Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

Both the EGA and the much better looking FM-TOWNS ports are included. A real bargain at this price!

With such a remarkable back catalogue to LucasArts' name, picking favourites seems both futile and fallible. Nevertheless, Zak can't help but sit in the company of the very best of the genre on my own personal list. When so many titles make themselves memorable by pulling just one or two very nice rabbits out of a hat, I can't help but find things to love about this game. Yes, the game is funny. But the storyline is brilliantly imaginative, too. The puzzles are sometimes tough, but satisfying and entertaining. The title score is fantastic. GOG seem to have bagged the best-looking version of the game I've seen, as well (momentarily disregarding some fan-made remakes - yet another tribute to the extensive and deserving audience this game has won). I cut my teeth on an EGA graphics-powered relic of awesomeness the first time around - so this is both a nice upgrade and all the excuse I need to revisit an old friend. If you didn't play it the first time around, I'm sorry you didn't experience it in it's heyday. Even so, I'm also rather jealous that you'll get to experience it anew. You're in for a treat. I won't spoil the story and I'll resist the urge to re-tell jokes only half as well. If you're a fan of adventures, don't wait for a sale - just buy the game already. It deserves it.

This is the original. It is the FM Towns version. The FM Towns version had the most advanced graphics and sound at the time. It hasn't been reworked.

Seriously, who wouldn't at least be intrigued by a game with a title like this? This isn't the original; it has far more sophisticated graphics, a few lines of dialog and the opening cutscene have been altered a little, and most heartbreaking of all, Zak's rendition of "Pop Goes The Weasel" on the kazoo has been replaced by the first four notes of the Indiana Jones theme song for some reason. Only one alteration is really an issue: the inventory item hotkeys only work for the top three items in the list, as the original list only had three. Since you can use the mouse, however, this is perfectly workable. And thankfully, they've got rid of that Exit Visa Code copy protection! However, it is 99.9% identical to the 80s classic. The puzzles are tough and the story is unique, there's a good dash of humor sprinkled liberally throughout and one thing this version has that the original lacked is ambient sounds. This means that when you're in Zak's apartment in San Francisco, you hear the sounds of traffic outside. Unlike later LucasArts adventure games, it is possible to die in this one, but not easy. That is to say, the game will always give you a chance to correct what you're doing; you have three screens of falling to open a parachute, several chances and warnings NOT to go back into the lair of the Sphinx Guardian...you get the idea. The most common death - running out of air on Mars - is easily avoided by pressurizing the hostel and later finding a way to adjust the atmosphere, which means that you can abandon anyone there without worrying about the oxygen levels ;) If you only buy one classic game this year, make it this one. You won't be sorry.