"The finest point and click adventure game ever conceived."

During the early nineties, the point and click adventure game was the foremost genre on the PC and it was dominated by two companies, Sierra On-Line and present day LucasArts. The latter build their reputation on games such as The Secret of Monkey Island, Sam & Max Hit the Road and Full Throttle. One classic that certainly shouldn't be left out of this list is Day of the Tentacle, the sequel to the game that introduced the SCUMM engine, Maniac Mansion. In my humble opinion, Day of the Tentacle is one of the best point and click adventure games ever released if not the best. Read on to find out why.

GRAPHICS
Day of the Tentacle was released in 1993 and it shows. There are some rough edges, a bit of pixelation and the animation also isn't always as smooth as in more recent games. Does it matter? Not really, as the cartoon style has held up exceptionally well and the visuals' inherent quality is still very much evident.

All this means that the game looks very good and not only for it's age. It is clear that a lot of care and attention has been lavished on the visuals. The level of detailing is very high and animation is varied and spot on. The three variations on the game's single location are surprisingly varied and emit a lot of atmosphere. Characters are realized very well, showing their personality and attitude through their movements. Hoagie, for example, just slogs around while Laverne happily bounces to and fro. The technology behind the visuals may be dated but the design still holds up wonderfully well.

SOUND
The soundtrack is great with each character having his or her own tune which fits them perfectly. Hoagie's theme is more rock orientated for example while Bernard's sounds a bit zany. The overall mood is pleasantly whimsical. Voice acting too is exceptional, with the highlight being the three protagonists. The rest of the cast coming very close though. The sound effects, with their cartoony style, adhere to the aforementioned whimsical atmosphere, complementing it nicely. The audio thus forms a commendably coherent whole.

GAMEPLAY
The game opens with Purple and Green Tentacle having a pleasant stroll when the former drinks some water from a polluted river. This mutates him into an evil super genius bent on world domination. The two tentacles are captured after which Green sends for Bernard, one of the protagonists of the first Maniac Mansion, to help him. Bernard, together with his two friends Hoagie and Laverne, races to the Edison mansion to save Green Tentacle, inadvertently freeing Purple Tentacle in the process. Thus the trio eventually end up in a time spanning quest to stop this evil tentacle's quest to conquer the planet.

Reading this very brief summation makes it clear that the plot doesn't take itself too seriously. The game just doesn't contain any normal persons or situations whatsoever and the whole atmosphere is a bit off, albeit in a good way. The three main characters are wonderfully realised. Bernard is the most empathic of the three, Hoagie is unperturbed by all that happens to him while Laverne is pleasantly unhinged. The way they interact with their surroundings and the equally weird other characters is hilarious. One of my favourite moments is when Bernard encounters a car thief and just helps him while having a pleasant conversation, all the time being completely oblivious to what is going on. Lets also not forget the suicidal novelty toys salesman or the cause of the aforementioned polluted river or that poor hamster and his little sweater or... Well, you get the picture. If there is a negative thing to say about the plot, it is that all this silliness may be a bit too much for some people. Yours truly does not belong to that group however so I can safely say that in my humble yet slightly presumptuous opinion, Day of the Tentacle is the funniest game ever created.

At it's core, Day of the Tentacle is a reasonably conventional point and click adventure. Solve puzzles by exploring the environments, speaking with other characters and collecting everything that can be picked up. The game furthermore uses the traditional SCUMM interface. It is in the execution that Day of the Tentacle differentiates itself from it's brethren.

For the most part, the three protagonists will find themselves in three different time periods. Hoagie has travelled two hundred years into the past while Laverne has gone two hundred years into the future. In essence, Day of the Tentacle contains three locations, each a version of the Edison Mansion from the three periods. Each location has it's own puzzles and contains the means to solve them. They are fun to solve and a lot of them are also quite inventive.

A good part of these puzzles, however, can only be solved by exchanging items between the time periods. It is also possible to influence the future directly by changing things in the past. In an example from early in the game, Laverne is stuck in a tree. By ensuring that the tree is chopped down four hundred years in the past, it ceases to exists in the future thus freeing her. What makes this time mechanic even better is that it isn't forced through the player's throat. It may be the game's most important feature but it's inclusion is handled in a rather matter-of-fact manner. The way in which Day of the Tentacle plays with this structure is what makes the game great.

Although the proceedings are quite linear, the player has a good deal of freedom to tackle the puzzles in the order of his or her preference. This freedom, coupled with the time mechanic, leads to a very open kind of gameplay where experimentation is encouraged. It helps that the game's logic is fairly sound and that pixelhunting is kept to a bare minimum. There are a few times where causality seems a bit farfetched though and some items are hidden a bit too well but it never gets really annoying. The logic never becomes unreasonable and even those car keys will be found eventually for example. Day of the Tentacle isn't exactly a small game either. Together with the decent challenge, it will take a good few hours before the game's ending has been reached.

FINAL REMARKS
Day of the Tentacle manages to look and sound good even after all these years. It's cartoon style has held up very well and is still even quite attractive. This applies both to the visuals and audio. The sound track and voice acting are simply great.

Although the game is at it's core a fairly traditional point and click adventure, it does manage to give it's own spin on this type of gameplay. The time travelling aspect is handled very well, adding an extra dimension to the puzzles. The player has to take into account not only the individual time periods themselves but also the direct and indirect connections between them. Add to this that while the game is at times quite linear, there will always be several different puzzles to solve at any given time. This structure and freedom both result in a relatively open game.

All things considered, Day of the Tentacle offers the complete package. A good presentation, plenty of humour, gameplay that is fun, innovative and very polished and a decent and fair challenge. As mentioned before, there are a few minor niggles concerning the logic and pixelhunting but they are kept to a minimum. All in all, the game is practically faultless and as such the best point and click adventure ever released.

OVERALL: a perfect 10!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/22/10

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