Earlier today, via its YouTube channel, Ubisoft released a short featurette on its Flashback remake, set for release on August 21 as an XBLA Summer of Arcade title.

In the featurette, the development team provides insight into the unique circumstances for the conception of the original game, their process and approach to the remake’s style and tone, and their desire to maintain the original’s difficulty while still introducing modernized controls.

The most interesting revelation, however, is without a doubt why the team originally began working on the game that would become Flashback; Delphine Software had secured the rights to create a game adaptation of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. The team took that, set it in the (distant) future, and began mocking up a series of animated proofs of concept. When they played the proofs for their directors, they received the go-ahead to create an entirely new game, shedding any likeness to the “original” source material. What began as an adaptation of an Italian crime family drama turned into a quintessential tech-noir thriller.

The team seems set on enhancing that tech-noir tone in the remake. Game footage reveals a future cityscape born of the early 1990’s, where brown trenchcoats are fashionable, flying cars are common, and neon lights reflect off dirty, grimy, rain-slicked buildings. Given the comments about nods to Robocop, Blade Runner, and Total Recall, we can’t help but wonder…will we get the Geisha ad in the background at some point?

Also, the original Flashback will be included in the package.

Thanks, @lifelower