Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (1988)

Preliminary: Nice into music, per C64 standards. Luckily I'm already used to the "point and click" being actually joystick controlled point and click, like Maniac Mansion before it. Hopefully this goes better than King's Quest IV tho which I dropped not that it wasn't pretty good, but just that that era of adventure games feel a bit dry now that I'm in the NES action-adventure era and Amiga graphics and arcade games like Chase HQ that look like PS1 games! Heh. So far this is reminding me of Crimson Room and Pajama Sam and whatnot which is a good thing, I like that feeling of just exploring everything in the room and logical things (so far) like getting an item from under the desk by using a variety of items that, in real life, would get it out. However I'm nervous for the inevitable illogical puzzles to come in early adventure games. Thank goodness I already have a guide at the ready for reference. I love the Mom hints from the voicemails, kinda reminding me of Earthbound :-p It's movie time now but seems this one might be worth pushing through, tho it looks long, has a bit of a dated format, and people mention a money factor which often turns me away from games.

Day 1

It's certainly slower than Metroidvania action-adventure, and it lacks the urgency that Maniac Mansion had, so I'm not sure it's worth pushing through. But I keep pushing on. Heading to the Airport now.

Day 2

Well, some good humor in this with some of the puzzles but I'm seeing more and more why people bemoaned the illogical puzzles and the over use of mazes in this. Considering Maniac Mansion was great, I don't feel too bad dropping this one--I could always return to Maniac Mansion when I want this early SCUMM or LucasArts format. Sure, this one gets more and more urgency, with aliens getting involved and humorous characters, but Maniac Mansion hooked you in quite quickly... and thus more successfully.

Look: 7/10 Literally the exact same vibe as Maniac Mansion, but some cute things throughout.

Sound: 6.5/10

Play: 7/10

Feel: 6.5/10 Just felt redundant after Maniac Mansion. It bordered too much on the Leisure Suit Larry territory.

Attachment: 7/10 If I am really craving more of the Maniac Mansion format, this is obviously the one to turn to.

Overall: 6.8/10

The story, and art in the game is really fun and interesting. The Game suffers due to mechanics however.

The Money system really grinds you to a halt. The game becomes a battle of trying to figure out what you're supposed to be doing while using as little money as possible. You're hesitant about exploring, because doing so costs money, but also you need to explore to figure out what to do. That's what adventure games are all about. So the use of money here, really stifles enjoyment of the game.

The game also has several ways that you can ruin your game and not realize it til later, so often you have to reload or even restart the game using your previously gained knowledge in order to replay things, so you can at last save the world.

I did enjoy the game, but I would definitely have enjoyed it more if I weren't working around these systems.

I consider myself to be pretty good at adventure games, but this one is hard.

The money Element is what really makes it difficult. It's hard to explore and make mistakes and come back because exploring costs money. So I find myself reloading old saves and doing things over and over again. SO I have enough money and don't get stuck in Cairo again. It's an interesting game, but with the money mechanic, and the game becoming unbeatable if say you stuff an egg into an artifact slot. The game can be quite punishing.