The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

The Good
The Secret of Monkey Island was first introduced to gamers back in the days of floppy disks, hard drives and DOS. Players instantly fell in love with the plucky, wannabe pirate, the zany Carribean setting and the inventory-based puzzles.

Even today, the gaming world is, arguably, divided up between the people who have played, The Secret of Monkey Island , versus people who want to play the classic adventure game.

The Special Edition includes the original Secret Of Monkey Island game, as well as a new edition. You can easily switch between the different versions at anytime.

The new edition features vastly superior graphics, talented voice actors reading the funny dialogue and a [mostly] smooth control scheme. Guybrush is easy to control, mostly, and the special edition improvements make a classic game even better.

It's especially nice that the main voice actors seem to be the same people involved with the third Monkey Island game (The Curse Of Monkey Island was the first game in the series to introduce voice actors).

My complaints are minor, but worth mentioning.

The Bad
The game play mechanics are, mostly, fine. Originally, the game used a mouse - hence, "point and click" adventure game - and the transition from mouse to the Xbox 360 controller is fine, mostly.

Sometimes it can be a tad difficult to do certain commands quickly. This only becomes a bit of a problem once or twice, but it's worth mentioning. I would say that the game play mechanics in The Secret of Monkey Island 2 (Special Edition) are perfect, so the designers may have taken more in between the two games.

Lastly, I gotta complain about one puzzle in the game. Eventually, you have to crack a randomly generated safe combination. It was a tough puzzle in the original game, and remains so in the remake.

Yes, I realize that it was a part of the original Secret of Monkey Island game, but it still gives me headaches. Part of me wishes that an alternative solution was made available. Maybe, it's just a personal gripe.

The Bottom Line
The Secret of Monkey Island was a great game to begin with, and is made even greater with this Special Edition. This is certainly the best version of the game and well-worth the purchase price. I wish that more Lucasfilms Adventure games were ported over to the Xbox 360.

The Good
Ever since its introduction, I was (and still am) a fan of the Monkey Island series. I had played all four games and wrote reviews here on MobyGames. The fourth Monkey Island game, released in 2000, was to be the last game that LucasArts would make, since the company decided to move away from the adventure genre and focus more on the Star Wars universe. When I recently found out by reading a forum that LucasArts was going to do a game entitled The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, the first thing that I did was go to the web site for the game to take a look at the screenshots and do other things there. Then, I went back and played the original game (refer to as the “classic version” from now on.

After that was done, I downloaded the game via Steam and I was up. The first thing that I saw was the comparison between the title of that of the classic version and the new one. The lights at the base of the mountain are replaced with lit-up houses and a few ships. Your character Guybrush starts off at the docks, like he did in the classic version. The view is breathtaking. There is now a huge moon hovering above the moving ocean, and behind the SCUMM bar are the houses you see in the intro. There bit of outdoor scenes in the game, and that moon is still visible in those scenes.

I enjoyed talking to Spiffy the dog (Now you get a close-up of him.) It is funny how Guybrush uses dog language such as “Woof!” and “Yip. Yip. Yip”. LucasArts previously decided not to do a close-up of Spiffy in the disk version due to lack of disk space. The game was also released on CD-ROM, so there there was no reason why Lucas didn't include the close-up in that version.

I still like sword-fighting pirates and throwing insults to help finish the trials, and hearing how those insults sound like. Actually, one of the other things that I did on LucasArt's web site for the game was play a little mini-game that allowed you to throw insults at pirates, so I got a good idea how they would sound like in the game. I just felt that mini-game would be better, not just pictures of Guybrush fighting while he insults.

You can switch between the classic and special editions of the game. The classic is an exact replica of the CD-ROM version, complete with the lack of speech and CD-quality music. It is there in case you feel a little bit of nostalgia; but in my case, I like to switch to it if I am doing tasks that are impossible to do in the special edition (like swapping acid into different mugs before the mug melts or watching the storekeeper open his safe). When you do switch from special to classic, the graphics morphing into the classic version looks amazing, as does the graphics moving upwards so that the original commands appear. You can switch between modes at any time during the game, except when the credits appear at the start of the game.

