Gameology 2.0

Review Of

Grossman, Dave. Day of the Tentacle. San Francisco, CA: LucasArts, 1993.

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Day of the Tentacle is certainly one of the most popular and well-loved graphical adventure games. I was unable to find a negative review of the title. Many read like this one from Adventure Gamers, which heap on accolade after accolade and denying the existence of a single flaw. Unfortunately, I'd never gotten around to playing this game until two nights ago, though I'd heard a lot about it from my retrogaming friends. To them, Tentacle represents the pinnacle--the zenith of GAG development.

It seems silly to describe this game as a sequel to Maniac Mansion. Though there are certainly borrowings and influence of that older title, this isn't Maniac Mansion II. Then again, I flinch when I hear people describe Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan as the sequel to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Ouch! True, both films share many elements, but they're fundamentally different pictures. Are we doomed to forever associate Empire Strikes Back with Return of the Jedi, much less Phanton Menance?? Say it ain't so!

Anyway, it's not hard to see why people enjoy this game so much. The visuals and aural ambience here are decidedly cartoony; think Bugs Bunny with a slab of Tiny Toons--it's highly stylized and rather surreal. Despite my initial impression after seeing some screenshots for the game, I soon discovered that this game was not intended (only) for kids. There's a wealth of subtle adult Rocky Horror-type humor running throughout. The game spoofs everything from the Founding Fathers to environmentalism, and, as seems true of all LucasArts games, there are tons of allusions to pop culture and other Lucas Arts games. Whether intentional or not, the game exudes an aura of depth despite its apparent absurdity. It wouldn't surprise me if in ten years people are talking about the entire game as some intricate network of metaphors.

Like Maniac Mansion and Zak McCraken, Tentacle gives you control of multiple avatars, which can be switched about at will. You can also, with certain limitations, swap items among the avatars. A time travel conceit is very well integrated into this setup. One character is stuck 200 years in the past, one 200 years in the future, and the last (the nerdy Bernard) is stuck in the present. What characters do in the past tends to affect the future, which adds an additional strategic element to the puzzles that is quite effective.

The game is also paced well; there's a lot to do, and there are plenty of devices in play to keep the action moving forward. If you get stuck with one character, it's easy enough to switch to the next. Gradually, the pieces fall together into a nice, solid whole. Brenda Laurel, with her emphasis on causality, would likely appreciate this game. There are very few "red herrings" or useless stuff in this game; everything serves a purpose.

Much to my chagrin, I was forced to consult a hint site on at least two occasions. Generally, I just needed a slight nudge in the right direction. The nastiest of these "aporias" involved a cat and a squeaky mattress. The answer to the puzzle is to "use squeaky mattress" on a bed in the far corner of the room, though I didn't intuit this and probably never would have given the setup of the puzzle (trying to push, pull, or pick up the squeaky mattress generates the response, "Where would I move it?") I took this to mean that there was no place to put it, so I might as well give up--though it was a clue that I should think about where I would want to put it. D'oh!

Perhaps the zaniest puzzle is one involving white-out (or Liquid Paper; it's called BooBooBeGone), a black cat, and a fence. I had gotten frustrated and had entered "try to use every item on every object" mode when I discovered that using the white-out on the fence causes the black cat to run under it, thus getting a nice white stripe down its back (think of Pepe Lepu's stalkee). It's a funny gag, and there are clues leading up to it (skunks are mentioned a few times), yet I didn't get it. I also got stuck (you'd think I'd learn !!) with one of those close the door tricks; you have to close a door to see something on the other side of it. I guess a general rule of GAGs should be to make sure you have seen both sides of every door in the game (Can we say Rhem?)

Frankly, though, these are minor caveats. This is a heck of a game, and one that has definitely help up well over time. Indeed, one of the obvious advantages of cartoon-style animation is that the game looks just as good in 2005 as it did in 1993. Adding more polygons or textures, much less 3D, would just be stupid.

I should note that I apparenty played an older version that did not feature voice acting throughout. The voice acting I did hear was mediocre at best. I'm not sure if I was just missing files or had an older version...Apparently, some version of the game features voice acting throughout of very high quality. My version also had another glitch--at one point, you find a computer that apparently allows you to play Maniac Mansion. SCUMM VM interrupted at this point with a dialogue box explaining what was supposed to happen but didn't. Sigh. I guess it's no biggie.

In short, Day of the Tentacle is definitely a great achievement. I'm not given to the hyperbole of its other reviewers, but I will admit that I was consistently impressed. It is one of the few games I've played that was able to integrate so many filmic qualities without losing sight of its true nature as a game. If you haven't tried this one yet, you definitely should.