The Secret of Monkey Island

User Summary

Originally released in 1990 (and most recently with enhanced graphics and audio as a Special Edition in 2009), The Secret of Monkey Island is one of LucasArts's (formerly Lucasfilm Games) most highly acclaimed point-and-click adventure games. It follows our inexperienced hero, Guybrush Threepwood, as he begins his quest to become a mighty pirate. Along the way, you'll have to sharpen your tongue to master the art of sword fightery (insults written by Orson Scott Card!), break and enter for successful in idol stealery, and hone your sense of direction for treasure huntery. You'll meet pirates, mean pirates, ugly pirates, dirty pirates, grog-swiling pirates, smelly pirates, stupid pirates, rude pirates, stranded pirates, important pirates, ghost pirates, and other types of pirates! Also a monkey. You might also consider buying a larger pair of fancy pants, because you'll need some place to store all the loot that you pick up.

Designed by Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer, and Dave Grossman, The Secret of Monkey Island is the fifth game developed using the Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion (SCUMM) engine. It is a story of adventure, excitement, and romance. Monkey Island is a hilarious romp through a comic world of mischief, and also pirates. Did I mention pirates?

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is an enhanced remake of The Secret of Monkey Island for the PC, Playstation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, and iPhone/iPod touch developed internally by LucasArts and released on 15 July 2009.

The Special Edition features new character art and hand-painted environments in the style of the original, presented in 1920 x 1080 widescreen resolution. It also features a re-recorded and re-mastered score, and the principal voice artists from The Curse of Monkey Island read the previously unspoken lines, with Dominic Armato as Guybrush, Alexandra Boyd as Elaine, and Earl Boen as LeChuck.

The interface itself is streamlined, hiding the verb table and inventory that previously took up the lower part of the screen. These, including the nine-option verb table from the enhanced editions of the game, can be pulled up as a menu, while verbs can also be selected by cycling through preset commands. Another new feature is the three-level hint system, which (at the third level) presents a bright yellow arrow showing the player where to go.

It is possible to switch between the 256 color enhanced and the new version of graphics without interrupting the flow of the game. This also switches between the original CD Audio soundtrack and the remastered score with ambient sound effects, and the loss of voice-over work for the original version. The game did insert Spiffy, the famous dog on the back of the original game's box, and removed the infamous stump joke.

Source: Wikipedia, "The Secret of Monkey Island", available under the CC-BY-SA License.

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Secret of Monkey Island fan
Monkey Island fan