It's 1997, and the world is a dumber place than ever... Space Aliens have built a stupidity machine that's slowly reducing everyone's IQ to single digits. Worse yet, the only person who can stop them is Zak McKracken, reporter for the disreputable National Inquisitor, who dreams up stories about car...
It's 1997, and the world is a dumber place than ever... Space Aliens have built a stupidity machine that's slowly reducing everyone's IQ to single digits. Worse yet, the only person who can stop them is Zak McKracken, reporter for the disreputable National Inquisitor, who dreams up stories about carnivorous cantaloupes and vegetarian vampires.
They've taken over the phone company... Sure, it sounds like another one of Zak's tabloid fantasies. But while most people wouldn't believe him, he finds three who don't need convincing--Annie, Head of the Society of Ancient Wisdom, and her friends, Leslie and Melissa, two Yale coeds who traveled to Mars in their modified van. The four of them must piece together fragments of an ancient puzzle, unmask the aliens, and destroy the stupidity machine.
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a classic point-and-click adventure with four controllable characters. Solve puzzles and interact with the crazy world using the old school verb command interface. Go on adventures all across the globe and even into space. If you're looking for an actual globe-trotting adventure from days gone by, you cannot miss with Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders!
Crazy off-the-wall humor.
Beautiful late 80s pixel graphics, perfect for any retro gamer!
Challenging, mind-bending mystery!
No typing required! Just point-and-click to solve puzzles and talk to the crazy characters that live in Zak's world!
I played this game back in the early 90s (a couple of years after it first came out). In my opinion it's one of Lucas Art's finest graphic adventure games - easily beating it's predecessor - Manic Mansion.
The premise of the game is set in the near future... 1997 I think... ;) (it was made in the late 80s). Alien abductions, Global adventures, romance, a trip to Mars and fantastic Lucas Arts comedy! What more could you want?!
If you haven't played the game I cannot recommend Zak McKracken enough - it's an absolute gem of an adventure!
A follow-up game after the success of Maniac Mansion, Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders takes place in San Francisco in 1997, with the protagonist McKracken, a burnt-out tabloid journalist, having a very interesting dream that turns out to be a secret psychic message with instructions on how to stop a planned takeover of the world from malevolent alien forces. Said aliens are using certain high-frequency sound waves via a "Mindbending" device, to render humans too stupid to fight back.
This adventure takes you all over the world and even to Mars, with some crazy puzzles and plenty of offbeat humor to keep the game engaging. I will warn players that this was made *before* LucasArts had a "no dying, no unwinnable states" policy so saving the game often and remaining careful is required (luckily, this edition uses ScummVM which includes far more robust save game options than the in-game save system). The GoG release is the 1990 FM Towns version with full 256-color graphics and CD-quality music, far better than the original 1988 PC port that featured 16-color graphics and PC speaker sound only. I actually beat that old version around 10 years ago and didn't mind those limitations too much, but this more polished version has me much more excited to replay it! A must for classic adventure game fans.
Loved this game as a kid and turns out I still do! Had a friend who had this on Commondore 64 and another who had it on Amiga 500. Remember playing it through without full understanding of English (born i Sweden and was round 10 years old). We got through the game with a dictionary for the unfamiliar words and simply by trying everything on everything! :D Good times! <3
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