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Back to The 90s Theme Review: 90s Styling For Your WordPress Site

Last Updated on October 9th, 2023

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Don’t believe the hype – despite all this talk of flat design, material design, whatever…we all know that the peak of web design was in the 1990s. Since then, it’s all been downhill.

Or at least that’s what the theme I’m reviewing today believes.

As the name suggests, Back to The 90s is a WordPress theme that takes you back to a better time. A time when blinking lights were acceptable. A time when scrolling text ruled the web.

With just a few clicks, it will let you turn your WordPress site into a masterpiece that any GeoCities user would be proud of.

Is it the right theme for every site? Ok, I concede it might not be. But is it awesome? Yes, yes it is.

Keep reading my Back to The 90s theme review for a blast from the past and a look at what this theme can do.

Back to The 90s Theme Review: The Feature List

Before I get to the features, let me do two things.

First, I should tell you that this theme only costs $10, so you won’t be paying the normal $60.

Second, let me give you a look at what the homepage looks like so that you know what you’re in for:

Back to the 90s theme review

Beautiful, right? If you lived during the 90s, this one should bring back memories.

Back to The 90s isn’t just a pretty face, though. It’s also got plenty of powerful functionality, including:

  • Easy customization options via the real-time, visual WordPress Customizer.
  • Powerful shortcodes to create blinking or scrolling text for that 90s feel.
  • Built-in option to add autoplaying sound to the homepage (this is essential if you want a true 90s experience)

And oh yeah, while it might have 90s looks, Back to The 90s is modern underneath the hood – it’s all HTML5. And it’s responsive. Sure, smartphones might not have existed back then, but that won’t stop your 90s website from looking great on all devices.

Hands-On With The Back To The 90s WordPress Theme

I hope you’re as excited as I am to experience this awesome theme hands-on. I’ve got it ready to go on my test site, so let’s check it out…

When you first install the theme, it already looks pretty great without the need for any demo content or anything. Here’s how it looks out-of-the-box on a fresh WordPress install:

Customizing Your Theme

While Back To The 90s might have old school looks, it follows modern WordPress conventions and lets you make style changes via the real-time WordPress Customizer.

Here’s what you can customize…

First, the Colors area lets you customize all the various colors around your site. For example, maybe you don’t like that neon pink and want to swap it with a nice neon yellow:

The Header image lets you replace the default banner with your own:

Google Fonts wasn’t around in the 90s, so you won’t be able to add Google Fonts typography to your site. But the Fonts area does let you choose between:

  • Time News Roman
  • Arial
  • Verdana

And let’s be honest – do you really need any other fonts?

The Background Image area lets you add your own image background, including an option for that classic repeating image look:

And that’s most of what you’ll do. But beyond the WordPress Customizer settings, you also have some other options to make the theme your own.

Back To The 90s Theme Settings Area

If you go to Appearance → Back To The 90s Theme Settings, you can access a lot of other goodies.

theme settings

Here’s how these settings work

Use Under Construction Mode While You’re Fine-Tuning Your Site

If you check the box for Is this site under construction?, the theme will add a Site Under Construction notice on the homepage:

Add GIFs For That Attention-Grabbing Animation

If you check the box for Display animated GIFs, the theme will add GIFs in a couple different spots depending on your other settings.

For example, if your site is not under construction, you’ll get this spinning globe by default:

But if you do have construction mode on, you’ll get this bouncing construction icon:

This attention to detail is what’s going to really help your site stand out from the pack.

Alternatively, you can also upload your own custom GIF to use. All you need to do is paste in the URL to your GIF file and it’ll show up on the page.

Include Your Own Background Music

If the 1990s taught me one thing, it’s that every website needs its own song that plays whenever someone visits.

Back to The 90s includes this key functionality by default. All you need to do is include the link to your chosen MP3 file and check the box:

Then, your chosen MP3 will pop up as soon as someone visits:

autplaying mp3 file

Choose Your Own Scroller Text

Static text is overrated – if you really want to grab your visitors’ attention, you need to make it scroll.

Thankfully, Back To The 90s makes scrolling text easy. You just need to enter your desired text in the plugin’s settings:

Then, your text will scroll across the screen right from right-to-left (it loops, so once it scrolls across entirely, it will restart and keep going):

Use Shortcodes For Blinking Text And Even More Scrolling Text

Thought that was all Back To The 90s had up its sleeve? No – this premium theme offers so much more.

Beyond the flexible theme settings, Back To The 90s also includes two custom shortcodes that can help you display:

  • Blinking text
  • Scrolling text

All you need to do is wrap your chosen text in either of these shortcodes:

  • [blink]your text[/blink]
  • [marquee]the scrolling text goes here[/marquee]

You can also customize the marquee’s width, like [marquee width="200px"]the scrolling text goes here[/marquee]:

And here’s an example of how those shortcodes work on the front-end:

How Much Does Back to The 90s Theme Cost?

With functionality like this, you’d probably be willing to pay $100…$200…or maybe even more for this theme.

But here’s what’s crazy:

The developer is giving away a limited version for free. And even the premium version will only cost you $10.

Yes – just $10 for every single feature you saw above.

Final Thoughts

If you want to make your WordPress site look like it came straight out of the 1990s, I feel confident in saying that you will not find an easier way to do so.

Haters might say it’s “dated” or “neon colors on dark backgrounds are hard to read”. Don’t listen to them. Get this theme today and bask in the glory that is 1990s web design.

But seriously – I think we all know what’s going on here. Grab it now so that you can activate it next April Fool’s and have some fun with your visitors!

Get The Back to The 90s Theme

A team of WordPress experts that love to test out new WordPress related software, WordPress plugins and WordPress themes.