

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
Lucasfilm Games · 2018 · Adventure, Point & Click, Retro, 1990's, Classic
PC
Very Positive89% · 150
Compare prices in Official Stores
Screenshots
About Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders
It's 1997, and the world is a dumber place than ever... Space Aliens have built a stupidity machine that's slowly reducing everyone's IQ to single digits. Worse yet, the only person who can stop them is Zak McKracken, reporter for the disreputable National Inquisitor, who dreams up stories about carnivorous cantaloupes and vegetarian vampires.
They've taken over the phone company... Sure, it sounds like another one of Zak's tabloid fantasies. But while most people wouldn't believe him, he finds three who don't need convincing--Annie, Head of the Society of Ancient Wisdom, and her friends, Leslie and Melissa, two Yale coeds who traveled to Mars in their modified van. The four of them must piece together fragments of an ancient puzzle, unmask the aliens, and destroy the stupidity machine.
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a classic point-and-click adventure with four controllable characters. Solve puzzles and interact with the crazy world using the old school verb command interface. Go on adventures all across the globe and even into space. If you're looking for an actual globe-trotting adventure from days gone by, you cannot miss with Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders!
• Crazy off-the-wall humor.
• Beautiful late 80s pixel graphics, perfect for any retro gamer!
• Challenging, mind-bending mystery!
• No typing required! Just point-and-click to solve puzzles and talk to the crazy characters that live in Zak's world!
• This game is powered by ScummVM.
They've taken over the phone company... Sure, it sounds like another one of Zak's tabloid fantasies. But while most people wouldn't believe him, he finds three who don't need convincing--Annie, Head of the Society of Ancient Wisdom, and her friends, Leslie and Melissa, two Yale coeds who traveled to Mars in their modified van. The four of them must piece together fragments of an ancient puzzle, unmask the aliens, and destroy the stupidity machine.
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders is a classic point-and-click adventure with four controllable characters. Solve puzzles and interact with the crazy world using the old school verb command interface. Go on adventures all across the globe and even into space. If you're looking for an actual globe-trotting adventure from days gone by, you cannot miss with Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders!
• Crazy off-the-wall humor.
• Beautiful late 80s pixel graphics, perfect for any retro gamer!
• Challenging, mind-bending mystery!
• No typing required! Just point-and-click to solve puzzles and talk to the crazy characters that live in Zak's world!
• This game is powered by ScummVM.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
TLDR: If it wasn’t one you grew up with, you probably won’t enjoy it without substantial assistance. [b][u]General Thoughts/Overview:[/u][/b] Zak McKracken (ZMK) is an ancient point and click, a direct ancestor to the Lucas Arts greats that followed it. Tech was evolving rapidly at the time, and this game sits at a moment of evolution. For all its charm, it was quickly surpassed and seems to have largely been forgotten or ignored, I suspect largely due to the run ending soft-locking flaws preventing progress. Initially, we are Zak (but later the cast expands), and we’re a reporter for a trashy tabloid setting out to make our living. Little do we know we’re about to stumble into the greatest adventure of our life. But before we get abducted, let’s dig down and have a closer look at this ancient artefact. [b][u]Pros:[/u][/b] [list][*] Even a game as old as this has multiple ways to solve a bunch of the puzzles… It puts a lot of modern games to shame with the sheer variety, and also the consequences, of different actions to achieve the same goal. [*] A lot of the humour and quirk of Lucas Arts games can still be seen here. The point and click genre really did have its day, an…1 found this helpful
A quirky, ambitious adventure that shows both the charm and the rough edges of early LucasArts games. It’s packed with humor, creativity, and that classic point & click spirit, but it’s also very much a product of its time, with more obtuse puzzles and trial-and-error than later entries. Still, there’s something undeniably fun about its weird premise and open-ended approach, making it a worthwhile experience if you’ve got the patience for it.
Wow, completed this with a walkthrough and geeze, these adventure games were some ol’ BS. It becomes even more ♥♥♥♥♥♥ when you realise LucasArts had a hint line you could call up at the time for money. Went back to the guide whenever I didn't know what to do, which was basically at every moment. It was still interesting to play though because you can clearly see the progress from Maniac Mansion to future Lucas Arts games in this.
Grand father of adventure games
Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders . A nice old-fashioned quest from 90s, a lot of jokes, absurd puzzle solutions and fart music. . Controls: Mouse control You should choose one of the actions (push, pull, give, open, close, read, walk to, pick up, what is, put on, take off, use, turn on, turn off) and then click on an item with which you want to perform. F5 - menu Esc - skip intro Space - pause Alt 0-9 - save Ctrl 0-9 - load Alt + Ctrl Z - exit Alt + Enter - fullscreen
<3
Community reviews
—
0 reviews
Sign in to write a review.
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this game.











