Day of the Tentacle, also known as Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle, is a 1993 graphic adventure game developed and published by LucasArts. It is the sequel to the 1987 game Maniac Mansion. The game's plot follows Bernard Bernoulli and his friends Hoagie and Laverne as they attempt to stop the evil Purple Tentacle — a sentient, disembodied tentacle — from taking over the world. The player takes control of the three and solves puzzles while using time travel to explore different periods of history. Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer co-led the game's development, their first time in such a role. The pair carried over a limited amount of elements from Maniac Mansion and forwent the character selection aspect to simplify development. Inspirations included Chuck Jones cartoons and the history of the United States. Day of the Tentacle is the eighth LucasArts title to use the SCUMM engine, and the company's first title to feature voice acting. The game was released simultaneously on floppy disk and CD-ROM to critical acclaim and commercial success. Critics focused on its cartoon-style visuals and comedic elements. Day of the Tentacle has featured regularly in lists of "top" games published more than two decades after its release, and aspects have been referenced in popular culture.
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Exploring the motel in present, past and future was a lot of fun. These kinds of intimate spaces and exploring them-- figuring out how they work-- this is why I like point and click adventures. These environments are so beautiful. A real step up from Monkey Island 2. Having the ability to swap around items between characters on the fly was a gift from the heavens in terms of convenience features. There weren't too many items to collect. The scope of the world was pretty moderate, is what I'm saying.
I found the characters and a dialogue charming. The puzzles were not too hard but still not too easy although some solutions were a bit finnicky. I also think that the story could have had a bit more heart and a theme to tie it all together.
Just don't play the completely superfluous Special Edition where they ruined the graphics...