The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is the remaster of the original Monkey Island game that started it all. It is crazy to think that as of writing the original is 30 years old! I first played this back in 1992 on the Sega CD and I loved it, but I have to say that this is the best way you can play this game.
How to Download The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
To download the game, click on the Download button at the end of the review. If you like new editions of classic adventure games check out also our reviews of Grim Fandango, Sam & Max Save the World, and Day of the Tentacle.
The Game Review
The game is a point-and-click adventure game and one of the most iconic in the history of the genre. LucasArts were the masters of this genre and one of the designers on this was Tim Schafer. Back in the day, it was ported to a ton of different computer systems and it is a game most people hold in very high regard.
The game is about a young pirate wannabe called Guybrush Threepwood and he wants to make it big as a pirate. Guybrush ends up on an epic quest full of interesting characters and adventure. All the while he is looking to strike it rich and reach a level of fame as one of the best pirates around.
Even now, all these years later the writing in The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition holds up very, very well. Pretty much everything you can interact with has something witty written about it and it is the kind of game that you will be playing and have a smile on your face the majority of the time you do so.
The gameplay is that of a point-and-click adventure game. You need to interact with things, figure out puzzles, what items do what, and so on. Some of the puzzles are really hard to figure out. However, for this special edition, they have added in a hint system and if you ask me there is no shame in using it at all!
As far as the gameplay goes, that is all they have actually added to the game. If you played this on a computer back in the day or even on the Sega CD as I did. This is the exact same game you played and loved back then. To be fair, I am not sure I would have wanted them to tinker with the game at all anyway.
The big changes for The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition are in the presentation. The sprites have all been redrawn and they look fantastic. You can switch between the new and old graphics which is fun to do. I love the look of the new sprites, but the original still does have a great deal of charm to it.
The music has also been redone. The music has a real epic feel about it now, but just like the graphics, you can change back to the classic version if you wish. The game is now fully voice acted too and the voice acting is awesome and does a great job of bringing these characters to life even more so.
I had an absolute blast playing through The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition. This is a great example of how you re-release a game properly. They did not tinker with what made the game special in the first place. They just updated the presentation and the hint mode that they added was a great idea and is sure to make the game more accessible for those new to the series.
