maniac mansion game review
Maniac Mansion video game reviewDeveloped by LucasArts Entertainment (Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick for the original, with the help of Douglas Crockford for this version), released in 1988 in Japan, in September 1990 in the United States and Europe.
You who love the old creaking shacks, inhabited by shady individuals, as well as the kitchissime Z series films, this game is for you.
Preamble…
Doctor Fred Edison kidnapped Sandy and took her to his dismal mansion to indulge in shameful experiments on the person of the young cheerleader (Note de Pouyou: a cheerleader). Sandy's friend Dave (the hero of the game) gathers a few friends and walks with a confident step (but a little trembling anyway) towards the uncomfortable building. There will be sport!
Maniac Mansion is relatively unique on the NES. Like Shadowgate (but with a different realization), it falls into the category of point and click games, that is to say that the actions are carried out using a menu of several verbs - located at the bottom of the screen - which are applied to the characters and / or objects available. Originally developed for C64 and released on this medium in 1987, it was ported to the NES in 1988 (for Japan) then in 1990 (for the United States and then Europe) after having transited through the PC in 1988 - among other media. As Jeandubois writes in his Shadowgate test, precisely, the mouse seems a priori more suitable for manipulating this style of play (we think in particular of Lemmings). The controller of our dear NES is still doing well; we will just regret the delay, all relative, but still present, necessary to move from the list of possible actions to an object, then return to the list, etc. Note that the three most used verbs (get, use and open) benefit from a shortcut through the select button, a very significant plus.
A thinking game rather than an action game, Maniac Mansion seems to allow you to take your time before performing any action. Most of the time it’s true, but beware, though, because the mansion’s locals, the Edison family, will try to catch you if they notice you (especially Nurse Edna, who can follow you on multiple screens). If by chance one of your "youngsters" enters a room and finds himself in the presence of one of them, it is better to react a quarter turn and clear off before getting caught and sent to the dungeon (without dragon this- this…). A minimum of attention is therefore required, even if being in the dungeon is not necessarily useless.
Note: the American version was substantially censored by Nintendo of America. Why am I not surprised?
Prepare yourselves !
In preparation, you need to select two sidekicks (from six) who will lend a hand to Dave in an attempt to snatch Sandy from his captors. As much to warn you right away, Dave does not have any particular aptitude and I advise you to use it rather for purposes of diversion and to make make the true job by the others. It is anyway possible to end the game with a main character, the others giving an occasional helping hand.The other teens have the following skills: knowing how to repair any type of device (although having the appropriate tools) for Bernard, playing the piano (Syd and Razor), having literary talents (Wendy), knowing how to repair phones for Jeff (redundant with Bernard; Jeff is certainly the most useless character in the game with Dave) and knowing how to develop dandruff (but no, not in the hair! Pictures, what! You do it on purpose or what?) for Michael.
Explore the mansion
Depending on the constitution of your "rescue team", the course of the game will be different, and the end of it will also vary. However, whatever the situation, it will be to avoid the inhabitants of the manor. Do you know the Addams family? Well, zarbi point of view, the Edison family arises a little! Especially if you meet the aptly named “Dead cousin Tom”, who lies mummified in his bathtub, Weird Ed paracommando him or even the two tentacles (alter ego of “the Thing” in the Addams family?) Who keep certain passages.Be aware, however, that it is possible to make allies of some of them.
The major part of your adventure will therefore consist in the search for objects of all kinds with which you will try to progress. And the combinations are sometimes far from obvious. Note also that the game does not prevent you - unlike what is often done today - from getting rid of a vital object for your success. Better to keep everything, even the cooked meat found in the fridge.
At certain times, the game will stop and you will see a small animation depicting one or more inhabitants of the manor. This can be used to determine your next action (for example: hiding!).
Picture and sound
Graphically speaking, Maniac Mansion shows its age. The colors are kitsch; now, this game is so atypical that it contributes to its charm. The graphics quality, however, falls short of what one would expect for an NES game released in 1990, especially since there are few on-screen animations. But that was the time and personally, I find these graphics charming. When you keep in mind the technological escalation that drives manufacturers today, perhaps to the detriment of the intrinsic quality of games (everyone has the right to have their opinion on this), I do not think that 'this is a handicap; but you are however warned.Each teenager has a CD player and therefore has their own music. It is possible to cut this music, which is not useless, because it can exasperate in the long run. The sound effects are really minimalist.
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