Maniac Mansion

Well, this game hardly needs an introduction but for those of you who haven't played it before, here goes nothing. This is - to my knowledge - the first real adventure game that LucasArts ever produced. That, in itself, doesn't say anything about the game but if I tell you that - ironically enough - it's also one of the best, that should get your attention. Yes, after almost 15 years I still consider Maniac Mansion one of the best adventure games ever written and not just by LucasArts but in general.

Story

I don't want to spoil your fun (and believe me, there's much fun to be spoiled) so I'll just give you the basic setup.

Twenty years ago a meteor crashed outside the Edison mansion. The tenants weren't exactly the Brady bunch even back then but ever since the crash, if at all possible, they got even more bizarre. The true effects of the crash were unknown, until now.

Our story begins in the present - twenty years after the meteor crash - when Dr. Fred Edison kidnaps our girlfriend, Sandy, and takes her to the mansion to conduct some kind of weird experiments on her. After seeing (and hearing) her locked up in the lab I think it's safe to say that anything Dr. Fred could do would be an improvement but nevertheless, we - in the role of the heroic boyfriend - have to launch a rescue mission immediately. It's up to us to choose two other kids from seven of Sandy's friends to help us penetrate the mansion, play video games, feed giant tentacles, make out of world telephone calls and, eventually, rescue Sandy. Sound weird enough? You haven't heard the half of it...

Opinion

Just like his big brother, Zak McKracken, Maniac Mansion is also one of the all-time adventure game classics. The story, the great puzzles and the horrific graphics all add to the charm and make this game timeless (and also immense fun to play).

Now I could go on and on about how much I love the game, how much fun it was to play it all over again even for the umpteenth time, how there are literally dozens of ways to finishing it and, indeed, to solving almost ever single puzzle, how the puzzles are extremely clever and, as such, not at all easy especially since each and every one of the seven kids has a different storyline waiting for him or her but I'm sure you'd rather just hear the cold, hard facts.

Well. For graphics; see the screenshots. For music; plug your ears. For large amounts of concentrated but absolutely harmless fun; play Maniac Mansion.