The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition

“The Secret of Monkey Island” might be one of the very first video games I played as a child. Even though I couldn’t even read English, I remember playing the demo at least a dozen times. It had the troll standing at the Mêlée docks to prevent you from getting out. No matter if I couldn’t figure out any of the puzzles, I just loved walking around and enjoying the setting and atmosphere.

My parents got me a legit copy a couple of years later, and despite the game not being the experience I had expected, I was totally blown away by the humor. Just like Guybrush, I was dreaming of an epic pirate adventure, and in the end, I had to come to terms with the fact that I was just another clumsy kid unfit for pirate life, but with the heart in the right place.

The plot is merely an excuse for what is essentially a genre parody littered with puns and pop culture references. Things play out as you would expect for the most part. yet I thought the twist they got with Elaine’s characters wasn’t as obvious back then.

The puzzles are part of the humor, to the point that many times the puzzles are the jokes and vice versa. The solutions are slightly more intuitive than the average LucasArt graphic adventure, with only a few absurd item combinations and pun-led tasks that could get frustrating. The pacing is generally tight, and the variety of things to do is impressive for a game this old. However, walking back and forth between areas can sometimes get a little tiresome.

About the “special edition”: it’s essentially a carbon copy of the original with a new user interface, revamped graphics, and especially made voice acting. The controls have been changed into an action wheel with a separate inventory menu. While it might have been a choice to make the game more accessible on mobile devices, nothing beats the original interface. The voice acting is on par with the other games in the series, and I have to say I’m not a big fan. Deadpan wry humor is obviously an essential feature of the Monkey Island series, but I thought the performances here were simply flat rather than genuinely deadpan. Many jokes felt funnier read in my mind rather than being acted out.