The orchestral music sounds terrific, and sounds a lot superior to the music from the classic version. The ambient sound provides atmosphere to the game. The highlight for me is walking around the beaches and jungles of Monkey Island, listening to the actual sounds of the jungle.

An on-line hint system is included in the game, so that users that get far into the game and suddenly don't know what to do next can press a key to get a hint. I did not need to do this, because I already printed out a walk-through of the game.

The Bad
The commands are not displayed at the bottom of the screen, so you are expected to press a key that corresponds to the first letter of the command in the classic edition, so press [P] on the keyboard means that you want to “Pick up” something. There is a problem with this technique. In some parts of the game, you have to push and pull things, so it is necessary to bring up the verb menu by pressing [V] and then selecting “Push” or “Pull. Same with the inventory. If you want to use something in your inventory on another object, you have to press [I] first. Because you have to do this, I had the tenancy to press the wrong key (eg: to bring up the verb menu instead of the inventory).

The Bottom Line
Monkey Island SE is a superb remake of the original game, with orchestral music, full speech throughout the game, and an on-line hint system. It also has the ability to switch between the classic and special editions of the game. If you want a bit of nostalgia or just want to do something that you are not able to do in the special edition, the classic edition is there for you if you need it.

Anyone who has played the original game may want to download the special edition just because it features everything that I have just mentioned, and with full voice support. Now except for Monkey Island 2, most of the Monkey Island games have speech throughout them.

Since LucasArts promised that there will be more to come if Monkey Island SE sells – and I believe it certainly well – and as we were promised a sequel in the end credits, Lucas planning on doing a Monkey Island 2 SE would be nice. I read on forums that they would rather see special editions of games that follow it, mainly Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max Hit the Road. I am not sure if Lucas would want to go that far, though.

The Good
The original Secret of Monkey Island was the classic DOS game from 1990 that put Lucas Arts on to the map. It features memorable dialogue (“I can hold my breath under water for 10 minutes”), a sharp witted loser of a protagonist and a grog recipe that’s so dangerous, that 19 years after the games release, an Argentine news station was fooled into thinking it was the hottest (and deadliest) drink shared among todays youth, and was publically humiliated by the gaming press. The games style and humour is a mash-up of fantasy and pop culture, which predates the first Shrek film, by 11 years. Its plot, is widely believed by fans and creator Ron Gilbert to have been the subject of an unofficial adaption into the recent Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Yet nearly 20 years after the games release, Lucasarts in an unprecedented move, decided to re-release the game with newly drawn HD artwork, orchestrated music, and a complete voice over soundtrack featuring the cast from Curse of Monkey Island. How does it follow up well read on.

SPOILERS In the games opening chapter, we see Guybrush Threepwood, who desperately wants to prove that he can be a pirate. He arrives on Melee Island and is directed to a trio of pirates who will take him through a series of trials testing his fighting, thievery, and treasure hunting skills. During his trials, Guybrush learns meets the beautiful Elaine Marley, a strong and independent governor who is attracted to his foolishness. Elaine is also the subject of attraction of LeChuck, an undead Sea captain that has all pirates on Melee Island running scared. LeChuck successfully kidnaps Elaine and heads off for the mysterious Monkey Island. Determined to save her, Guybrush gathers a ship and crew and takes pursuit. SPOILERS END

The Secret of Monkey Island SE, uses the exact same design from the original 1990 release and overlays it with HD artwork and a brand new soundtrack. If you are not interested in these features, there is a hotswap button, that allows a smooth transition between the original and the remake on the fly.

The result is that the gameplay is as good as ever in its purest form. The writing is still hilarious, and the puzzles always have far out but logical solutions. I played the original for the first time in 2006, at the age of 14, 16 years after its release, and enjoyed the hell out of it. 5 years later, it is still a blast to play.


