The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition

Honestly, I felt with the graphic update it lost most of its charm.

What else to say about this gem, witty humor, great characters, interesting puzzles, it's piratey... and just pure fun. This game is classic for a reason, and it's remastered with voice acting and new graphics. If you enjoy adventure games, this is a must play.

Modern adverture games are measured up to this game.

One of my favorite series. Still as funny as when I was young and playing in EGA. The voice acting is fantastic. I'd like to be able to play the classic graphics with the voices like the CD-ROM version. I think a few of the puzzles might be a bit tricky. There's a nice hint system for that though.

Ron Gilbert's classical The Secret of Monkey Island is point-and-click gaming at it's best. It has a great story oozing with atmosphere and a plethora of funny characters. Thanks to Tim Schafer (Grim Fandango) and Dave Grossman, MI1 is also one of the funniest games ever made. It also takes the term "adventure game" quite literal. There are few other point-and-click games that I can think of that make you feel like you're on an epic adventure (apart from maybe Monkey island 2). I think it's fantastic that Lucasarts decided to remake this game as it helped resurrect a timeless classic, as well as introduce adventure games to a new generation, but it is not without it's problems. I have two major complaints about this version: 1. It lacks so much of the charm of the original game. When remaking the game Lucasarts decided to keep the cartoon style used in Monkey Island 3 - 5. It worked well for them, but feels very out of place in this one. + there are some visual glitches and some odd visual changes (all minor issues fixable with mods). 2. The new control scheme is supposed to be more streamlined than the original verb box, but it's surprisingly clunky. There's plenty of flaws to the Special Edition but none of these are enough to ruin it as a whole. Pluss credit where credit is due, the new music and voice acting is nothing short of brilliant. These features really saved this game for me. Would I still recommend this game? Do pirates drink grog? Definitely! Despite it's flaws it's still Monkey Island, and no cartoonish graphics can ruin the great story, humor and gameplay that it offers. And if you're like me and the new graphics put you off, simply press F10 and you'll have the original game in all it's 8-bit glory. I personally recommend playing it this way. There's just something magical about the original that creates an instant sense of nostalgia even if you didn't play it back in the 90's, and this is how you should experience it for the first time.