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This is simply brilliant. A teen-schlock horror movie on computer! Lucasfilm has taken the graphic adventure format first seen in Labyrinth, tweaked it a bit and come up with an extremely entertaining and easy-to-play adventure.

Not an adventure for purists though, that's why we're reviewing it outside the regular adventure section. For a start it doesn't require any text input from the player - just simple icon-selected actions. You simply select actions from a text menu at the bottom of the screen.

But enough of this technical stuff - on with the scenario which comes right out of a Hollywood B-movie. There's a weird mansion, a mad scientist, strange monsters and a bunch of clean-cut, all-American high school kids.

There are strange people living in Maniac Mansion, a Dr. Fred, a mad scientist; Nurse Edna, a former healthcare professional whose hobbies would make a sailor blush; Weird Ed, a teenage commando with a hammer fetish; and then there's Dead Cousin Ted, and the Tentacle, and somebody - or something - else... And what's a sweet young cheerleader named Sandy will be different depending on which kids you choose and how you interact with the people and things inside the mansion itself.

Each of the possible stories in Maniac Mansion is really a large, complex puzzle made up of scores of smaller puzzles. From time to time, movie-like "outscenes" reveal clues about the story and what's going on elsewhere.

As you discover the smaller puzzles that make up each story line, you'll find that most will have to be solved in a certain order.

You select your team at the start of the game using the cursor. As you move it over their happy smiling faces, a few words about them appear at the top of the screen. Once you've got your team together a little introduction "scene" is acted out on-screen before you get the chance to take control.

And you take control by using the cursor to create commands from the text menu at the bottom of the screen. But let's take a look at what you see on-screen:

1. The Message Line...
   is the line at the very top of the screen. Words spoken by any of the characters appear on this line.
2. The Animation Window...
   is the largest part of the screen where the animated world of the mansion is displayed. It shows the "camera's eye view" of the room that the currently active character is in.
3. The Sentence Line...
   is directly below the Animation Window. You use this line to construct sentences that tell the characters what to do. A sentence consists of a verb (action word) and one or two nouns (objects). An example of a sentence that you might construct on the Sentence Line is "Unlock door with key". Connecting words like "with" will be put in automatically by the program.
4. Verbs...
   must be selected from the groups of words in the columns below the Sentence Line. You will always be able to see all the verbs used in the game - they will not change as the game progresses. To select a verb, position the cursor over the word and click.
5. The Inventory...
   is the area below the verbs. Each character on your team has his or her own inventory. It is empty at the beginning of the game; the name of an object is added to a character's inventory when the character picks the object up during gameplay.

Putting the commands together is simplicity itself. None of this "You Can't Do That" business. Just move the cursor on to the command you want in the menu and hit the joystick fire button.

As you explore you'll come across objects which your characters can collect. These are added to the text menu as an inventory. You'll need all sorts of odd things!

You can select objects by placing the cursor over them in the animation/play area window or from the test menu.

That way you discover more about the location your character is exploring. Some rooms you enter will be dark - so find a flashlight or "feel around" with the cursor to see if you can discover a light switch. Using the flashlight simply shows up a small area of the room you're in - a really nice touch, this.

There's lots to do and the game is different every time you play - you can depend on the lastability of this one.

A fun adventure with original feel. Great graphics, good sound effects, nice animation and, on top of all that, it's totally addictive!

So if you want to get into love, lust, purple slime, medical experiments, electric cattle prods and radiation suits, pick up a copy of Maniac Mansion - you won't regret it.