Maniac Mansion is a point and click gamethat was ported to the NES, simliar to comptuer games of finding the hidden item. The developer was Lucasfilm, and they made some pretty good games.This might sound like a scary Resident Evil type game, but its anything but. The only maniac here is a mad scientist, and he's really just kind of dumb. The titular mansion is the highlight here, and location to all your wanderings inside and just around the grounds.

You play as young red-haired (Archie-esque)high-school heartthrob Dave and two of his six friends, on a mission to rescue a cheerleader. Sandy is Dave's girlfriend, who was kidnapped by weird Doctor Fred in his creepy mansion on the hill. The Dr's crabby wife, Nurse Edna and their son, weird Ed, are also present. There are a lot of "ED" things in this game, it reminded me of "Ed, Edd and Eddy" tv show. Anyways, the Eds have Sandy, or rather, Dr. Fred does. If you don't save her he will use his machine to suck out her brains!  There is a cast of supporting characters, and while its not especially deep, it seems to me its meant to be making fun of cheesy horror movies. You will have to make use of your various team mates and their own special skills they bring to get by theconundrums of the mansion and ultimately beat the game.The puzzles are more logic oriented, and many times out of the box thinking saves the day.  The graphics are not so great, even at the time this was released, the characters were of limited animation, although the sprite size is large and easy to see.

Your first screen is a blue background and some faces of Dave's pals, to select who goes with Dave. It looks fairly underwhelming, fortunately the game has a lot of colors and location once you're in it. You can choose any two pals, the only difference between them what they bring to the table. One writes novels as a hobby, another does photography. Some are musically inclined, some fix things.  The game does a good job of telling you in a sentance what each teen's talents are - except Jeff. I don't think Maniac Mansion tells you directly, but if you play as Surfer Jeff, is a phone repairdude. So now you know.All of these skills can be used in the mansion at some point, and some even link in to how many endings you can move towards. All the kids have their own theme soundtracks that occur while you are playing as them. These themes are often the only music in the game, aside from certain moments, but fortunately these tunes are really, really good and in a wide variety of genres. Micheal's track is all funk, Razor's is punk, Syd is 80's new wave music with lots of keyboard. I particularly love Dave's song, and excellent modern updates of it exist on Youtube. Glorious!

The blue-faced residents in the mansion might be scary to younger players, but the game is more B-movie shenanigans than trying to scare you.  A lot of the situations are played for laughs, and the dialog or text is full of humor. If you find it funny or not will depend on if you like the B-movie type plotting and the sheer randomness of a game with:

• talking aliens who yearn for fame and rock concerts, and fake fruit
• pitch black rooms where you have to find a light switch first - nothing jumps out at a you, ever
• nuclear reactor cooling out in a backyard swimming pool
• a guy who may or may not be dead, dressed as a mummy
• the phrase "Don't be a tuna head" is so popular, there is a Tuna Head arcade game in the mansion

Anyone in your party can pick up and trade the dozens of items in this game, and part of this sort of game is weeding out what is an unneccesary, distracting item to the story (red herring). The items are scattered all over the house, some hidden, some you have to get ingeniously. Such things litter the area as cheese and chainsaws, keys, a hamster, a hunk-o-matic machine, paint remover or a pepsi can (yes, the brand), records, Tvs and Tentacle Chow. The sprites for the game can be a bit overcrowded, especially in areas around the kitchen, and it can be a bit tricky to navigate your cursor over them. All kids can use their talents to help beat the game, and there are multiple endings which stem from the kid's special abilities, making the games play differently depending on who is in your party. That being said, there are a few odd combinations. Having both Razor AND Syd, both musicians, is redundant as they will both have the same skills.  Jeff the surfer is rather dull, as he is a weaker form of Bernard - who can fix anything and Bernard has small fits of fear that add comically to the story.

I like the highschoolers have puzzles in the mansion that only they can solve, so if you run into something and are unsure how to use it, it just might be something you can't access with the group you brought. There is a lot of trial and error in a game like this, with the somewhat clunky choices like "USE WATER ON PLANT" or "GIVE WATER TO PLANT" kind of interpretation to commands that can be a slight hinderance, and the small graphic details for some items can be tough to spot out. Maniac Mansion ts definitely not for everyone. Some items are rather conventional, (use paint remover to remove the paint stain!) others are tricky or 'how was I supposed to know?'. This could be aggravating as you won't know what do to next. While its rare, another thing that can make the game unpleasant is your highschoolers can get killed in game, although fairly difficult to do. Nothing is shown, one moment they are there and then theres a grave with their name on it outside the mansion! This still pretty unusual to see, as the cause is very specific and always related to reaction to a player action- as there are only a small handful of ways to do in a party memeber. You can also have an instant game over if you mess around with the nuclear reactor too much, this again, trial and error.

Graphics: 6
There is nothing really pretty here. Some rooms look wild with their paint, but it works with the strange denizens of this house. The character sprites being large help make the proportions of the house seem right (doors, the grandfather clock, etc), the dining table), but others seem off, such as the super tiny grate outside. Some items are hard to see, and don't stand out, that could be intentional as its a hunt n find type of game, but come on game, help us out a bit.

Sound: 8
So many of the players have memorable themes. And if you don't want to listen to it, just shut off their music (each kid is equipped with it). The other random songs are not as good (save for some records), and for things like the cut scenes of what the Eds are up to, but its all pretty memorable. The sound effects are pretty weak. The running faucet, the alarm, it works, but I think both could have been done better.

Addictiveness: 8
Now if you hate point and click games, you won't like this. It might seem slow and boring. I like this game, and I like being able to play with the other specialties and see how they resolve the situation in different endings. Different resolutions, alternate endings (good and bad) there is a lot to this game, if one wants to dig through the items and sink their teeth into it. 

Story: 6
Not particularly great, but I'll give it a pass based on B movie hokey plots. The Ed family is pretty dysfunctional, the aliens range from maniacal to misunderstood. I wish more had been given to any of the player characters for personality and likes, only Bernard, Razor and Syd seem to show any situations of liking or disliking things differently than other kids. Especially wish Dave had more personality, despite being the leader, he has no skills of his own. BRING IT DUDE, ITS YOUR GIRLFRIEND.

Depth: 9
So much to see and do! Some things that aren't important to beating the game still have uses you can do in the game, such as the high pitched record shattering a vase, using the package to make friends with Weird Ed. There are a lot of red herrings, but thats what makes these games have charm, using your noodle for figuring out the riddles to solve the game.

Final Score: 9.4
This might seem to be high, but there is a reason this game is a cult classic. It  even got a TV show (Sadly not very based on teh game, despite a few characters).  The excellent, no, superb themes for the teens is strong and memorable. The multiple endings add replay, as does the time it takes to figure out what items can be used for.
Maniac Mansion is not particularly long once you figure out what to do, and can be fun to replay quickly with other teams to see how they end it. Some of the house become allies, some will always throw you in the dungeon. But this is a fun madhouse I don't actually mind being stuck in for awhile.

When I first saw the title, I was like what the heck can this review be for. I have never played this game, so I'm still a bit surprised by it, but it does sound like the game can be some fun, but I doubt that it would be my kind of game.

As for the review, it is well made and is good. I really like how you put in this long introduction and then went on to put in the bullet points before going on to do the main part of the review, it tells a better story.

The formatting is really good, its long, and overall, I really like this review, good job.

zanderlex : Its niche. I was almost going to make a walkthrough for this game, but doubt many people would read it. Follow your gut impulse and if it seems not up your alley. I would replay only for its quirky humor. But I would give the 7 player themes a listen on youtube if curious, its a short investment for some possibly pretty good stuff.