I streamed the entirety of Day of the Tentacle HD the other day,...

I streamed the entirety of Day of the Tentacle HD the other day, and it was pretty cool, but… yeah. I was apprehensive about buying it at first, since I’ve become a bit weary of 1:1 HD adventure game revisions, and DoTT HD really is just another one of those, as it turns out.

Graphics are redrawn (with the primary goal clearly being to match the original as closely as possible, and results vary), soundtrack now has a redbook sound instead of a MIDI one, and the original voice recordings were dug up and re-encoded to 48k. And beneath the crisper interior, everything feels exactly the same as it did in 1993, for better or worse.

The only improvements I’d consider significant are the addition of achievements, as well as a choice between the original interface and a modern one with the radial menus that are the standard in today’s adventure games. This certainly makes for a smoother experience, especially since this mode leaves out the choices which won’t produce results. And as is often the case with achievements for old adventure games, they encourage the player to find some bits of dialogue and hidden jokes they may have never come across in their original playthrough. (though they’re all hidden, for some reason. Usually they’ll at least give us a hint!)

On the whole, it does look like they put a lot of effort into revamping the game, but it just makes me feel bad because the improvements amount to very little. I understand that 1:1 conversions are needed to include that option to switch between the original and HD versions of the game on the fly… but to be frank, this just isn’t as neat as it was 7 years ago in Monkey Island HD. I’d rather deal with having to play the HD and Classic version separately in exchange for the HD version getting some more tweens here and there, better lip sync, and dialogue that’s re-timed so it sounds like the characters are actually talking to each other.

But hey, it is what it is, and Day of the Tentacle is a good game. Hell, it blew me away back in 1993, as it really was one of the closest ways you could get to playing in a truly interactive cartoon. The characters all have goofy, appealing designs that pass Groening’s “shadow test” with flying colors and the backgrounds are some of the best examples of intentionally-off perspective the 90s has to offer. The humor… well, it’s hit-and-miss, but when it hits, it hits pretty good. It was also the first Lucasarts adventure game to lack deaths, and the puzzles are MUCH less obtuse than the ones in Monkey Island, making for a very chill and frustration-free experience.

Still, if you’ve played the original, I’d suggest staying nostalgic about it, and buy the HD version when it’s on sale. For newcomers, if the game looks good to you, go for it; it IS a fine piece of adventure game history. But trust me… just turn the voice acting off. Not to say the voice actors didn’t do their jobs well, but the lack of timing in the dialogue really does kill half the jokes, which is a shame. Day of the Tentacle is great; it’s really just the general trend of HD adventure games I’m having a problem with. It needs to let go of the “switch between old and new whenever you want!” gimmick and loosen up a bit, methinks.

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed my drawing of Laverne in her ‘Murican Tentacle disguise!