We're not going to get a Back to the Future IV, but because the latest BTTF video game adaptation has landed in exactly the right hands, we no longer need it.
Back to the Future: It's About Time
Reviewed for: Playstation 3 via Playstation Network
Also available on: Windows PC, Macintosh, iPad
From: Telltale Games
Rating: Teen (alcohol reference, language, mild violence)
Price: $US20 for a PSN season pass (which gets you episodes two through five when they release on PSN); $US25 for the season pass on PC/Mac; $US7 for episode one separately on iPad
It's About Time isn't a retelling of the movies: it's a new story, set in 1986- and 1931-era Hill Valley, and it succeeds the events of the films, which still make their presence felt in some subtle, clever ways.
Like most Telltale games, It's About Time is a point-and-click adventure (optimised pretty painlessly for the PS3's controller), and advancing through the story involves a mix of saying the right things to the characters you (as Marty) meet and solving a few cause-and-effect puzzles to help trigger events beyond Marty's direct control.
In the case of this episode, that means meeting Doc Brown's younger self in order to free the Doc you know and love from the local jailhouse.
The puzzles aren't exactly brainbusters, nor is It's About Time a particularly lengthy game if you can quickly outsmart it.
But those puzzles do their part in advancing a BTTF storyline that's lain dormant for 21 years, and between the spot-on voice acting, the genuinely funny dialogue and the willingness to take creative licence with the universe beyond what the movies provided, It's About Time nails it.
Like most Telltale releases, It's About Time is merely the first of a five-episode pack you buy all at once, and if the teaser you see at the end of episode one is any indication, things will only get more interesting in episode two.
