top of page
Search
Writer's pictureAntal Bokor

31 Days of Retro Horror Games: Day 22: Maniac Mansion

This year we’re putting together a list of 31 Retro Horror games. Games that have come from dead console generations, back to haunt us. Sadly, not all of these games will be available for you to play due to the complicated nature of video game preservation. However, we’re going to note if it’s possible to play them on modern hardware. We’ll be covering games from the Seventh Generation (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii) and earlier. So basically anything before 2006.


Day 22


Maniac Mansion


While not entirely terrifying, Maniac Mansion plays on horror tropes from silver screen monster movie clichés. It’s more of a comedy than a horror game, but since you’re sneaking around a mansion where a scientist is stealing brains to use in his experiments, and a green and a purple talking tentacle are roaming about, it’s pretty horror adjacent.


I talked about Roberta Williams and Sierra On-Line a few days ago, and how important their work was to adventure games. The other side of that same coin is the work LucasArts was doing for adventure games. They would eventually release games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Sam n’ Max Hit the Road, and many more classic SCUMM engine driven point and click adventure games. These games were my childhood.




Maniac Mansion has you choose between a number of characters to explore Dr. Fred’s mansion and stop Sandy from giving her brains to him. There are various ways you can get your characters into trouble. One of the most famous bits is the ability to microwave a hamster–something that is mentioned in Maniac Mansion’s sequel. It was so notorious Nintendo’s subsequent printings of the NES version of the game had that part censored–among other censorship concessions that were made for the NA release.


Maniac Mansion isn’t hard to play these days. You can download and play it right on steam. If you want more of a modernized take on the same idea, Day of the Tentacle is out for modern consoles and is a sequel to Maniac Mansion. While a lot of the gameplay has changed, Day of the Tentacle is a genuinely funny game. Sorry, I mean, scary. (It’s not scary.)


0 comments

Comments


bottom of page