[Deshrill]

Ah, the very strange, but dearly beloved, LucasArts game that not many people have heard about: Zak McKracken & The Alien Mindbenders.

I realize that this is a popular game for hard-core adventure game fans, but to newer fans of the genre, it probably isn't as well known. I first stumbled across this game (and, indeed, my first LucasArts adventure games), in the great Classic Adventures Collection from LucasArts, which had the following games in it: Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken, Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, Loom, & The Secret of Monkey Island.

But, I'm rambling, as I tend to do with my somewhat verbose posts. So, onto the review!

STORY: In this game, you play as Zak McKracken, a smart-ass tabloid reporter who has been having weird dreams about Mars lately. Little does he know that a lead on an odd tabloid story is going to complicate things beyond his wildest dreams.

The plot of the game is really funny and bizarre-- in fact, if I were to compare its sense of humor to any LucasArts game, it would probably be closest to Sam and Max Hit the Road. Dialogue is very wacky, often times not making much sense, but the sheer zaniness of everything in the game is what makes it special to begin with. Anything with aliens that were disguised as Elvis Impersonators is worth a look, in my opinion!

It's also worth noting that in this game you can switch between four characters at certain points, which adds some nice depth to the game's very tricky puzzles.

GRAPHICS: The graphics for the game really depend on which version you played; I played the version with the enhanced EGA graphics, so they were comparable in quality to the NES version Maniac Mansion-- things looked cartoony, but there was enough detail to prevent the huge pixelated head syndrome that tended to pop up in earlier games.

Since this game takes place in lots of varied locations, the graphics do a nice job of separating conveying different cities throughout (such as the rolling streets of San Francisco, the cleanliness of the airplane bathroom, and the bizarre Martian landscapes). By today's standards, yes, the graphics look ugly, but you have to take into context when the game was made.

SOUND: This game had PC Speaker music, but still managed to sound pretty good. Despite the bleeping and blooping of the sound effects, they still manage to get the point across in a utilitarian way. I remember enjoying the opening music theme so much that I would watch the opening cut scene over and over again just to listen to the music.

PUZZLES: Not only is the game full of puzzles, it's also very hard. The solutions to puzzles often times make little sense, but, to make things worse, it's very easy to get stuck in this game because you forgot to pick up one little item somewhere along the line.

Despite the difficulty of the game, it still manages to be a lot of fun due to the loopy humor. Puzzles towards the end of the game get pretty involved with the four main characters having to be in different places at different times to solve final puzzle.

My favorite puzzle in the game has to be during an airplane flight where you have to figure out how to distract the stewardess by messing around in the bathroom-- it's really crazy, yet funny in that Ron Gilbert sort of way.

CONCLUSION: Despite the crude graphics and sound, the story and gameplay of Zak McKracken manage to make it a fun game to play, even today. It's tough to find, although I think you can still order a compilation with this game on it from LucasArts off their web site. I don't think it's a problem to run on current systems, but I haven't played it in a long time (this review is based off of memories from playing the game 10 years ago, so make of it what you will).

For fans of this game, there are a few different fan-sequels in development to the game, so it shall be interesting to see how they progress. One of them might even be finished, I'm not exactly sure-- it's been a while since I've checked the status of the Zak McKracken fan games.