CaptainD's Freeware Game Digest #7 - Manic Mansion Deluxe
Jun 26 '04 (Updated Sep 18 '07)
The Bottom Line An excelent remake / update of an all-time classic graphical adventure game - the mother of them all, in fact.
CaptainD's Freeware Game Digest #7 - Manic Mansion Deluxe
Every adventure game fan will have heard of Maniac Mansion. Ron Gilbert & co. revolutionised the graphical adventure by introducing a point & click interface (with the available actions listed at the bottom of the screen). This almost completely replaced the text parser in a short space of time, and when SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for the development of Maniac Mansion) was used to create Zak McKraken (one of my all-time favourites) and the first two Monkey Island games, along with updated versions of Sierra’s SCI system (used for the King’s / Police / Space Quest games), the revolution was complete.
But anyway, back to Maniac Mansion - or rather, the Deluxe model. The deluxe, I believe, refers to the aesthetics – the graphics and sound are infinitely better than the original – though considering how old this game is, that’s hardly surprising!
The graphics, look, and feel of the game are all very authentic. There are lots of nice little touches and a zany storyline involving the main character’s girlfriend (Dave – no you fool ,that’s the main character, not the girlfriend!) being kidnapped by spooky Doctor Fred, his spookier nurse (Edna), and held captive in a house full of weird and wonderful things (including a hungry green tentacle – getting it out of the way is one of the first puzzles you come across) and the Doc’s idiot son (Ed). At the start of the game you must choose which two buddies will accompany Dave on his quest – each character has their own special abilities, and thus the game will be slightly different depending on who you choose.
The game is on the tough side (no bad thing really) and great fun. The humour that permeates the whole affair is good, the puzzles logical (though in some cases the logic may take a while to discern!), and as far as I can tell, completely bug-free. This is a testament both to the developers (LucasFan) and AGS (Adventure Game Studio by Chris Jones), without which we would have a much smaller set of freeware graphical adventure games to choose from! (See http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/ for more details.)
The only real problem with the game is that there were several times that I got to a stage where I seemed to have missed an item that I needed to escape from a room etc (particularly when you get locked up by the evil Dr / Nurse), and thus had to restart from a previously saved position and try something else – however this doesn’t necessarily mean that I couldn’t have escaped without that object, just that I couldn’t find a way of doing so!
Another nice touch is that each command also has a keyboard shortcut, and you can swap between players using the F13 keys. Just one more example of how well thought-out the interface is. And it's being translated into many languages (some are already available).
LucasFan have done a tremendous job of updating a game that is not only a classic but is an important part of gaming history. I can only hope that they redo the original Zak McKraken next…
Final Ratings
Graphics: 8/10 – take the original graphics, improve them slightly, and what have you got? Erm… slightly improved versions of the original graphics… some good animation, too.
Sound: 8/10 – very impressive music for a freeware game and some good sound effects. Sadly no speech pack is available - though there may be one in the future.
Playability: 9/10 – instantly recognisable system for anyone who has played a Monkey Island etc, and very easy to pick up for everyone else. None of that damn “pixel hunting”, either, which is a very good thing!
Longevity: 8/10 – it’s a pretty tough cookie to crack, it’ll take you quite a while (you’ll probably need a little help along the way, too!).
Replay Value: 9/10 - there’s more long-term appeal than usual with this type of game since you are able to play as a different set of characters.
Overall Rating: 9/10 – a truly excellent remake / update. In many ways it is even better than LucasFan’s previous offering, The New Adventures of Zak McKraken.
Download Size: - 5.5Mb
Where to get it: - http://people.freenet.de/lucasfangames/maniac/games_eng.htm (The New Adventures of Zak McKraken is also available from this page)
System Requirements
Nothing special.
Thanks for reading,
Dave
Copyright 2004 Dave Seaman
Please feel free to link to this article. If you wish to quote from it, please feel free but I would appreciate it if you also include a link.
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See CaptainD’s Freeware Game Digest #1 & Index for more freeware game reviews.
Due for an update: Top Ten Freeware Graphical Adventure Games
The Monkey Island Series
The Monkey Island Archives (MI1-3)
Escape From Monkey Island (MI4)
Also by LucasArts
Grim Fandango
See also: My Top Ten Freeware Adventure Games (September 2007 Edition)
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