Game profile
Day of the Tentacle Remastered
Three friends travel through time to stop a mutated purple tentacle from taking over the world. The remaster of the 1993 adventure classic combines ingenious time travel puzzles with one of the genre's zaniest stories.
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What kind of game this is
At its core this is Adventure / Puzzle, set in the present day. Visually it is deliberately stylised rather than photorealistic, and the overall tone stays light and upbeat. The structure is guided rather than open, so you are moved along instead of dropped into a map. Sessions of an hour or two sit at the sweet spot here.
The difficulty is moderate and fair, demanding attention without punishing you for it. The narrative carries the whole thing, and the mechanics serve it. It is a single player experience from start to finish. It is available broadly, on 5 platforms. It sits in the budget bracket.
What stands out
- Time travel puzzles
- Absurd humor
- Loving remaster
This fits you if
- you want to live through a story, not just play a system
- you enjoy being made to think
- the writing matters more to you than the mechanics
- you play alone and want a complete experience without other people
- you are watching your budget
- you want something light that leaves you in a good mood
Look elsewhere if
- you skip cutscenes and want to get to the gameplay
- you want something that lasts, this is over after 7 hours
- you specifically want an open world to roam
- you want to play it side by side with someone
How long is Day of the Tentacle Remastered?
About 7 hours in total. At two hours per evening that is around 4 evenings, so about a week of casual play.
How the rating ranks
Critics settled on 85 out of 100, which puts it above 59 percent of the 1276 games here and at rank 450 overall. That is mid-table for this database. Not a standout at the top, but solidly rated.
For comparison, Adventure averages 83 points across the database, so this one sits 2 points above its own genre. The figure rests on 132 collected ratings.
Released in 2016, so it has 10 years behind it. Usually cheap by now and the rough edges are long fixed.
The facts
- Release year
- 2016
- Genres
- Adventure, Puzzle
- Playtime
- approx. 7 hrs.
- Difficulty
- Moderate, fair
- Story weight
- Carries the whole game
- Play with
- Solo
- Setting
- Present day
- Visual style
- Stylised
- Price bracket
- Budget
- Platforms
- PC, PlayStation, Switch, Mobile, Xbox
- Critic rating
- 85 / 100
Direct comparison
| Genres | Release year | Playtime | Critic rating | Price bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day of the Tentacle Remastered | 2016 | approx. 7 hrs. | 85 | Budget |
| Tangle Tower | 2019 | approx. 6 hrs. | 82 | Budget |
| Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy | 2014 | approx. 30 hrs. | 82 | Mid price |
| Sam & Max Save the World Remastered | 2020 | approx. 10 hrs. | n/a | Budget |
If you liked this, try these
- 82/100 Tangle Tower Shared: Adventure, Puzzle, Present day
- 82/100 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy Shared: Adventure, Puzzle, Present day, longer
- n/a Sam & Max Save the World Remastered Shared: Adventure, Puzzle, Present day, longer
- 83/100 The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe Shared: Adventure, Puzzle, Present day
- 84/100 Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars (Reforged) Shared: Adventure, Puzzle, Present day, longer
- 86/100 Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Shared: Adventure, Puzzle, Present day, longer