There are certain comic book characters that frequently get the video game, movie and TV treatment. For example, Batman gets tons of work, as does Superman, the X-Men and Spider-Man. Hell, even Spawn and the Punisher have had plenty of presence outside of comic books. However, there are some characters that seem to exist purely as the "+1" on the party invitations; always the bridesmaid and never the bride. One of those characters is the Flash. Even though he is a founding member of the Justice League, he doesn't get the same level of attention that Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman receive. In fact, I think even Green Lantern had more of the spotlight. However, in the early 1990s, Dr. Allen had a brief chance to shine thanks to a CBS TV series (that ended after one season) and his own game on the Sega Master System. Perhaps this points to why he's still wallowing in obscurity.
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The Flash's game was clearly designed by fans of the comic. Of the superhero games I have covered, this is the one that best represented the character and had the best plot. The story involves the Trickster becoming mayor of Central City and declaring the Flash a criminal to get both the good guys and bad guys after him. Barry is out to clear his name and bring the Trickster down. It's a simple plot but told very well through the use of comic-style cutscenes.
The Flash is also extremely well-represented in the actual gameplay. He has two attack moves, a high-frequency beam to hit foes from a short distance and a Crash Bandicoot-like tornado spin up close. Of course, he also has his speed. That man can seriously move! I definitely applaud Probe for their mastery of the Master System hardware. The scrolling is buttery-smooth even when the Flash reaches top speed. Who needs "blast processing"? In fact, all of the visuals and sound are excellent, creating a great atmosphere for superheroics.
By now, you must be thinking that I had made some kind of mistake. Up to here, I have had nothing but praise for the game; yet, you saw the score at the top. There was no mistake. All of the wonderful things I mentioned are defeated by one thing: The level design is terrible. The game wants you to go supersonic with a short time limit (enforced by a droid that pops in to kill you if you run out of time) and the fact that YOU'RE THE FRIGGIN' FLASH! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE RUNNING SUPER FAST!
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Unfortunately, the levels were not designed with super-speed in mind. Every time I started to build up speed, a bunch of tricky platform jumps came up. I was frequently having to come to a full stop to jump a slew of platforms separated by deathtraps and losing momentum from hitting foes that were right in the path that I didn't see until I was in their faces. The level designers needed to take cues from Sonic the Hedgehog; those games showed how to do high-speed platforming right.
The Flash, while decent, was ultimately a huge disappointment, and I can only really recommend it to die-hard fans of the Flash who have super-human levels of patience. Clearly the developers loved the character and wanted him to have a chance to shine. However, poor level design in his only solo outing has doomed him to an eternity as a "+1."
