Brutal Gamer

Sequel Saturday #1…. Day of the Tentacle

By Zeth - July 11, 2009 - 11:22 UTC - Be first to Comment!

Whats’ a Tentacle?

Welcome one and all to another new & exclusive BrutalGamer.com feature – Sequel Saturday.  A few weeks ago Viatrophy placed a post about games we would and would not like to see sequels of.  This jogged my videogame addled memory that I had been meaning to write this feature for about four months now… better late then never – I hope!

So, first off and to celebrate the release of the new (and also the imminent release of the reworked) Monkey Island Adventures I present to you for sequel consideration – Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle.

It struck me like a wet slap from a walrus that this game is 16 years old!  16!!  Man I’m old.   For the mathematically challenged amongst us that makes a release date in 1993!  Along with Monkey Island (oh how I love thee..) this was the game that dragged everyone screaming to the temple of SCUMM (Script Creation Utility Used for Maniac Mansion).

Developed and published by the once mighty Lucasfilm Games (Aka Lucasarts) this was the love child of Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer (he of Brutal Legend and Psychonaughts).  A sassy mix of the crème de la crème of point and click gaming and sharp witty dialogue.  This game was completely surreal and such a complete and utter blast from start to finish.  Whether you were flying a kite with Ben Franklin or avoiding the evil twisted inventions of the Purple Tentacle this was a classic game.  I’m not going to dig in to the elements of the game as this is not what these articles are all about, that’s a possible job for Oggy’s ‘Looking Back’ feature maybe someday.

With the complete love being ladled on to the point and click genre at this moment now is the time for DOTT to rise again.  To help this along original creator Dave Grossman now works at…. TellTale!  So I think it is time for the franchise to make its way home.  My concern would be that they should continue the wacked out nature of the original title and make some new punchy episodic content.  To be honest the whole structure of the game (and the genre) sits so well with small 4- 5 hour chunks of content that these are just a gold mine for anyone who had the noodle to pull it off.  The three main characters worked so well and trying to take down a sadistic twisted tentacle was just pure genius.

Personal wanted factor: 10/10

Community wanted factor: 8/10

Possibility of an update/re-release: 9/10

Possibility of a true sequel: 6/10

There is little doubt in my mind that DOTT will return as long as Monkey Island does the numbers.  As for what guise that will take you have to think the safest bet would be to give the original story some spit and polish and squeeze it out again… I just hope that instead they go the Sam and Max route and bring the funny to a whole new story.

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