"An entertaining and interesting mix on the adventure game genre."

Day of the Tentacle is technically the sequel to Maniac Mansion, the first Scumm game made, however it it isn't entirely necessary to have played it. A few of the characters return and it uses the mansion again, however the story is rather different and the main gameplay feature - the selectable characters (whom changed the way the game was played) - has been ditched for something else.

The story goes that Purple Tentacle drinks some sluge at the mansion and turns pretty much into a super villain. He has a thirst to take over the world now, but unfortunately gets captured by Dr. Fred, along with his buddy Green Tentacle. Green asks Bernard - from the first game - to come and save them before Fred kills them. You actually assume control here, but when you save them Purple still goes about trying to take over the world, so its up to you to stop him. How? By travelling back in time and stopping the sludge machine, thus stopping Purple Tentacle from drinking it. However the teleported messes up and sends Bernard, and his two friends, to different times.

This is the main feature of the game as it were. Whilst you can't select characters, nor do they have unique abilities changing the way you solve the game, the time aspect is handled rather well. You can switch between the three characters, Bernard, Laverne, and Hoagie and play in their times. Bernard stays in the present, Laverne is sent to the future (where Purple has taken over the world) and Hoagie goes back to where the United States constitution was created. The idea is that things done in the past change the future. For example Laverne starts trapped in a tree, and if memory serves me correctly using the two past times you have to destroy the tree, freeing her in the future. It's an interesting and fun mix on the genre that makes it much more satisfying to play.

The result is a challenging, entertaining and funny game. The humour as usual is spot on and seeing the world at different times relative to the game is good too (especially the past one). The graphics are bright and colourful with a sort of cartoon style about them, but they fit the bill rather well. The animation is also particularly good, giving the different characters their own style. The voice acting is pretty good (remember it's an older title) too and suits the characters well. The music is decent too, giving each character their own sort of theme.

The game isn't incredibly long but it's not entirely short either. It's fun though and challenging in a few instances, but never extremely tough either. The result here is a fun adventure game that remains enjoyable from start to finish. The design of the game is top notch and whilst an old game, is still really enjoyable today. Better yet, you can play it even without having played the original.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/24/06, Updated 04/21/10

Game Release: Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (EU, 1993)