Maniac Mansion

Historical value aside as one of the first games to introduce cutscenes and point-and-click prompts instead of syntax guessing, "Maniac Mansion" still holds up pretty well. It's impressive how such an old graphic adventure could already offer the possibility of switching between characters with unique skills and finding different ways to clear the game by passing inventory items from one character to another and coordinating their actions. In addition, the wacky, tongue-in-cheek humor and cheap B-movie references that would become a trademark of LucasArts graphic adventures are already at their best here.

The only problem is that the game won't let you know when your run has become unwinnable. Not only do most puzzles have absurd solutions, but it's also incredibly easy to waste an essential item and get stuck at a dead end without even knowing. It's true that once you know what to do and what not to do, it should take about one hour to complete the game, yet it can get really frustrating as you can easily spend hours wandering around the mansion without even knowing that you have already locked yourself out of victory.

Maniac Mansion launched the LucasArts empire which would make extensive use of its SCUMM engine(Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion). Maniac Mansion developed quite organically and is one of the more fascinating creation stories, based in large part by the developers growing tired of Sierra Adventures' text commands and stuck situations. Although LucasArts still had to conduct their code of "no lose states" from Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion is an inspired and tactful as a point-and-click adventure game. You lead a group of three kids out of seven, based on your choice, the difference being in the minutae of how to acomplish one particular task based on your skillset. They're really nice kids with a lot of cute personality. Like there's a photographer, an aspiring novelist, a stereotypical nerd, surfing dudebro, and two band members hosting a new wave/Siouxie-and-the-Banshees expy group. Otherwise the kids all operate mostly the same, and you traverse a haunted house full of floors and rooms, while knowing when to avoid the watching inhabitants as they move room-to-room(informed beforehand through cutscenes).

Maniac Mansion is scripted in advance with its events and asks the player to improvise as he goes along, and through several lose states it is possible to know how to beat the game by trial and error, but from a modern perspective you'll still be several conveniences short. For example you need to know how to operate a flashlight in order to traverse dark rooms, and you need to know how to carefully coordinate your three kids by sending them all to different places, out of danger, to best use their skillsets.