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The Back To The Future films are some of the best movies that have ever been made. So why is it that game companies have seemingly never been able to get a game based on them right? Look at the horrible NES games Back To The Future and Back To The Future II & III; the mediocre SMS game Back To The Future Part II, and the awful Genesis game Back To The Future Part III. Urgh. All of those games belong on the "worst lists" for their respective systems, and rightfully so. Besides those, however, there was another BTTF game released, this time for the Super Famicom, Super Back To The Future Part II. Like a great many SF games, it never made it across the Pacific. It's a shame too... it's quite possibly the best BTTF game ever made. It's not the best SF game ever made, but it is quite enjoyable.

Super Back To The Future Part II follows the story of the film very closely. For those two of you that haven't seen it, let me fill you in: it picks up where the original BTTF left off, with Doc Brown returning from the future to pick up Marty, so that something can be done about his kids. SBTTF2 retells this in an SD-style opening, after which you're treated to a Mode-7 scaling DeLorean as it blasts into the future. From there, it's on to the game.

Right from the start, it's obvious that SBTTF2 borrowed its style of gameplay from the Sonic The Hedgehog series: Marty races through the levels on his hoverboard, picking up coins, jumping and attacking enemies Sonic-style and getting Sonicesque force fields for protection. Unlike Sonic, Marty has a life bar - three hits, and you're dead. Each enemy in each stage is appropriate to the time period... for example, you fight futuristic cops and trash cans in 2015, and so on. In keeping with the style of the opening cinema, all of the enemies in the game are presented in an SD style. It's comical watching the cops in stage one whip out these huge pistols that are bigger than they are to shoot at Marty.

Control-wise, SBTTF2 is very good. One button jumps, and the other speeds up your hoverboard (necessary when trying to scale steep surfaces). If you're used to any of the Sonic games, you WILL feel right at home here. The graphics are nice and detailed, taking advantage of the SF's rich color pallette. The game also has some great music - all accessible in the options menu via a sound test. There's even a version of the "Back To The Future Overture" by Alan Silvestri that sounds near identical to the one from the films. It's got that 16-bit SF sound, of course, but it comes a whole hell of a lot closer to duplicating the overture than any of the previously mentioned games did. You are able to continue after losing your last life, and there is a password feature (the passwords are given at the beginning of each stage). There is also a training mode, should you find yourself wanting to practice before you start the actual game.

Super Back To The Future Part II would have made an excellent Super NES release. For whatever reason, though, the powers that be opted to leave the game in Japan, where it's languished in relative obscurity. I've never seen a copy for sale anywhere, nor was I able to track down a copy through a Japanese contact. However, the ROM is available for download on the net. If that's the only way you ever get to play it, then do so - especially if you're a Back To The Future and/or Sonic The Hedgehog fan.

- Rob