Porter's World

Don't Look Back

Don’t Look Back is one of the more impressive flash games I’ve seen come out of the industry as of late. It’s simplistic, casual, challenging, and best of all, retro. I think a lot of game designers can learn from what Terry Cavanagh has created here. Without any enormous complications, fancy features or amazing graphical effects, the game earns a very high spot in my top flash games list, as well as a high score on all the major flash portals.

At first glance, Don’t Look Back appears to be a remake of an unknown Atari game. It has retro graphics in the style of the Atari, which in my eyes is just great. The game itself drops you right into play, starting from the menu screen. You move around with the arrow keys and jump with UP (lefty controls also available, good move), you can also jump with Z. Very quickly you’ll receive a gun of sorts that you can fire with SPACE allowing you to fight off various enemies such as bats, snakes and other creatures. The main point of the game however, is to explore the land you find yourself dropped into. You press onward, continue your exploration for who knows what reason, at least upon the start. As far as stories go, Don’t Look Back has no dialogue or text presented message, it’s creatively done through a few images and a core gameplay element introduced later in the game. The ability to present such a powerful story with absolutely no audio or text is incredibly impressive. The maps are simple in style, yet challenging, even to an advanced oldschool gamer. The graphics although simple, definitely give a feel of exploration as I mentioned earlier. One of my favorite aspects of the game is exploration, I just wanted to keep going to see where I would be lead, I believe that’s a really strong feature for a game to have, especially a platformer. The game offers a few boss battles to spice things up and really challenge your gaming skills. The added gameplay mechanic at roughly 2/3 of the way through the game and ending plot twist really bring it all together.

The graphics are very similar to that of the Atari’s graphics as previously stated. The game has a really good atmosphere due to small details as well as the accompanying audio. Retro styled rain drop effects and simplistic platforms create a world that really draws you in. The enemies have the most basic form of animation, which fits in perfectly with the overall feel of the game.  All the graphics are consistent throughout the game, and overall not a single piece of art looks any less impressive than the next.

The audio is quite possibly the game’s second strongest point next to gameplay. The strings melody that comes in after the perfect amount of purposeful silence is amazing. In my opinion it is this opening moment of the first audio track that gives the real feel of adventure and makes you feel in the game and not in front of a computer. The quality of the audio is flawless and the score itself equally on par. The sound effects are just as retro as the game, and if my ears serve me right may have been created using SFXR. There is without a doubt no lack of audio to be found in this game.

Overall this game brings a joy to me I only find in the classics on the NES and SNES. I fell in love with the game the moment I checked it out when it was still up for sale on flashgamelicense.com. I don’t think anyone can really experience the full joy of this game until they spend the neccacary time completing it themselves, but I hope my review can convince those reading who haven’t to do so. It’s a quick play, ranging from 15 minuts to over an hour if you get stuck on the bosses, but overall rather short and sweet. In the end I can’t see anything to improve upon with this game, it hit my soft spot for retro games and executed brilliantly, earning it a top spot among my favorite flash games of all time.