The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition

Well, it's hard to give anything less than a 5 star review considering the original game is right there, included, and it hardly needs any introduction or justification. One of the best adventure games, an all time classic, great puzzles, great characters, great humor. It's worth buying even if you just immediately hit F10 to switch to the old game and never go back. Reviewing it as a remake, however... well, there are some flaws. First off, the art style is just awful. While you can see they tried to keep things pretty close to the original for the most part, they went in a more cartoonish direction so it would look more similar to the later games in the series, and it doesn't work very well. It's a matter of personal taste, of course, but I found that it sucked a lot of charm out of the game, and some of the effects, like the rippling water or the heat haze under Monkey Island, just looked cheap and unnecessary. On the other hand, you'll want to play through the newer version at least once because the voice acting they added is pretty wonderful. For me, this is the real highlight of the remake. Everyone's voices are on par with any of the later games in the series, and they fit the characters perfectly, from the crotchety old shopkeeper to the timid pirate ghost with the loose skull. Unfortunately, there's no option to use the new voices with the old art- I can understand that maybe it would have been a little incongruous, but the option would have been nice. There are also a few bugs- though I didn't run into any my first time, on the second a squawking parrot got caught in a loop, and the game crashed seemingly at random beneath Monkey Island. Luckily, the remake has added an autosave, so I didn't lose much progress either time. One good feature is the way the game seamlessly transitions from new to old at the touch of a button- this is very convenient, plus it just looks cool, and I'm glad it's become a standard feature in other LucasArts remakes.

Well, it's difficult to choose, but I think, Monkey Island is the one I love most. Sure, Monkey Island 2 and 3 are much longer and Monkey Island 2 ist much more polished (Monkey Island 3 can't be compared), but the Secret of Monkey Island had this ... innocence. "I wanna be a pirate!" - and that was all there was to say about the game's story at the beginning. Sure, later we have ghost pirates and cannibals, but they all fit in. And the riddles ... (spoiler) Can't get out of the water? Well, pick up the weight that's holding you down, you dummy! This game's setting was the best one. When I play it, time seems to stand still, it's always 11 o'clock. Yes, Guybrush looks somewhat awkward in this remake, but a) you can set the graphics and interface back to the CD version of the game (sadly not the original floppy disc interface) or you can use a mod to change his hair. The remake was well done, but they did a better job with Monkey Island 2. It would have been nice if they re-release the remake with similar bonus content as MI2SE has.

Ich finde das Game super. Lustige Witze und klasse Rätsel. Ich find alllerdings, das gerade die schlechte Grafik das Spiel so spaßig gemacht hat und deshalb halte ich persönlich nichts von dem Remake. Ich habe nichts dagegen, wenn andere Leute das spielen, aber mit der alten Grafik finde ich es einfach schöner. Trotzdem ist das eines der besten Spiele die ich je gespielt habe.

"Wie passend, du kämpfst wie eine Kuh!" Tja, mit solchen flotten Sprüchen sind wir damals aufgewachsen. Monkey Island war eines meiner ersten Spiele auf dem PC, damals kurz nach dem C64. Mit Witz und Humor hat es einen damals schon in die ferne Karibik gezogen und die Geschichte eines jungen Mannes erzählt, der einst mal nur den Traum hatte, ein mächtiger Pirat zu werden. Wer hätte gedacht, dass ein Kerl mit einem so verrückten Namen wie Guybrush Threepwood mal für solche Aufregung sorgen würde auf den Inseln der Karibik, als man an Captain Jack Sparrow noch nicht mal dachte? Es ist die älteste Geschichte der Welt neu erzählt: Eine Frau, zwei Männer und eine Flasche Rootbier. Und während Guybrush die Geheimnisse von Monkey Island enthüllt, um seine geliebte Elaine aus den Fängen des Geisterpiraten LeChuck zu befreien, tritt er in das ein oder andere Fettnäpfchen, stellt sich so mancher Herausforderung und muss viele Bekanntschaften machen. Denn nur ein wahrlich großer Pirat wird letzten Endes LeChuck die Stirn bieten und den blassen Spuk in seine Schranken weisen. Diese Special Edition ist nun ein Spiel, welches hin- und herschalten kann zwischen der klassischen DOS Pixelart Grafik, wie sie damals schon nett anzusehen war und der neuen, überarbeiteten Grafik der Neuzeit, die hochauflösender und geschmeidiger rüberkommt. Der ikonische Soundtrack ist nach wie vor Balsam für das Ohr des Kenners. Dieses Spiel ist ein Juwel der PC Spielegeschichte und jeder, der sich Gamer nennt, sollte dieses Spiel mindestens einmal im Leben durchgespielt haben. Meine Empfehlung: Kaufen! Sei es aus sentimentalen, nostalgischen Gründen oder um einen Klassiker der Spielegeschichte im Regal stehen zu haben.

The Secret of Monkey Island is a classic adventure game which I highly recommend checking out if you're interested in the genre. This remastered version is overall quite good; I liked having the ability to change between the original visuals and the new, remastered graphics and although I personally didn't find the remastered visuals that good, at least they're there for people who don't like old 90's graphics. The only flaw I can think of is that the original version of the game does not have voice acting, which is a bit of a shame. Overall still a solid remaster.