Game Classic: Maniac Mansion
Review of Classic Video Game Maniac Mansion
We have classic arcade anthologies. You can buy most of the original Final Fantasy games for the Nintendo DS or Gameboy Advance. One of the most anticipated features of the Nintendo Wii was the ability to download console classics and play them all over again.
Bringing back old games has become big business. Thus, we present the first in a series I've dubbed A Link to the Past (named after another of my favorite golden oldies) reviewing some of those forgotten games.
To begin, we have one my all-time favorites: Maniac Mansion.
Strange things begin to happen in an old mansion after a meteor crashes nearby. No one notices until the games main character Dave learns that mansion resident Dr. Fred Edison has kidnapped his girlfriend.
He assembles a team of friends and prepares to mount a rescue operation.
The game, released in 1987, has many interesting elements.
First off, you begin by choosing two of Dave's friends to go in with him. All of them have different skills, which affects how you'll be able to solve the game's many puzzles.
For example, Bernard is the geek who can fix electronics while Syd and Razor are both musicians and can play the piano (yes, this ability can be crucial to playing the game.)
As far as gameplay goes, it's a point-and-click inventory based puzzle game where you choose commands from the bottom of the screen to manipulate items in the room.
The mansion itself contains a strange cast of characters beyond mad scientist Dr. Fred. There's his wife, Nurse Edna who was originally somewhat of a dominatrix. Their son, Weird Ed, a militia type guy whose rather attached to his hamster, plus living, breathing tentacles, a mummy and the meteor.
Cutscenes throughout the game reveal details of Dr. Fred's madness and more about the other characters.
The game initially appealed to me because of my love of adventure games that involve manipulating items to get through. But, while being rather short, it's more than just another adventure game thanks to the choice of characters with different skills.
Not only do these skills affect how you solve puzzles, multiple endings are possible based on whose in the party. Plenty of replay value there.
Maniac Mansion was originally released on the Commodore 64 but was ported to many other systems including the NES, which caused some issues due to Nintendo's policies at the time.
It eventually spawned the sequel, Day of the Tentacle. While it maintained the twisted fun of the original and was an amazing game, it was seriously lacking in replay value.
But one thing to note, somewhere in the sequel is a Commodore 64 that when turned on, allows you to play the original.
Maybe LucasArts already knew about the future trend of bringing back the old games.
