Maniac Mansion was a game that fascinated me as a child. It seemed cool, but despite all its hamster-microwaving glory, there was a problem: controlling it on an NES controller was a pain in the ass. The game was obviously developed with a mouse in mind, but what good is that knowledge after you already rented the damn thing at the video store?
Fast forward more than twenty years later (yes, it really has been that long) and a German fan created a remake that works like a dream, even on 64-bit operating systems. There’s a fine line to walk when remaking a classic: do you update the graphics for a younger audience at the risk of alienating those old enough to have played the original? Or do you give in to nostalgia and release your game looking dated? Thankfully, the remaker opted for a combination of the two with exceptionally improved music.
As usual, I start the game forgetting the first person who enters the kitchen is going to get locked in the dungeon. That person, in my case, is Dave. So I’m roaming the house with the two chicks when I come across the talking tentacle. The tentacle doesn’t attack, it just stands there like an impassable slob. In order to progress, you have to give him food.
Obviously the Tentacle Chow should be the perfect food, but the tentacle complains that he’s still hungry after you feed him that. So then through a process of trial and error you’ve got to fetch the wax fruit from the room with the unfinished painting. Yes, tentacles think wax fruit is delicious. Then the lazy bastard still refuses to budge unless you get him something to drink. Pepsi? Nope. Soda makes him burp.
Like most adventure games of the era, it’s a maddening exercise in convoluted logic, but hey, even when you cheat it with a guide, it’s more fun than the newest Duke Nukem game.
2025 update: the originally posted link stopped working. The original game is officially available on Steam.
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