The Secret of Monkey Island
The very first original Monkey Island game, The Secret of Monkey Island, was released in 1990 (for MS-DOS, 1991 for other consoles) with EGA graphics. The game was released on floppy disks and even had a copy-protection in form of a code wheel. A few months after the big release the MS-DOS version was updated with the classic VGA graphics. Due to it’s popularity the game was once again released in 1992 but now as a CD-ROM version with enhanced music and graphical elements in the user interface. During this release the developer, LucasArts, also released the game to the Sega Genesis console. But due to a number of problems such as load speed, game save and graphics the game was not a commercial success. LucasArts therefore decided to not released the nowadays very popular Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge game titles on the Sega Genesis.
The Secret of Monkey Island project was led by Ron Gilbert, he not only ran the project, he also works as a designer. You might be familiar with Gilbert since he has released a bunch of classic games such as Manic Mansion, Monkey Island 1 & 2, Putt-Putt, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Grahpic Adventure, Zak McKracken and the Alien Minddbenders, the list goes on and on. Most of the titles were released during his employment at LucasArts. Gilbert is also the one creating the famous SCUMM scripting language now helping us run a bunch of classic games on newer computers. Anyways, the plot of The Secret of Monkey Island was conceived from Gilbert’s interest in pirates.
If you never ever have heard about Monkey Island or a pirate called Guybrush Threepwood you are in for a treat. Guybrush Threepwood is a young lad who wants to be a pirate. He heads out to an Island called Mêlèe in the Caribbean. He locates the old pirate leader and finds out that he needs to accomplish three challenges before he can call himself a pirate. The three challenges includes everything a pirate needs to know, sword fighting, stealing and finding treasures. Along the way Guybrush bumps into a bunch of characters such as Governor Elaine Marley, the ghost pirate LeChuck, Stan – the used boat salesman and many, many more. When Guybrush is off doing his quests LeChuck kidnaps Elaine and takes her to Monkey Island. It’s now up to Guybrush to gather a shipping crew, get a boat, find and rescue Elaine. The rest is up to you to find out!
The Secret of Monkey Island 1990 game play
On the 15th of July 2009 LucasArts decide to once again release this classic piece of game history as an enhanced remake called The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. The game was released for PC, Playstation, Xbox and iPhone, aiming high on getting the newer kids on the scene interested in the ever so popular first game in the Monkey Island series. The remake includes new hand-painted background environments and new character art all in the great style of the original game. It also includes remastered score and voices from The Curse of Monkey Island, the third game in the Monkey Island series, crew Dominic Armato (Guybrush), Alexandra Boyd (Elaine) and Earl Boen (LeChuck). The mayor difference in the graphics can easily be spotted if you compare the screenshots from the 1990 version and the 2009 version. Things a bit harder to see on screenshots is a new three level hint system which helps new players to enjoy the game to the fullest and as the player you are able to switch between the old and new version with a single click without pausing or interrupting the game, might not be that useful but it’s a super-cool feature. In 2010 this remake was released for Mac.
If you are looking for a fun yet hard and amusing adventure point and click game you cannot miss out on this great title. I do recommend the original version for all you hardcore retro gamers. If you do value graphics and wants a more polished game the Special Edition version will be perfect for you. Remember you get both versions in the newer Special Edition version. Although the game was released a couple of years ago it is still available for download on Steam for example. Enjoy the world of Monkey Island!
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition – remastered
Tags: Atari 2600, iPhone Games, iPod Games, Microsoft Xbox 360, MS-DOS Games, Sega Genesis Games, Sony PS3
This entry was posted on Friday, December 17th, 2010 at 08:00 and is filed under Classic Game Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.