Monkey Island Special Edition (XBLA)

Guybrush Threepwood sets sail once more in The Secret of Monkey Island: Special edition

If you are thinking what’s a Monkey Island and why should I care some background is in order

Lucasarts released The Secret of Monkey Island in 1990 on early systems (such as Amiga and Atari ST) and is a “Point and Click” adventure game where the player solves puzzles whilst on an adventure.

Players are given a cursor with which to click the environment to move their character as well as several ‘verbs’ at the bottom of the screen such as pick up and talk to, which are used to interact with characters, items and the level itself, the point and click genre while being a well loved genre, died out in the late nineties as fans sought more instant action titles such as first person shooters, so for younger fans this could very well be their first experience of the genre.

The game stars Guybrush Threepwood, who has just arrived on Melee Island wanting to become a pirate, however the pirates are to scared to work because of the Ghost Pirate Lechuck who sales the waters between Melee Island and the mysterious Monkey Island, Guybrush is sent off on a quest (known as the three trials) by the pirate leaders, which will allow Guybrush to become a pirate and that’s about all I can say without heading into spoiler territory, but rest assured it’s a mad, fun adventure and arguably one of the funniest games ever made.

As the game was made in 1990 you can imagine it’s beginning to show it’s age, luckily Lucasarts saw fit to update this classic for the modern era,  the new special edition features completely redrawn artwork presented in 1080i widescreen, a completely re-recorded and re-mastered music score and for the first time ever (for Monkey Island 1) a full voice over for all the characters with Dominic Armato, Alexandra Boyd and Earl Boen returning as Guybrush Threepwood, Governor Elaine Marley and Ghost Pirate LeChuck respectively.

The controls were originally mouse based but this has also been given an overhaul, verbs and inventory are now on the shoulder buttons (verbs can also be accessed by pressing the d-pad in different directions including diagonal) although this may sound awkward in theory, in practice it works better than you would think.

The new look is undoubtedly far better quality but the style may not be appreciated by all, with Guybrush in particular looking a bit off (mainly his hair), however the new hand painted art work does look very good and gives the game a very unique look, while the artwork may be new the animations are not, in some places this looks a bit strange but overall doesn’t affect the enjoyment of the game.

The script of the game is still as good today as it was all those years back, still genuinely funny and full of memorable characters Stan the used boat salesman and the vegetarian cannibals are a few that come to mind but most (if not all) the characters are memorable in one way of another. The script remains largely unchanged with only the stump joke being removed (Google it, way to long to go into here) even the “Ask me about Loom” guy remains shilling Loom, which at this point as been out for close to twenty years. The new voice over is excellent with all the old cast reprising their roles, it’s surprising how much this adds to the comedy in the game especially in the insult sword fighting.

New and improved

If any of the changes do not sit right with you or if you just yearn for the good ol’ days, at any time you can revert back to the original look by pressing the back button, this changes the game to exactly as it was in the 90’s and as such you will lose the voice over, as Lucasarts presumably wanted to keep it as faithful as possible to the original.   

Xbox live may be the perfect platform for re-launching the Monkey Island series (and hopefully the point and click genre as a whole), as new fans can cheaply experience the classics and if they are re-done as well as this is then maybe we can see more titles such as Maniac Mansion and Loom in the future.