The Secret of Monkey Island

The Good
The Secret of Monkey Island came to the Sega CD! Few graphic adventure games were released for the home console systems, let alone a wonderful game such as this. Everything that was great and laugh out loud funny about the computer version is here in full glory, along with a password feature.

The Bad
The first two problems are due to the hardware limitations of the Sega CD, which become even more absurd given the fact that this is not a perfect adaption of an old computer game.

Their is a loading time, that is not too terribly long but you will probably notice it from time to time. While most computers used 256+ on screen colors, the Sega CD only used 64, which gives Monkey Island a slightly drab and washed out look. The other problems stem more from the choices made by the friendly folks at Lucas Arts.

The passwords only return you to the general vicinity where you quit, with some of the items you collected missing. It is not a major problem because it does not interfere with the ability to beat the game, but it is something worth noting.

Last, but not least, the marketing behind this game was almost non-existent from what I can remember. As a limited commercial success, LucasArts decided not to release more of their CD-ROM graphic adventure games for the Sega CD.

The Bottom Line
The Sega CD version of the Secret of Monkey Island does not offer any major differences from the CD-ROM computer edition, beyond a password feature, single speed loading time and a slightly more drab look.

While it is hard, if not unwise, to mess with something as great as Monkey Island the Sega CD edition never got the support that it needed to be successful and thus home console gamers had to do with more LucasArts adventure games.