The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition

This game, with a story inspired by the tone the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and later stolen for the PotC films, you play Guybrush Threepwood, a nerdy wannabe pirate out to make a name for himself, but soon finds himself catching the eye of the local lady governor and the evil ghost pirate that wants her for himself. The game relies on solving problems using wacky items in your inventory or through talking to the colorful cast of characters. Like the Disneyland ride, the game is very appropriate for kids to play but not necessarily strictly for them- cartoon violence that's rarely shown, the "alchohol" is an absurd acidic compound called grog and a few statements on kissing and light inuendo that kids won't get. Of a historical note, The Secret of Monkey Island was one of the first adventure games to incorporate a constant narrative with a talkative main character, and also allowed you to explore the setting freely, This special edition is incredibly faithful, allowing you to swap out the new storybook style graphics with full character voice over for the more realistic tone of Steve Purcell's (of Sam & Max and Brave fame) 16-bit portraits and text only at the push of a button. Highly recommended to adventure game novices and pros alike who never had a chance to enjoy this game before.

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.

Monkey Island reste l'un des joyaux de Lucasarts, et aujourd'hui un point'n click tellement culte que bon nombre de jeux se comparent à lui. Cette version "revisitée" est plutôt réussie, et nous permet d'y jouer en passant à volonté des anciens graphismes à ceux remastérisés. Le petit + ? Toutes les répliques sont doublées, et il est possible de les appliquer tout en jouant avec les graphismes d'époque. L'humour du jeu reste présent et toujours aussi bon. Les duels d'insulte sont une petite merveille. Seul regret : le look de Guybrush sur ce remaster. On dirait un punk...

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.