Day of the Tentacle Remastered (PC) Review

Every respectable mad scientist must find a way to produce bio-waste, and Dr. Fred's solution to that problem is the Sludge-O-Matic (TM)… but, uh-oh! It seems Purple Tentacle has tasted its fine juice, resulting in it going into full Hitler-Stalin-Darth-Vader-Donald-Trump mode and wanting to "Take over the world!!!" Who will stop this madman (or is it mad-cephalopod-limp?) from creating the First Tentacle Reich? The charmingly crazy and edgy Laverne, the waaaaaay laid-back roadie, Hoagie, and the one who set the villain loose in the first place, the one and only Bernard the über-dork.

Dr. Fred's plan? Send them back in time to prevent Purple Tentacle from drinking the toxic sludge that powered his squishy body. The problem? Being the cheapskate that he is, he used an imitation diamond for his time machine instead of the real deal, resulting in Bernard staying in the present, Laverne going 200 years forward in time (during Tentacle rule), and Hoagie ending up in the time where the American Founding Fathers were thinking about what the heck should they include in the constitution.

Thus begins one of the zaniest adventures ever; an adventure that can only be described as a mix between Looney Tunes, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and the Toontown from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (minus Jessica's mammoth breasts, unfortunately). Really, the biggest compliment that could be given to Day of the Tentacle is that it's a cartoon brought to life; full of over-the-top, wacky characters, physics that break every two minutes, distinctive visuals with skewed perspectives, weird, exaggerated angles and shapes, bright colours, and fantastic animation (especially for the time it came out), and, finally, tons of pleasantly silly and meta-heavy humour… in other words, a LucasArts early '90s adventure.

One great feature is the ability to flawlessly go from the - still wonderful - old-school visuals and music, to the, surprisingly well-done, upgraded HD graphics and fully orchestral score of the new remastered version, with the push of a button; a transition that takes about half a second. Of course, it's the gameplay that matters most, especially since the plot isn't really a plot in the traditional sense. At its core, this is a typical point-and-click adventure, requiring two things: gathering information via conversations or by observing the surroundings, and using the various items that can be collected to go over this quest's many obstacles - but things aren't so simple this time around.

Similar to Maniac Mansion, having to control a three-member party complicates things a bit, especially since the protagonists are lost in time. The good thing is that their world is geographically congruent, with each separate period offering a different incarnation of the mansion, room placement and all. At first, this will be the reason why this is generally quite a challenging journey, as well as the main source of annoyance. Solving the various puzzles requires exchanging items through the time-traveling portable toilets(!?), or Chron-o-Johns, which can lead to a lot of trial-and-error, with characters having to return to the time machine again and again to leave or take an object.

Luckily, even with this small flaw, the puzzles themselves are great, but only for those who have experienced a similar title, like The Secret of Monkey Island, Leisure Suit Larry, or Full Throttle. In other words, this isn't Myst, since most puzzles follow a cartoon logic - like finding a way to make George Washington's teeth chatter in order to convince Thomas Jefferson that it's cold so that John Hancock can get to warm up near the fireplace - and that's just a simple example. Don't worry, though, as although rarely in plain sight, hints are aplenty, and the puzzles are, as mentioned before, great, requiring the use of both grey matter and good 'ol imagination.

A simple search on the Internet will make it pretty clear that this is one of the best adventure games ever. Correct? Yes. Is it for everyone? Without a single doubt, the answer is 'No.' Why? Well, while great, it's full of the things that have made a portion of the gaming community avoid point-and-click adventures at all costs, and especially those that are less about well-thought out storylines and tough but logical puzzles, and more about cartoony humour and equally cartoony puzzle solutions. The low replay value, the short length, the fiddling with inventory items business, and so on - it's an adventure for adventure connoisseurs, not for everyone.

Those into this type of digital fun, however, are in for a treat, since this breaks the tradition of taking a popular title from the past and just sticking the word 'Remaster' on the front cover. Besides the obvious audio-visuals improvements, besides the fact that it's possible to play the original vanilla version or even Maniac Mansion via an in-game PC, and, finally, besides the fact that there's a Director's commentary option, as well as lots of concept art to unlock, there are no glitches, no bugs, no rough edges, no lack of options, and generally, no problems at all. Kudos to team Double Fine, kudos in spades.