{"id":5083,"date":"2026-08-17T12:11:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T08:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bazinameh.com\/en\/?p=5083"},"modified":"2026-08-17T12:11:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T08:41:38","slug":"inspired-by-the-best-standing-on-its-own-lifted-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bazinameh.com\/en\/review\/inspired-by-the-best-standing-on-its-own-lifted-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspired by the Best, standing on Its Own | LIFTED Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Time travel is hardly a new concept in entertainment. Both cinema and video games have explored it countless times, but some works make no attempt to hide where their inspiration comes from\u2014instead, they wear it proudly on their sleeve. LIFTED is very much one of those games. The developers\u2019 love for the Back to the Future films is apparent within the opening minutes and remains unmistakable throughout the entire adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the relationship between a student and a professor who has built a time machine to the professor\u2019s pet and even certain story beats, the similarities are far too obvious to dismiss as mere coincidence. Still, LIFTED doesn\u2019t rely solely on nostalgia to keep players invested. By combining a comedic adventure with varied puzzles and platforming sequences, it delivers an experience that is straightforward but consistently entertaining. The real question, then, is whether LIFTED can move beyond such an obvious homage and establish an identity and charm of its own as a video game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Charming Enough to Overlook Its Gaps<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story is about a student, Ari, and his physics teacher, a professor who has constructed a time machine and wishes to journey with his student into the far past. His motivation, however, is significantly more personal \u2013 and considerably more hilarious. The school\u2019s chemistry instructor has a secret: the professor has a crush on her and has decided the greatest way to woo her is to travel back in time, get one of her favorite old relics, and bring it back as a gift. This pretty odd plot sees Ari, the professor and the professor\u2019s pet chinchilla go on a journey via a few different historical periods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And these journeys back in time aren\u2019t just an opportunity to alter the surroundings. The story includes all the historical periods, and each one has its own characters and problems specific to that time. LIFTED uses these encounters to both advance the story and generate humorous scenes. For example, one of their excursions has Ari and the professor meeting one of the most famed pirates in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s the comedy that most of LIFTED\u2019s appeal rests on. A large part of the story is told thru cutscenes and animation sequences, therefore the game often pulls control away from the player. Still, the chemistry and humor between Ari and the professor saved these times from being tedious for me. And they\u2019re just as good for shorter talks while playing the game, keeping the tone light while exposing more insights about the tale and characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LIFTED\u2019s tribute to Back to the Future extends far beyond visual allusions and delves into a number of its key story beats. Like Marty, Ari makes plans with his girlfriend at the start of the adventure that are utterly thrown off course by his unexpected travel across time. These connections are repeated throughout the game, with even the ending plainly referencing the conclusion of the first Back to the Future film. But for me, these parallels never seemed like mimicry. Instead, they seemed like a loving tribute to a franchise that has definitely left a big impact on the devs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plot is charming, but the logic of some situations is not always believable. The characters are constantly running away from an imminent threat. Then they pause, and continue talking, dangerously close to the menace, and then run away again when the threat inevitably returns. Some of the transitions between gameplay and cutscenes also lack cohesion. In one case, Ari zips straight at a window, but the game bypasses the actual impact and window breaking and cuts straight to the players already inside the next section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These moments don\u2019t happen all that often, but when a game relies so heavily on cutscenes to explain its story, flaws like this are much easier to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Enjoyable, Just Short of Its Potential<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

LIFTED\u2019s gameplay is simple and smooth, mostly alternating between puzzle-solving, platforming, fleeing from numerous hazards and finding the best way forward. The game never over complicates its mechanics and that simplicity makes Ari easy to handle and helps keep the pace of the adventure consistent for most of its runtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The puzzles were among my favorite things about LIFTED. The game starts with quite easy problems and then slowly increases the difficulty of the puzzles, without resorting to rehash ideas only to make it harder. One especially fun example happens inside an ancient temple where you need to align a set of mirrors to shoot beams of light at certain gems. In fact, the variety of these obstacles left me wanting more of them, especially because platforming ultimately makes up a greater chunk of the entire playtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hint mechanism is well done as well. The professor\u2019s discourse provides suggestions rather than a series of invasive prompts, and this approach can be perceived as a natural extension of the professor\u2019s presence throughout the journey. It\u2019s entirely possible to work out the solutions on your own without unwanted assistance from the game, but players are free to solve every puzzle without the use of these tips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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However, the professor could have contributed a lot more to the gameplay. LIFTED always follows the same formula: the professor discovers a convenient shortcut around an obstacle, whereas Ari has to take the longer and more difficult route thru a series of platforming stages. Once this happens a few times, the pattern is quickly predictable Having the professor more directly involved in solving some puzzles, or creating systems where Ari and the professor had to work together, would have cut down on this recurrence while also having his presence feel much more relevant from a gameplay viewpoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game\u2019s trinkets also make exploration more enjoyable. Easy to find a lot of these, but some have fascinating benefits. For instance, gathering a certain set in one chapter opens up to players another ancient treasure outside of the one at the heart of the main plot. This approach works well in conjunction with the Chapter Select option, which allows players to return to any collectibles they missed, but also gives them the option to replay favorite chapters or scenes from the adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Visual Treat from Start to Finish<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing LIFTED often seems like watching an animated movie of feature length, with the user assuming control of the protagonist between scenes, solving puzzles and platforming segments. The animation, character movement and direction of cutscenes are constantly good, and there’s no noticeable loss in visual quality when the game goes back into gameplay. “The cutscenes are a bit more polished at times, but never enough to break the visual consistency of the experience.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travelling across numerous historical periods also provides LIFTED lots of visual variety, each era having its own distinct identity. The appealing character designs only further highlight the game\u2019s artistic personality. For example, parts of the characters\u2019 arms and legs are intentionally obscured, and their hands and feet seem to float unattached from their bodies in a way that fits the cartoonish style of the game well. The settings are also nicely done with brilliant colors which helps to make the whole journey look lively and interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Final Verdict: A Loving Tribute to a Classic<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, LIFTED shows how you may pay tribute to a favorite work but still maintain your own individuality throughout. You can feel the influence of Back to the Future from the very beginning and throughout the entire adventure, but the game\u2019s great sense of humor, various puzzles, slick platforming and playful art design allow it to retain a personality of its own. In this sense, it offers a good answer to the question asked at the beginning of this review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a few discrepancies between gameplay and cutscenes, some questionable logic at points in the tale, and the same pattern of the professor conveniently finding shortcuts, but these do not detract too much from the overall quality of the game. LIFTED is a delightful, well-made adventure which Back to the Future fans will probably appreciate all the more for its many references, but you certainly don\u2019t need to be familiar with the movie to enjoy what it has to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This review is based on the PC version<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Score: 85\/100<\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time travel is hardly a new concept in entertainment. Both cinema and video games have explored it countless times, but some works make no attempt to hide where their inspiration comes from\u2014instead, they wear it proudly on their sleeve. LIFTED is very much one of those games. The developers\u2019 love for the Back to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":523,"featured_media":5086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bazinameh.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bazinameh.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bazinameh.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bazinameh.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/523"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bazinameh.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bazinameh.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5106,"href":"https:\/\/bazinameh.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5083\/revisions\/5106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bazinameh.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bazinameh.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bazinameh.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bazinameh.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}