Ben There, Dan That! Review

Do you ever wish that the golden days of LucasArts adventure games could return? Well, they won’t. But fans of the genre keep getting better at making their very own adventure games - much due to the fact that there’s a wide array of tools out there to make adventure games, such as the popular Adventure Game Studio.

Ben There, Dan That! by Zombie Cow Studios is one of those games. It has everything a fan of adventure games could ever want, and it’s FREE (donations are welcome though).
The game begins with a simple puzzle and a hilarious plot that just reeks of reference-humor. I can’t help but to fall in love instantly and declare that this game is absolutely awesome! After sorting out how to bring a zombie back to life, you’ll be introduced to the main plot of the game which is to get the TV-signal back up so the guys can watch Magnum P.I. How can you go wrong with such a plot? Do you really need to read anymore? Just go ahead and download it right NOW.

You look a bit tied up there, Zombie-Dan.

The puzzles involve roaming about randomly to try to grab as many things to put in your inventory as possible. Then you combine these things in some elaborate way to make your way to the next place where you’ll be roaming around randomly. All in good adventure gaming tradition of course. The difficulty level isn’t that high, so you shouldn’t be too frustrated with this game even if you’re a complete newbie with adventure games. And even if it’s somehow too much you can enjoy the game by going through the walkthrough with clues on Zombie Cow Studios website.

The visuals are very reminiscent of the good ol’ adventure games such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle or Sam & Max. Although not as detailed, but very much in the same spirit and style, which makes you feel right at home walking through the different rooms. The animations are far and few between, but once you get to one, it’s always a pay-off.
There are plenty of sound effects and some of them are really right on. Such as the “yoink!” sound when Ben picks up something. There’s background ambience sound in almost every room which is a really nice touch. There are no speaking voices, but that really isn’t necessary.

There are lots of jokes that references old adventure games and promptly make fun of them, and for someone like me who loves those good ol’ games: hilarity ensued. The writing is very much in the same style as fan would be used to, but there’s even jokes here that people who haven’t played any adventure game will enjoy.

There are a few bugs, but nothing major. And sometimes it gets a little annoying having to wait for Ben and Dan to walk all the way to the exit your clicking at. If one could double-click his way out of a room, that’d be swell! (hint).

Ben and Dan hanging around some Zombies.

Pros/Cons

+ Great graphics and sound effects that will bring you back to “the good ol’ days”.
+ Lots of fun
- A bit short.

Conclusion

All in all, this is a wonderful humourus adventure game that will appeal to all the fans of the classics and newbies to adventure gaming alike. The graphics, sound effects and story-line is everything you could hope for. This game DELIVERS. Go get it NOW. And, consider donating, so that the developers can be inspired to create an even better sequel!

This post was cross-posted on NekoGumi on 2009-01-02.