Quick Review: Day of the Tentacle Remastered

Gotta stop the Tentacle, or everyone will have a bad time!

Day of the Tentacle was originally a point-and-click game released in 1993 by LucasArts. It was  meant as a sort-of sequel to a game called Maniac Mansion. The version covered today is a remaster developed by Double Fine Studios, who made a lot of graphical upgrades to the look of the game.

They bothered to spell HELP in red, it must
be very important.

Two Tentacles (literally two creatures that are nothing but a tentacle each) approach toxic sludge being dumped in a river by the mad scientist Dr. Fred. One of them, Purple, tastes the sludge, grows arms, and becomes evil. They’re then captured by the scientist. Far away, Bernard Bernoulli, the dictionary picture for a ‘90s nerd, receives a letter saying that his Tentacle friends have been kidnapped; he enlists the help of his college roommates Hoagie, a metalhead, and Laverne, a somewhat unhinged medical student, to rescue them. Unfortunately, this was the wrong thing to do, as Purple upon freedom begins to plot for world domination.

This looks like the worst possible idea.

Includes violence against balloon clowns!
(You do much worse to that balloon later.)

To stop him, the three ask Dr. Fred for help. Just their luck, he has a set of “Chrono-Johns”, three porta-potties refurbished into time machines that he can use to send them a day back in time to stop Purple. However, a malfunction causes Hoagie to be sent 200 years back during the Constitutional Convention where the Founding Fathers are working on the paper, while Laverne is sent 200 years forward, to the future where the Tentacles have won and humanity is enslaved. The two need to find some way to power their Chrono-Johns to come back to the present. Meanwhile, Bernard has to coordinate the team split across three time periods (and find a diamond to power the core machine) in order to then save the world from Purple.

Hancock, Jefferson and Washington. We're just
missing Franklin and we got a full band.

Point-and-click games tend to follow the same formula: Pick up items, talk to people, and solve puzzles using both. And sometimes, the puzzles will get real damn silly. Day of the Tentacle adds a fourth dimension to it all, as you play three different characters in three different situations (though all of them visit the same motel, different in each time period). Thanks to the Chrono-Johns, you can actually send items between time periods in order to have either protagonist use them, which is vital to solve many of the puzzles. However, living creatures and large items cannot be sent that way… though there may be alternatives. And of course, changes made in the past will affect the future in some way.

Hey, kids born after 2004: Ever used a VHS?
Well, time to learn.

Apparently, in the future, tentacles use
present-day bug nets to hunt humans.
Sure, that'll work.

As is to be expected, the puzzles can get pretty complicated – factoring in all three time periods means that each character can use most items, leading to a lot of trial and error. There are hints to be found, thankfully. The game is also designed like all point-and-click titles should be: It’s impossible to lose just by throwing away an item. If something leaves the inventory and cannot be retrieved at all, you’re effectively done with that item. Some things aren’t fully explained either; as an example, I thought I had to use the Chrono-Johns every time I wanted to send an item to another character, whereas apparently it was possible to transfer items directly through the menu past a certain point of the story. I could have saved so much time and so many trips back and forth!

A hamster, a pot of coffee, a brush and a
bar of soap. That sounds like set-up for a
comedy film scene.

Fully-animated, the game is also fully-voiced, containing voice clips for damn near every option – whether you’re looking at something, about to push or pull it, or anything else you’re about to do. Adding to this is a number of nods and references to the original Maniac Mansion, with the full version of it playable on a PC in the present. Since the storylines happen concurrently, it can get confusing at times and figuring out what to do next can be tricky. Oh, and it’s so, so funny. So really damn hilarious, getting genuine laughter from me.

I struggle to find flaws to it, that’s how good it is. Obviously, if the dense puzzle style of the point-and-click genre is not your type, this might not be one to try out; but if it’s exactly your kind of game, if you haven’t tried it, then go and do so, it’s pretty great. Day of the Tentacle is available on Steam for 14.99$ USD.