Remake This: Zak McKracken And The Alien Mindbenders
Now that LucasArts has taken up the community’s constantly reiterated advice and is finally working its way through the Monkey Island series, looking into our collective pasts shows just how many games that are truly worthy of a remake. And it’s not just LucasArts games too, as there are plenty of old-school titles that could benefit from the work and talent that is being poured into Monkey Island. But what are they?
Won’t somebody please think of the middle-aged gamers…
Now that LucasArts has taken up the community’s constantly reiterated advice and is finally working its way through the Monkey Island series, looking into our collective pasts shows just how many games that are truly worthy of a remake. And it’s not just LucasArts games too, as there are plenty of old-school titles that could benefit from the work and talent that is being poured into Monkey Island. But what are they?
Well, this is where personal choice takes over and our spotty inner youth rears its opinionated head. We all have fondly remembered games we’d love to see remade, but there are plenty of excellent titles that were generally overlooked, even at the time of their release. For that reason alone, this week’s Remake This is:
Zak McKracken And The Alien Mindbenders
Zak McKracken was LucasArts’ second SCUMM VM game (thank you David Fox!) and though it managed to find a loyal audience, it never hit the heights of the earlier LucasArts successes. It followed in the staple conventions of the genre, but as is the case with many of these games, it was the plot, characters and witty writing that kept players coming back.
Zak works for a tabloid newspaper and discovers an alien plot to reduce humanity’s intelligence by posing as a phone company and emitting a 60Hz hum to dumb everyone down. Hilarity ensues as Zak and a whole host of colourful characters have to thwart the aliens and save the day; there’s really no overstating just how funny this actually is. A remake wouldn’t be out of the realms of possibility too, with Monkey Island 2 just on the horizon. Taking the SCUMM VM engine and creating new art and content shouldn’t be too difficult now that LucasArts is getting the hang of it.
Would you like to replay this excellent adventure game? What other old-school games are out there that could benefit from an XBLA facelift? Let us know below…
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Thanks David! I appreciate your enthusiasm for Zak, and your kind about the game. It would be cool if there were a LucasArts remake!
One thing… I’m not sure what you meant by “Zak McKracken was released towards the tail end of the adventure game boom…” Zak was released in 1988, after “Maniac Mansion” and before “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the Graphics Adventure”. True, this was the original C64 lores version of Zak, with multiple versions to follow for PC, Amiga, Atari ST, FM Towns… So, it was LucasArts’ second SCUMM game, and still fairly early on in the Adventure Game boom…
But thanks again for remembering the game!
My apologies for my slip up (I’ll correct my body text!). Thanks for getting back to me. I love all the old adventure games and I’m really enjoying the resurgence that Monkey Island is having. I really do hope it extends to other classic games like Zak, so that everyone can enjoy them. XBLA is a perfect launch pad for them, especially if they’re remade with the same care and attention that Guybrush is receiving. Thanks once again for getting back to us here at 360!
Also, if anyone agrees with you, David, they should check out this Facebook group, “We want Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders: Special Edition”:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126739474015061
Thanks David.I’ll sign up for sure and I’ll Tweet about it too! Bring it on, hopefully with a developer commentary too, that would be nice!
I love Zak and Maniac Mansion – please release it for XBOX.
In German, too