A group of Day of the Tentacle fans have banded together to make a sequel to the iconic 1993 adventure game. There are two games in the Maniac Mansion series – the first being 1987’s Maniac Mansion – with this fan game, Return of the Tentacle, being the unofficial third game. It’s available to download for free and play on PC right now.
Staying faithful to its predecessors, Return of the Tentacle sees the return of the three goofy yet loveable protagonists: Bernard, Hoagie, and Laverne. They even have faithful voice acting. It’s been a long time coming – check out the date on the trailer below – but it’s understandable that the project is taking its time when the result is so favourably comparable to the original game.
As you’d expect, it’s played in the traditional 2D point-and-click fashion and divides your time with it between storytelling and puzzle solving. As Kotaku points out, though, there is one major difference between Return of the Tentacle and its inspiration. The team has decided to imitate the smooth and clean look of Double Fine’s 2016 remaster, rather than go with the iconic pixelated style of the original game.
This isn’t the first time Day of the Tentacle fans have made their own projects. In fact, these fan efforts can be traced back to at least 2002, which was when a fan-made webcomic titled The Day After the Day of the Tentacle started floating around the internet.
You can head to itch.io and download part one of Return of the Tentacle for free right now.