Back to the Future Part II (video game)

Development and release

Image Works, a U.K. company, developed and published the game. For the fourth level the programmers originally intended to create a level using the sandbags from the film's band scene, but could not devise a purpose for them and instead made a sliding puzzle game. The game was released in the U.K. in 1990 for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum. Konami published an IBM PC compatible version in the U.S. in early 1991, and a Master System version appeared in the U.K. later that year.

Reception

Back to the Future Part II was widely seen as a disappointing adaptation of the film. Mark Patterson of CU Amiga noted that the movie’s tangled storylines made a faithful game translation nearly impossible. The opening sequence received some praise, but Robert Swan of Computer and Video Games, reviewing the Atari ST version, described the DeLorean as moving “like a slug with bunions,” while Chris Jenkins of Sinclair User called the sequence “astonishingly badly-drawn.”

The music and sound were generally well-received; Patterson singled out the film’s theme tune as one of the game’s two highlights, alongside the intro. Character sprites drew criticism, particularly the depiction of Marty McFly. Several reviewers found the hoverboarding sections overly long. Patterson judged the beat ‘em up level the worst of the five, poorly executed, and questioned why the fourth level was a tile puzzle, seeing little connection to the scene it represented.

He also thought the second level was too short and easy, and criticized the final level for simply reusing the first level’s format. Amiga Action faulted the music and weak background details. Zzap!64 felt the Amiga version’s levels were slightly better than the Commodore 64’s. Commodore Format criticized the unoriginal level design but praised the sound as the game’s most pleasing feature, adding that its appeal beyond a few days “is extremely questionable.”