The Bad
Sadly however, the hotswap function is the best feature in the Special Edition. The game features a lot of conversations with close ups of the characters. These closeups look beautiful in the original game because of the photorealistic illustrations. These illustrations really made the pirates look terrifying, and as a player you could tell that the they definitely scared the crap out of Guybrush . In the remake, LucasArts deviated from this style , and instead we get characters who look like they are from a storybook based on a Disney film. Worse still there is no lip movement during these conversations. In the original, where there was and still is no voice acting, so the stilted animation looked ok. In the remake , where there is voice acting however, it makes the voices sound like they are coming straight out of an audiobook. The main cast of Domonic Armato, Earl Boen, and Alexandra Gould are still great in their roles as Guybrush, LeChuck and Elaine. Other characters who are speaking for the first time are very forgettable, and sound like the results of a cold reading session. One voice I really have to point out and shoot is the narrator who annoyingly reads the inter-titles. He ruins LeChucks grand entrance and unnecessarily reads out a recipe that’s clearly readable on the screen. I wish there was a way to turn him off and do the reading on my own.

The Bottom Line
It’s a shame that The Secret of Monkey Island has received such a terrible remake, because underneath the jarring voice acting, over the top narration, and poorly animated conversations, there really is a lot of hilarious writing to enjoy. I would recommend that anyone who is keen to play The Secret of Monkey Island for the first time, to download this game on Steam and run it in classic mode and ignore the extras featured in the remake. If you have the original game already, run it through either DOS or SCUMMVM, get a pint of grog, and be prepared relive a hilarious swashbuckling adventure!

The Good
The first Monkey Island in all its glory, who would say no? As anyone, when this game was announced, I was enthusiastic. I mean, what could go wrong with this remake? As long as the art style was good, there was nothing to be afraid of.

So, what's good in it ? First, the music. While true to the original, the passage from MIDI to real instrument is a blessing. Even if I miss the "warmness" of the original ones, here, it is just nostalgia.

Some continuity. I don't like Armato's voice as Guybrush, but at least Lucasarts didn't disappoint those who like him.

The ability to switch between old & new versions is a good idea, and the morphing is really well executed.

The Bad
Wait, I already know what you are thinking : "What, that's all you throw in the good section ?!" Yeah. I'm sorry.

First, the new graphics are just awful, especially the characters (Honestly, did you take a look at Guybrush ?!). Coupled with the fact it is just an override of the original game, animations don't fit with those new graphics.

Voices actors. When hearing them, I just had the feeling that the voice director at Lucasarts has gone out, asked the first people who came if they wanted to voice a game, and so they did. Another thing about the voices : why the hell am I not able to have them when playing the old version ? In order to stay true to the original way of playing ? It could just have been a great way to rediscover the original game...

Special note when your language is not english (so, english natives, skip this) : 1) This one is understandable, but it's disappointing : why don't we have voices in our languages, since MI3 and 4 had those ? Yeah, right, money... 2) Oh, why don't we have the text when playing in "old" mode in our language ? No, money is not an excuse there, the game has been translated for almost 20 years now.

The Bottom Line
I won't give this a rating.

I am in a situation where I want to give 5/5, just 'cause it is Monkey Island, and 1/5 to the remake, which is just not worth it in my opinion...

So, if what you see here and there on the net pleases you, don't hesitate, take it, I think you'll be happy with it, especially if you never played this masterpiece before. Otherwise, grab out your original Monkey Island, nothing which is worth it here.

The Good
Aye! The Secret of Monkey Island is yet another of these awesome adventure games that I didn't give myself the time to play until recently. Yeah, you could consider me a contemptible sneak. After having regained my appetite for classic adventure games after playing Gabriel Knight - Sins of the Fathers, I downloaded Monkey Island I and II from PSN at a discounted price. And having finished this first iteration of the legendary Monkey Island franchise, I've become very hungry for more!

Just as a reminder, this review is about the Special Edition of the game. I've never played the original version when it first came out, so no nostalgia goggles for me. The original version, however, is included with the special edition and I played both versions of the game consecutively so I'll make a few comparisons between them.

You play as Guybrush Threepwood, a young, naive everyman who has but one ambition in life: he wants to become a pirate! Unfortunately, Guybrush has few pirate-related talents, he fights like a dairy farmer, looks like a flooring inspector, can't swim and stutters like crazy when he encounters beautiful women. He can, however, hold his breath for ten straight minutes, so that certainly deserves some praise! Not to mention that he has the brass balls to enter a ghost ship filled with undead pirates all by himself!

