Zak McKracken & The Alien Mindbenders
 

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.

Zak is quite probably my favourite adventure ever. I can't really put my finger on what I love about it so much, but it's definitely got something to do with the "zany" humour. If you like the original version, you really ought to try the 256-colour version. The graphics are awesome, and the digital music really adds to the atmosphere. The MP3 version of the Zak theme is probably my favourite themesong from any game.

Where is the 256 color version? I played some of a German sequel that had much better graphics, but it seemed almost identical to the first game..

Is that it or is it something different?

I really, really want to play this game but it's impossible to find. I can't even find it on Ebay :(. Anyone know where a copy can be purchased?

The German sequel mentioned is The New Adventures of Zak McKracken, which uses sprites and backgrounds ripped from the proper LucasArts version of Zak 256.

Zak 256 was made for the FM Towns console, and was available pretty much only in Japan, I think. If you can get hold of it, you can play it in English using SCUMMVM. I played an iso version I found on some obscure old adventures FTP that no longer exists. There is really no point trying to buy it, it's impossible to find. Your only hope is to scour abandonware sites and FTPs... There also exist 256-colour versions of Loom and Indy 3 for the FM Towns, but they're equally rare.

I've always wondered: what the hell kind of a name for a console is "FM Towns"?

Remixor, it was made by Japanese, for crying out loud, creators of such weird things as boob pudding :) And you still wonder? :D

The National Inquisitor that came with the game was interesting.

So full of humor in the traditional LucasArts way.

I love all these extra stuffs that used to come with the game.

The version of Zak McKracken I had was with the LucasArts Classic Adventures compilation, so it didn't come with a reprint of the newspaper.

If you want older games with a lot of pack-ins, check out what Infocom used to do with their text adventures... It was really inspiring!

You can get the Zak manual here. It's well worth a look.

I have 2 links where you can download zak mackraken..is it ok to post them or is it against the rules?

it's against the rules, sorry.

is there an easy way to find out if a game is freeware or just abandonware?

If a game is not stated on the developer's site as being freeware, then the chances are it's abandonware, and thus technically Warez.