Developer Straynus has announced that its next game, Cronela’s Mansion, inspired by Maniac Mansion, will launch for PC, Nintendo Switch, SNES, and Game Boy systems, with physical cartridges to run it on retro hardware right out of the box.
Straynus is bringing Cronela’s Mansion to Kickstarter and offering a slew of possible rewards for backers who pledge their financial support. Among these rewards are physical versions of the game for the SNES and Game Boy that will run on each piece of hardware, provided you own one. However, they’re Kickstarter exclusive, meaning you won’t be able to pick one up after the campaign has ended in summer 2024.
Cronela’s Mansion offers you the chance to buy a brand new SNES or Game Boy game in 2024
Once the Kickstarter project has been launched, 2,000 physical copies of Cronela’s Mansion will be available for those of you who, like me, have held onto those early consoles because they can’t bear to part with them. Each copy contains a cartridge for the SNES or Game Boy, a keychain, a full-color manual, and a map of Rosdem Land, which is the fictional city where the game takes place.
I’ve received confirmation that there will be cartridges available that are compatible with the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance. Of course, if you’re not interested in one of these retro collectibles, you can still pick the game up for PC via Steam or Nintendo Switch.
Cronela’s Mansion is still in development, but the Spanish game developer plans to launch its Kickstarter by the end of this summer. The goal is to release the game to backers and the public in 2025. At the time of writing, all you can do is sign up to be notified of when the project goes live to make sure you don’t miss out on your chance for a physical retro copy. I certainly have.
The gameplay of Cronela’s Mansion is a blast from the past, with classic point-and-click adventure-style UI and interactions spread across 50 unique rooms. It boasts a dynamic dialogue system with easter eggs and tongue-in-cheek jokes and can be approached in a non-linear fashion, so you can experience the story in a completely different way from others if your paths diverge.
In a studio announcement, Straynus explained how Cronela’s Mansion is a labor of love and a spiritual sequel to the Lucasfilm classic Maniac Mansion, as well as the developer’s other SCUMM-powered titles that pushed the genre forward and are why it’s remembered so fondly.
