"An excellent sequel to Maniac Mansion."

Good old LucasArts. Sometime in between my waning obsession with the NES and my all-out obsession with the emulation scene, I had a rather well-developed social life. Well, actually, I just became much nicer to my existing friends, and they to me, beacuse we were all getting home-schooled that year, and could little afford the type of relational strains that can last for weeks. There was a particular friend who introduced me to a little-known game called Day of the Tentacle. After seeing that title, I was a LucasArts freak for a full year. If a game was made by this company, I automatically had to play it. X-wing, Sam and Max Hit the Road, TIE Fighter...those were the days. Anyhow...which one was I reviewing? Oh yeah, DotT!

GRAPHICS: Where the console systems had good, but limited, capabilities on what they could produce, PCs gave us all that the minimum system requirements could handle. So we got to see these famous Maniac Mansion characters rendered as they were meant to be seen: in hilariously animated 2-d hand drawings! See Bernard pick his nose! See Hoagie scratch his rear and burp! See Laverne bite off her nails! Okay, maybe we WEREN't meant to see that, but the graphics were very nice for the time. I also love how the Tentacles, with just three suckers for a face, can show so much expression-great concept job done there. Backgrounds were (mostly static, but still a pretty place to walk around in. Now I must mention the

Music, which is the defininition of the word ''background.'' It generally fits the theme of the moment quite well, but it's too muted and randomly composed to be memorable. Not that that's bad, because it makes the really funny sounds crystal clear. No bleeps when you have a CD drive and a 16-bit sound card! Voices! How I do LOOVE the voice acting! Bernard, Laverne, the Purple Tentacle, the manaical Dr. Fred, and many others are all acted with voices that make sense according to their role. No fair! LucasArts can borrow their voice actors from Lucasfilm! Oh well...they certainly didn't borrow the original

STORY that advanced this game so well. Now HERE's a hilarious little yarn. Basically, the Purple Tentacle, after drinking radioactive slime and growing arms(no hands, just arms) suddenly feels like taking over the world. Being a smart little pseudopod, that's exactly what he does. You control three kids who were accidentally sent to three time periods, and with the various items they find must stop the evil plans of Purple. The dialogue is top-notch(for once it doesn't have to be translated...sigh...)and the situations and conversations are very, VERY funny. And everything meshes with the

GAMEPLAY, which is as intuitive as point-and-click needs to be. Just click on a list of commands, then click on an object to activate the command. No fuss, no muss, no need for a Sidewinder. But the game still manages to be challenging, as the many things you have to do in the past to affect the future usually have to be completed before you can advance. And in another layer of challenge, not all the items you find in one time period will be used there...you'll have to ''flush'' some of them back and forth to your companions to help them in their time period. Of course, you'll inevitably reach a ''what the heck do I do now'' spot(a problem with these games) but with patience, perseverance, and a very weird sense of logic, you'll eventually make it through the game. Buy the CD today! If you get the Lucasarts Archives, you'll receive both it and five other classic LucasArts games with it! Don't succumb to the stereotype that all those computers are good for now is games like Quake! Blergh...too many FPS's these days...

LucasArts Logic: There are so many examples of twisted logic in this game that I'd probably run over my 16kb limit if I were to list them all. Besides, most of the examples are solutions to many of the game's principal puzzles! So I will just say this: This game is even weirder than Snake, Rattle and Roll, and that one had you licking toilet lids!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/31/00, Updated 03/31/00