It took me a bit longer to finish than Full Throttle, but tonight I finished Day of the Tentacle. As with Full Throttle, there were a number of puzzles I remembered and way, way more I didn’t.

The control in Day of the Tentacle is a lot more painful than Full Throttle, in that you still need to use the old “Look/Use/Talk” type buttons which Full Throttle did a great job of streamlining (though that interface was only used on one other game), but it does the job.

The humour and inventive was one of the best parts of Day of the Tentacle, as was the time-traveling aspect which pitched you in three time periods in the same location — a number of puzzles in one time period were affected by occurrences in other time periods.

Next up will be Sam & Max Hit the Road, most likely, since I’ve already played the amazing Grim Fandango and Monkey Island games this year. The off-beat humour in Sam & Max is great, but some of the puzzles are a little out there which makes is a bit more difficult.

Last night, I finished Full Throttle. Some of the puzzles I remembered, some I didn’t have much difficulty with, and in one bit I cheated (using a mouse to control a motorbike and fight might be OK, but using a touchpad certainly isn’t!) but that wasn’t part of the puzzles so I don’t mind.

I never noticed it originally, but not only is the game really short, there’s quite a bit in there designed to draw out and lengthen the game. For instance, the Old Mine Road fights I just mentioned earlier are a bit time sink and not really of benefit to the game, as is the ending sequence which is basically trial and error over and over again until you find the right combination of things to do.

It’s a real pity that the two attempts at a sequel were never made (what, you thought there was only one? Apparently one was started just a year after the original but only had a couple of months work done; the second was in a playable form so it must have been pretty awful for them to can it at that point).

I had a lot of fun replaying Full Throttle, I think I am going to give Day of the Tentacle another run through since it too is such a great game. I’m sure a post will soon be entitled “I don’t THINK so.”