Maniac
Mansion is definitely one of the
best video games of all time.
- You get to pick which characters you want to take with you, each of whom has different talents (except Dave, who you have to take and who has no special talents).
- You can supposedly beat the game with any combination of characters and in different ways.
- It was an early game to include save capability.
- The game is actually creepy and scary.
- It's a strategy/adventure game that can make you sweat or yell out loud! You can choose to make friends with your enemies or not.
- It includes odd, black humour such as "chewy, caramel center" and microwaving Weird Ed's hamster.
- It spawned a Canadian TV series starring Joe Flaherty.
- It unveiled a unique interface for adventure games.
- Your characters have to cooperate in order to accomplish certain tasks.
- It has a compelling story and dialogue.
- It appeals equally to girls and boys.
- It was difficult, but not frustrating or downright impossible.
The
Commodore 64 version is the best version available since the
PC version uses
PC speaker sound (which is far
inferior to the
Commodore SID chip) and a
mouse (a
joystick could
kick a mouse's ass any day), and in the
NES version all the enemies have
blue faces.
Maniac Mansion's sequel,
Day of the Tentacle, is a sad
disappointment. It isn't scary or
exciting, there is only one goal and only one route to the goal,
Bernard was the only character
carried over from the
original and the humour is less...
odd.
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a more proper
sequel.
See SCUMM for more reasons why Maniac Mansion rocks.