I've played Maniac Mansion several times in the past, and probably gotten to around 50% of it, but only recently did I put in the effort to actually play through the whole game, and with all the different endings.
Maniac Mansion is a game of its time that you have to see for what it was when it came out (1987), but was something truly unique and that would have enormous influence on later games. It feels more like a type of game that tries to find its form, and stumbles a bit, but in the end gets there - but still it's important to remember what a stepping stone it was for what to come later. I personally consider the first Monkey Island to be the first game LucasArts really mastered the format, but Maniac Mansion undeniable paved the way to get there and is a good game on its own.
Compared to it's excellent sequel Day Of The Tentacle, that still holds up perfectly today, Maniac Mansion shows it's age at times and seems quite rough around the edges. I miss verbal commands like "talk to" or "look at". Other verbal commands seems superfluous. Certain puzzles also seems odd and clumsy, but most of it is still good and fun to figure out.
Maniac Mansion is clearly inspired by campy horror b-films, but like most LucasArts games, its really more of a comedy game. At times it is very funny, and there's a sense of childlike creativity and silliness that serves the game, since the story isn't exactly very deep (nor does it try to be). Even if I have to say that the concept of an evil living purple meteor is quite bizarre.
The idea of being able to choose from different characters to solve parts of the game differently is unique, and I don't think even many games since has done this. It's clever, and gives you a reason to beat the game several times with the different characters to see all the different endings.
That said it seems they could have done more with this unique concept too, and some of it seems half-baked. For example Razor and Syd are both musicians and do the exact same thing, (they even play the exact same song, which I at least expected they could switch out!), and as for Jeff (the surfer dude), it seems they didn't get to give him any unique abilities or an ending at all (his only ability is fixing a phone, which Bernard also does). Since the characters never talks to people (no conversations), or is able to look at objects, it loses the possibility of character development, which the game would have benefitted from.
I think Maniac Mansion strength probably is in it's innovation which was very ambitious and influencial for it's time, but compared to today's standards it seems imperfect and a bit flawed, but charmingly so, perhaps.
Maniac Mansion is a game of its time that you have to see for what it was when it came out (1987), but was something truly unique and that would have enormous influence on later games. It feels more like a type of game that tries to find its form, and stumbles a bit, but in the end gets there - but still it's important to remember what a stepping stone it was for what to come later. I personally consider the first Monkey Island to be the first game LucasArts really mastered the format, but Maniac Mansion undeniable paved the way to get there and is a good game on its own.
Compared to it's excellent sequel Day Of The Tentacle, that still holds up perfectly today, Maniac Mansion shows it's age at times and seems quite rough around the edges. I miss verbal commands like "talk to" or "look at". Other verbal commands seems superfluous. Certain puzzles also seems odd and clumsy, but most of it is still good and fun to figure out.
Maniac Mansion is clearly inspired by campy horror b-films, but like most LucasArts games, its really more of a comedy game. At times it is very funny, and there's a sense of childlike creativity and silliness that serves the game, since the story isn't exactly very deep (nor does it try to be). Even if I have to say that the concept of an evil living purple meteor is quite bizarre.
The idea of being able to choose from different characters to solve parts of the game differently is unique, and I don't think even many games since has done this. It's clever, and gives you a reason to beat the game several times with the different characters to see all the different endings.
That said it seems they could have done more with this unique concept too, and some of it seems half-baked. For example Razor and Syd are both musicians and do the exact same thing, (they even play the exact same song, which I at least expected they could switch out!), and as for Jeff (the surfer dude), it seems they didn't get to give him any unique abilities or an ending at all (his only ability is fixing a phone, which Bernard also does). Since the characters never talks to people (no conversations), or is able to look at objects, it loses the possibility of character development, which the game would have benefitted from.
I think Maniac Mansion strength probably is in it's innovation which was very ambitious and influencial for it's time, but compared to today's standards it seems imperfect and a bit flawed, but charmingly so, perhaps.