Okay, okay. There is absolutely no denying that the Back to the Future games on the NES were utter garbage. In fact, the Angry Video Game Nerd once famously dissected both of the games based on the film that were released in North America. However, our brothers in the land down under got one more game based on the movies, and you know something? Super Back to the Future part II isn’t half bad.

Let’s get one thing clear right now: Super Back to the Future part II is really, really, really Japanese. That is to say that everything is very colorful, all the characters look like their twelve year-old anime counterparts, and outside of the basic plot to the film itself I have absolutely no idea what in the hell is going on. With that in mind I picked up the controller and started playing.

The game plays like any other 2D sidescroller on a 16-bit console. You play as Marty, specifically Marty from the point in Back to the Future part II where he is disguised as his son, Marty Jr., and throughout the whole game Marty is riding the pink Mattel hoverboard which, sadly, still doesn’t exist in the real world. You make your way through several stages, all of which are based off of sequences in the movie. The first area is based loosely on the scene in the movie where Marty first comes into possession of the hoverboard and culminates with a battle against Griff (Biff’s grandson) inside of “Café 80s”. From there you travel back to 1985 to find that it’s been drastically altered by Biff, who had taken the Sports Almanac back to his 1955 self and… well, hell, if you’ve seen the movie you know how it goes and if you haven’t seen the movie then you need to stop reading this and go buy the Back to the Future Trilogy on DVD or Blu-Ray right now. Then you can come back and read the rest of this since I’m going to spoil the ending later on.

Super Back to the Future part II plays much like an old-school Super Mario title. You have one basic attack (jumping on your enemies), however, you can also use the jump to stop enemy bullets from hitting you and, in a tight hallway, pretty much makes you invincible. You also collect coins which you can trade in for more health via jukeboxes you can collect throughout the game. Each Jukebox has a different number on them, which represents the number of coins they cost, and the price increases the further you get in each stage. Because the game is simple the controls are equally simple. Your X and B buttons are your jump buttons while the A button gives you a speed boost that you use to help clear big jumps and navigate up long inclines. The controls feel a little stiff at first but once you spend a few minutes getting used to everything it actually feels quite natural.

Super Back to the Future part II is one of those titles that sadly never saw a release in North America, and finding a copy of the game today is a daunting task. When this was written there was exactly one copy for sale on eBay with a price of $39.99. However, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you can add this unappreciated gem to your collection, do yourself a favor. Not only will you have a great and rare platformer for your SNES collection, but you’ll also have the first recorded use of feces in video games:

A full eight years before the Great Mighty Poo in Conker’s Bad Fur Day, we got to see Biff take a shit shower – and that’s the last thing you see before the end credits roll.

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