Flashback

1993, Age 11, then again in 2007, Age 25

When my brother and I rented Flashback, the box did not come with instructions. Not having the internet at our disposal, we had NO idea what the premise of the game was, which ended up giving it an irresistible mystique. The fact that our character had lost his memory seemed eerily convenient, and that shared quality of not knowing what the hell was going on really drew me in. I totally empathized with the character!

The most distinctive thing about the game was that the character animations were rotoscoped, so there was a weird fluidity to him as he ran, jumped, and hoisted himself onto ledges that gave the whole game a lot of character. Of course this sometimes lead to a series of humorous mishaps, as fudging the controls in stressful situations made your guy put his gun away when you intended to shoot it, turn around and climb down a ledge when you intended to run forward, or roll forward and off a cliff to your death when you intended to jump.

We took it all in good humor, though. The realism of the rotoscoping on the guy made the mishaps absolutely hilarious.