But becoming a pirate isn't an easy task, as Guybrush not only has to complete certain trails and has to find a ship and crew, but he also has to face off with the infamous ghost pirate LeChuck, who rules over the Caribbean with an undead iron fist! LeChuck keeps all other pirates to the land and, worst of all, he kidnaps Guybrush's lover, the beautiful governor Elaine Marley! Guybrush wastes not a single minute and goes to the rescue, a trip that will take him to the mystical Monkey Island, with inhabits idol-worshipping cannibals, lava-filled caverns and let's not forget, a three-headed monkey!

The Secret of Monkey Island is a point-and-click adventure using Lucasarts' famous SCUMM engine. The basics for this engine (and the gameplay as a whole) is that you pick a verb, than you click on an object in your environment or in your inventory and see what happens. For example, chose the verb "talk to" and then click on a person on the screen to have a chat with him/her. Or take the verb "use," take the chunk of meat from your inventory and then click on the bowling stew pot to put the meat into it. Don't let the huge number of different verbs fool you, this interface is very easy to get used to since it uses simple common sense! The conversations you have in the game are really fun because you can either politely ask for information or downright insult the person you're talking to! Or you can trick them into thinking you're selling fine leather jackets! It's really fun to experiment with different phrases and see how the person you're speaking with will respond to them!

The game's story has many hilarious and memorable moments. One of them is the sword fighting in the first act. Rather than real fencing, you have to out insult your opponent. You learn these insults and their respective responses when you duel with random pirates. My personal favorite insult is: "My handkerchief will wipe up your blood!" A phrase you can rub back into your opponent's face by saying: "So you got that job as janitor, after all." Another fun moment is when you stand on the Monkey Island mountain, go to the far right side of the mountain top and fall into the abyss! You get a "death message" and seconds later you float back to the top of the mountain. A very clever nod to the many bizarre deaths in the Sierra adventure games! Speaking of death scenes, there virtually are no possible ways to die in this game, except when you really have Guybrush hold his breath for more than ten minutes!

The game's graphics are really great. The remake uses hand-drawn images and they give the game a really cool comic book look. It also has some nice special effects and the water in particular is really magnificent to watch. The original version looks more realistic and has more of a painting look. Anyway, you can always switch between the two styles with the mere press of a button on your keyboard or game pad. I found myself doing that a lot during my first playthrough just to see how a particular character or scene looked like in the original version.

But of course, a good adventure game also needs clever puzzles that will challenge your brain cells but whose solutions make sufficient sense. Fortunately, the puzzles in this game aren't too hard, sometimes the solution is less than obvious but if you carefully listen to the dialogue and the description Guybrush gives to certain objects you can certainly solve most if not all of the game's puzzles! And if necessary, you can always access the in-game hint system, that gradually gives you the full solution the more you use it for a particular problem.

This Special Edition has a remade soundtrack using real instruments and voice-acting for all characters. The music in the game is simply perfect, it features flutes, trumpets and drums and they give the game a very light-hearted, upbeat feel. It really gets me in the mood to set course for a grand adventure! The remake's soundtrack is identical in tunes to the original version but the latter uses MIDI rather than orchestra. Both versions are very enjoyable to listen to.

As for the voices, Guybrush Threepwood is voiced by Dominic Armato and Earl Boen takes on the phantom boots of LeChuck. These two actors in particular did a splendid job in bringing their characters to life and they really add to the game's atmosphere. The original version features no voice-acting, so people who enjoy a good read can switch to that version.

The Bad
Act one and three feature giant map screens wherein some locations you need to visit are barely visible on them. Your best bet is to scroll your cursor over every single pixel on the map in order to find all the locations you can visit.

The game is also pretty short, the second and the final act of the game in particular are extremely short. I wished that the game had two or three more chapters. One additional sequence could have been that your ship gets shipwrecked on your road to Monkey Island and that you need to repair your ship using equipment you find underwater or on the island you got stranded on.

The Bottom Line
One of the funniest adventure games I've ever played. The Secret of Monkey Island is another timeless classic that features everything you could want from an adventure game. An engaging story, memorable characters, a user-friendly interface and excellent puzzles. In addition, the game's pirate theme and light-hearted atmosphere really make the game really shine! Highly recommended to every gamer out there, even those who have little interest in adventure games. And now, I want to be a pirate!