However, if you judge the game on its own, it is one of the best single player, action, adventure titles for the Sega CD.

SEGA CD · by ETJB (428) · 2010

A hugely underestimated game.

The Good
Supposing you could just ignore the perfect graphics(out of this world was 16 color /vectorized) and ignore the perfect animation and most fluid controls,you are still left with a piece of art,nevertheless.The story is far more than interesting,its evolving,you start off by knowing so little and by the end its a full blown alien invasion you have to deal with.Ignoring the heritage this game had to live up with,this game should be considered the monkey island of platformers.

The Bad
Okay,i suppose the story dragged a bit towards the end,and the music is sparse due to the limitations of the game size,but even with the music off and your skipping the cut-scenes you are still left with a work of art.

The Bottom Line
This game would be best described as perhaps the most probable game to attract people towards games and computers in general,it even got me in the scene all because of its wonderful graphics and responsive controls,it layed the soil for such marvels as Oddworld and Heart of darkness to appear,and most importantly introduces the kind of "heady" platform games to a most wide audience if you dont want to by it,at least get it at an abandonware site,you wont be dissapointed.

DOS · by helm lehm (13) · 2000

[ View all 12 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
HELP!!_Flashback:Can't do fourth mission Stephen Labuschagne Aug 25, 2009

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Flashback appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Release variations

A bargain bin CD-ROM version of the game for Sega CD (which was later adapted to the PC CD-ROM, 3DO and CD-i) contained new cinematic sequences with voice acting and sound effects. This version of the game came only in a jewel case (no box).

Ports and conversions

  • Although Amiga version of the game was released as the first one in December 1992, it was in fact a port from the original platform which was Sega Mega Drive. However SMD version was released later in spring of 1993.
  • SNES port was slightly censored. Death Tower was renamed to Cyber Tower, New Washington's bar became a cafe and all the enemy mutants were recolored green.
  • Amiga version has cut-down introductory sequence and some cut scenes during the gameplay does not exist until the player enables them manually by pressing CTRL+C. The Amiga and DOS versions also had an option to zoom in on the action whenever Conrad opens fire. It was removed from all other versions. Zoomed in option in DOS version can be enabled in the game options screen while in the Amiga version by pressing F9 during the game.
  • DOS version contains changed message that Conrad writes in the ending.

Soundtrack

A two-track CD soundtrack was released featuring music inspired by the game, but not directly from it.

Technology

One of the materials in the box of Flashback is a coupon for a rebate on a Gravis Gamepad and a note to "try Gravis' Ultrasound 16-bit sound card." This is ironic because, amongst Gravis Ultrasound enthusiasts, Flashback is notorious for being incompatible with the GUS.

Programmers might be interested in the fact that Flashback is one of very few games that used a screen mode with a width of 256 pixels. This implies that the address of a pixel on the screen could be comfortably stored in a 16-bit register, say AX. The X-coordinate could then be manipulated through AL, and the Y-coordinate through AH. This might have contributed somewhat to Flashback's impressively fluent animations.

Awards

  • Amiga Joker
    • Issue 02/1994 – Best Genre Mix in 1993 (Readers' Vote)
  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • May 1993 (Issue 46) - Game of the Month (Genesis version)
    • November 1997 (Issue 100) - ranked #92 (Best 100 Games of All Time) (Genesis version)
  • FLUX
    • Issue #4 - #10 in the "Top 100 Video Games of All-Time" list
  • GamePro
    • 1993 (Vol. 6, Issue 2) - Action/Adventure Game of the Year (Genesis version)
  • Retro Gamer
    • September 2004 (Issue #8) – #65 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)
    • Issue #37 - #15 in the "Top 25 Platformers of All Time" poll

Information also contributed by Brian Hirt, Robert Schmidt, Apogee IV, PCGamer77, and Big John WV

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by faceless.

Amiga added by POMAH. CD-i added by Corn Popper. PC-98 added by Infernos. iPhone added by Sciere. Genesis, Jaguar, SNES added by Rogee. Acorn 32-bit added by Kabushi. Dreamcast added by Iggi. FM Towns added by Terok Nor. SEGA CD added by Unicorn Lynx. 3DO added by Indra was here. Macintosh added by MAT.

Additional contributors: Trixter, MAT, Unicorn Lynx, Sciere, Alaka, formercontrib, Crawly, j.raido 【雷堂嬢太朗】, Zeppin, Patrick Bregger, mailmanppa, FatherJack.

Game added December 9, 1999. Last modified February 4, 2024.