Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition

28th July 2009 • 0 Comments

Lucasarts revisits the first game in the Monkey Island franchise, has the update been worth it though? ...........................

If you ask anyone around the age of 20 and above about games they played when they were younger a lot of them will have fond memories of playing the original Monkey Island games on PC. Whilst there were good Lucasarts adventure games before the release of Monkey Island, it was one of the first classic Lucasarts adventure games due to being very funny and some great characters. 

Almost 20 years later and the original is still very much playable today, thanks to the help of ScummVM, however some devices have been released which are a perfect fit for the game (for example DS and iPhone) and there were no official way to play these games on those platforms. Well now it seems Lucasarts finally listened and have remade the game and released it for download on PC, Xbox and iPhone.

It is a pretty substantial remake as well, with brand new hand painted backgrounds which scarily look very similar to the original backgrounds whilst still maintaining a new and consistent art style. The same with the characters whom have also been redrawn, this are a bit hit and miss personally with some looking good, like LeChuck, whilst others not so great, in particular Guybrush's hair. If you're worried the game has been remade in 3D, don't panic as all the environments remain in 2D and thus plays in the same way as the original game.

The game looks beautiful on 360 and is probably the version to get as it comes with achievements, HD graphics and leaderboards. The iPhone version also stands up pretty well, some loading times are a bit long on the 3G, but they may be faster on the new 3GS. 

On top of the visual upgrade, the music has been rerecorded and instead of the old school computer based tunes we have the same songs but using a proper orchestra instead, which makes the experience so much more epic. The best update though is the new voice acting that has been added, whilst I have played through the original numerous times having the voice acting made the game feel like I was playing through the experience for the first time and makes playing through the story so much more enjoyable and funny. The cast of Curse of Monkey Island have returned to do the voice acting and characters whom reappeared in Escape from Monkey Island seemed to have also reprised their roles, which adds a consistency to the voice acting. A special mention to Dominic Artmato who does another excellent job voicing Guybrush.

Perhaps the biggest overhaul the game has had is the change in the interface, the point and click system remains however the SCUMM system of verbs has been removed off the bottom of the screen. Instead you have two menus which can be fired up by the press of a button. One brings up the list of verbs you use to interact with the game, e.g. Pick Up and the other menu brings up your inventory. This might be a bit clunky at first however you do get used to it after a while. In the 360 version these verbs have also been mapped to the D Pad so you can do some actions quicker than you could in the original. The system is also similar in the iPhone version, however instead of touching items with your finger you have to drag the cursor over the screen, which takes some getting used to.

This system of control works very well on all the platforms and a good update of the original SCUMM system, the only issue I found was involving one puzzle where items have to be swapped quickly. In addition to these updates in the interface a hint system has been added. If you get stuck you can press a button or shake your iPhone to receive a hint, this has three levels, where the final level of hints basically tells you what to do. Obviously you won't get all the achievements or as much enjoyment if you use this system, however it's a great addition for those who get truly stuck and stops them giving up on the game. On the most part the hints seem relevant to what you're doing, on the iPhone the shake seems a bit sensitive so sometimes hints can appear when you didn't intend them to.

If you're old fashioned and hate all this new graphics etc, then you can also switch back to the classic version on the fly. A quick button press (or two finger swipe on the iPhone), takes the game back into it's original form, you press the button again and you go back to the remake. It is a very seamless transition and involves no menus and is a great little feature in the game. In terms of additional content for the remake, there isn't any new puzzles, it is purely the original game with a new coat of paint on top.This might sound disappointing however Secret of Monkey Island is already a brilliant game already and any new additional content might have ruined the pacing and experience.

If you have never played the original Monkey Island, then go buy this now, it is a classic adventure game which is still fantastic to play in its original and new form. For existing fans of the series the new features make the asking price of around £6 a small price to pay for some good old nostalgia and brilliant gameplay. It remains one of the finest games ever made and you are missing out if you have never had a chance to play it.