"Tentacle to run for GOP. Helms 'miffed.'"
--Daily Times, Day of the Tentacle

How many famous--and infamous--men have dug their niche into history trying to take over the world? Adolf Hitler, Ghengis Khan, Atilla the Hun, and now Purple Tentacle. Purple Tentacle, you ask? Why yes, Purple Tentacle. The "friendly" tentacle from LucasArts's Maniac Mansion is back with arms and an urge to conquer the world, thanks to some radioactive sludge. In a quest to stop Purple Tentacle's inevitable conquest of the world (and to save their own hides) three unlikely heroes will travel across time to halt the Day of the Tentacle.

Day of the Tentacle begins with Purple and Green Tentacle (Dr. Fred's pets from Maniac Mansion) taking a jolly promenade through the grounds of Dr. Fred's estate. The end of their walk leaves a thirsty Purple Tentacle and Green Tentacle at an industrial waste polluted river. In order to quench his thirst, Purple quaffs a bit of the sludge-like water, much to the disagreement of Green. As we all know, when ingested, industrial waste causes mutations that are more often than not destructive. Alas, this happens to Purple, who grows arms and promptly decides the world would be a better place if he were in charge. Later that night in an apartment owned by three roommates, a hamster knocks on the door carrying a message of utmost importance. The recipient of the message, Bernard (a physics-loving nerd), learns about Purple Tentacle's mutation from his old friend Green Tentacle. Unfortunately, Dr. Fred decided that having a pet with aspirations of world domination was not a good thing, so he decided to kill both tentacles. Wanting to save his old friend, Bernard and his two roommates Laverne (a flaky biology freak) and Hoagie (a fun-loving Bill-and-Ted-wannabe) head back to "The Mansion" in an effort to free Green Tentacle. Through Bernard's extreme genius, the trio sets the tentacles free. While this saves Green's life, it also dooms the world to be dominated by tentacles. Dr. Fred, trying to avert the disaster, attempts to send Bernard, Laverne, and Hoagie back in time one day to stop Purple from drinking the industrial waste. Something obviously goes wrong, and the three end up in colonial times, the present, and a future ruled by tentacles. Unable to communicate except via Chrono-Johns (time-warping toilets), three messed-up college students must find a way to return to the present and stop Purple Tentacle. What more can you ask for in a plot of an adventure game? Tentacles, world domination, and time travel make this plot a worthy recipient of an A.

But what is a good game without good puzzles? Day of the Tentacle has some of the most innovative puzzles found in the adventure genre. Because all three times are centered around the Mansion, temporal puzzles are found all throughout the game. Items can be sent between times via the Chrono-Johns, which makes for some memorable puzzles. An example [spoiler--skip to the next paragraph if you haven't played yet]: Laverne (located in the future) needs a disguise to look like a tentacle so she can fit in. In order to do this, she steals an anatomy chart of a tentacle and sends it back to the past to Hoagie. He gives this chart to Betsy Ross (the flag lady) who designs the new American flag after the tentacle. Back in the future, Laverne takes the new American flag off of a flagpole and voila! She has a tentacle costume. Day of the Tentacle never has a boring moment, at least puzzle-wise, so I give the puzzles an A.

Day of the Tentacle is based on LucasArts's SCUMM verb/noun interface, so the gameplay is very stable. This means in order to, say, make Bernard pick up a pile of fake vomit, you would click on the text that says "Pick Up" and then click on the vomit on the screen. You can switch between characters with the click of a button. Because SCUMM is a very stable, tried-and-true engine, I give gameplay an A.

To the best of my knowledge, Day of the Tentacle is the first game to try to look like your typical Saturday morning cartoon. It manages to succeed at this goal, thus making the graphics either love-'em-or-loathe-'em. If you like cartoony graphics, if you laugh at the sight of a plastic punching-bag clown knocking down Bernard, you will like the graphics of Day of the Tentacle. If that seems too childish for you, you will hate the graphics. That aside, the animations in Day of the Tentacle are wonderful and the graphics are crisp and colorful despite their age. However, because of the cartoon-like nature of the game, I give the graphics a B-.

Like all LucasArts games, Day of the Tentacle has wonderful voice acting. Purple Tentacle sounds appropriately evil, Bernard nerdy, Laverne out-of-it, and Dr. Fred crazy. Music also blends in perfectly with the atmosphere the game. Colonial times has a sort of patriotic theme, the present plays dull elevator music, and the future has a sort of upbeat techno rhythm to it. Sound and music are wonderful, so I give them an A.

Day of the Tentacle is yet another one of LucasArts's masterpieces. The humor, the sound, the graphics, and the puzzles blend together to make Day of the Tentacle a must-play for any adventure lover.

Final Grade: A

System Requirements:

PC Minimum Requirements:
386 +
4 MB RAM
DOS 5.0+
Supported sound card (recommended)
Mouse (recommended)
20 MB free hard disk space

Mac Minimum Requirements:
System 7
68040 or PowerPC
8 MB memory (4 MB free)