REVIEW – After almost 23 years of the original release, an SCUMM-engine classic is back. That is a good thing because its return allows us to play one of those classics on modern platforms without much trouble. For point-and-click fans, this game is still a treat…

Tim Schafer is either working on sequels (like Psychonauts 2) or remasters nowadays. Schafer created this game together with Dave Grossman – in case you don’t know, Grossman was one of the writers of a certain game called The Secret of Monkey Island. Schafer’s first credit came from the prequel of DoT called Maniac Mansion. He was one of the testers for the NES port of that game. However, prepare your tentacles.

Highly regarded even today

Of course, Double Fine didn’t just reprogram the game from 1993 without touching the graphics – in fact, I have to say that the redrawn artwork isn’t bad, this is how they could improve the visuals. Hoagie, Bernard and Laverne finally receives a high-definition coat. Thankfully, the interface was updated, too, making the controls much more intuitive.

A thumbs up for this change! The developers also thought of the people who prefer the original graphics (like the editor-in-chief/owner of this site) – you can switch to them by using the touchpad on the DualShock 4! This is a great idea!

Happenings

After five years of Maniac Mansion, Dr. Fred Edison’s creature, the Purple Tentacle gets poisoned, which makes him try to go for world domination. Because of this unfortunate event, Purple’s brother, the friendly Green Tentacle picks up contact with the Bernard-Hoagie-Laverne trio to help. Time traveling? Obviously! Prepare for a few hours of fun. (I wouldn’t spoil more, though – if Day of the Tentacle were a bad quality game like Alekhine’s Gun was, I would, though.)

The humor is brilliant. It would have been nigh impossible to screw this aspect up (unless some portions of the game get cut), so the three idiots are still in the same problems as they were in the summer of ’93. For example, Hoagie ends up in the age of George Washington – do I need to say more? One of the important items/things in Day of the Tentacle Remastered will be the Chron-O-John. This is the time machine’s name and… well, you have to send items through time by putting them in its toilet! However, a few puzzles won’t be that easy to figure them out. A few times I ended up slapping my head saying „Really? THAT’S what I had to do?!”

Loud. Not loud.

Most of the times I don’t have issues with the games’ audio. Not this time, though! I have no idea what the audio engineers were doing, but what the hell is up with the balance? A few places had low-volume clips and other locations were eardrum-blasting loud!

I can’t believe that Double Fine had no time or effort to fix this. At least, the soundtrack was updated! Not to say that Clint Bajakian, Michael Land and Peter McConnell created something awful two decades ago! Another positive would be the developer commentary – Schafer and co talk about their LucasArts years.

Recommended

LucasArts, SCUMM-engine and the point-and-click genre meant one word in the nineties: quality. Timeless quality, to be more exact. This is why I still recommend Day of the Tentacle; its Remastered version allows you to run the game on a modern PC without using DosBox, and the port to the PlayStation means a bigger audience, too.

The humor, the funny (although not memorable) story, the good soundtrack, the ability to make the game look retro, the bonus Maniac Mansion game and the good UI are all positives. Against them, I could only bring up the messed up audio balance and the sometimes weird solutions to a few puzzles. In case you missed out on the LucasArts games, pick it up now, it’s worth a buy.

-V-

Publisher: Double Fine Productions

Developer: Double Fine Productions

Genre: Point-and-click adventure game

Release date: March 22, 2016 (PC, PlayStation 4,PlayStation Vita)