Five Predictions Super Back to the Future Part II Got Right

Today is October 21, 2015, the day Marty McFly, Doc Brown and Elizabeth Shue landed in Back to the Future Part II. You know the story: Marty travels from 1985 to 2015 to save his family, and ends up messing everything up along the way. While the movie gets a lot of the predictions wrong, I found the Back to the Future Part II video game to be surprisingly prescient.

Released on the Super Famicom in 1993, this Japanese oddity attempted to relive all the story beats found in the iconic movie. It didn't do an especially good job of capturing the Back to the Future magic, but did make a number of predictions that turned out to be right. Don't believe me? See for yourself as we count down the Five Predictions Super Back to the Future Part II Got Right.


Nobody Pays Attention
It used to be that people attempted dumb stunts to impress their drunk friends, but now everybody mugs for the camera. 2015 Marty McFly is no exception. Instead of taking in all the advancements in technology, architecture and fashion, the time traveller spends his entire time starring at us, the player. It's almost as if we're filming his exploits from afar, constantly egging him on. Just once I wished he would get off that damn hoverboard and look around. There's a whole world he's missing by staring at us the whole time.


Mukbang
For those sick of dining alone, the Koreans have pioneered a phenomenon based around watching other people eat. While it may sound far-fetched, everyday people are making big money filming themselves enjoying a variety of delectable foods. They even have a name for it. It's called "Mukbang," and it's a combination of the Korean word for eating and broadcasting. But don't look now, because I'm pretty sure Back to the Future Part II did it first. During your initial fight with Griff, the restaurant screens are all set to images of other people. There are a variety of friendly faces to choose from, so there's never a reason to eat alone in 2015. And in some parts of the world, that's a real option.


The Death of Retail
Thanks to the invention of online shopping, fewer people are spending money at traditional brick and mortar retailers. With big box stores feeling the pinch, this has resulted in buildings sitting empty for years on end. This also appears to be the case in Back to the Future Part II's version of 2015. With the exception of cops and Griff's gang, there's nobody on the streets. In the distance you'll see huge stores with no cars in the parking lot. With no vehicles on the streets or pedestrians mulling about, Hill Valley appears to be a ghost town. Maybe Amazon was having one of those Prime Day sales.


Drones Everywhere
Forget flying cars, because Marty quickly discovers he can't walk anywhere without running into a drone. While the style is a little off, they ultimately serve the same purpose. These little guys hover in the sky watching our every move. It's unclear whether these are government-issued drones or the recreational variety you can order off the internet. Marty doesn't seem to care who owns them and spends most of his time in 2015 smashing these annoying drones with his hoverboard.


Trigger-Happy Cops
After arriving in the far-flung future of 2015, one of the first things Marty does is steal a hoverboard. It leads to an exciting chase that ultimately ends with Marty all wet. In the game, the teenage McFly has already stolen the board and is being hunted by a pack of trigger-happy cops. In California, this is considered a misdemeanor, so he likely wouldn't even see jail time. But the police don't seem to care, as their first instinct is to shoot an underage kid. This is, unfortunately, a story we're seeing far too often in present day 2015. Had one of those bullets connected, Marty would have been one of hundreds of unarmed people killed by police each year. There is no justification for shooting the hoverboard thief, especially when missing could result in shooting a random pedestrian on the street. Perhaps that's the real reason nobody shops in Hill Valley.


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