The Secret of Monkey Island (1990)

I first played Monkey Island when I was 8 or 9. It blew my mind. It wasn't exactly my intro to adventure games, I'd already been playing the Humongous Entertainment catalog for years, but Monkey Island was complex in a way I'd never seen before. It was beautiful and funny and some of the puzzles completely broke my brain. It took me a combination of bruteforcing and GameFAQs, but I was entranced all the way to the end.

I don't really know what to make of Monkey Island now that I'm replaying it two decades later.

The game still looks great and the interface is still reasonably functional, but I definitely felt the lack of some modern quality of life interface conveniences. "Highlight hotspots" button, my beloved, I never appreciate you until you're gone.

A lot of the puzzles are very clever in a way I can better appreciate as an adult, but others are poorly clued and rely on a level of bruteforcing I'd find unacceptable in a modern game (to say nothing of the incredibly tedious swordfighting minigame).

And the writing, well, now we're getting to it. Secret of Monkey Island has an incredibly gen x sense of humor. So many of the jokes are just "Haha, the thing you did was pointless" and while there is still quite a bit to laugh at here, there's a real cynicism at the game's core that I found wore on me pretty quickly. It's not mean, exactly, but it does clearly find the idea of expecting anything to matter laughable. Maybe I changed, maybe the world changed, but I think I just care too much about everything for absurdism like that to really hit for me anymore. The cutscene in the governor's mansion is still hilarious though.

I guess this is also as good a point as any to complain that Monkey Island parodies some racist tropes of the pirate genre in a way that is honestly still kinda racist. The cannibals are used to joke about diet culture, and cannibals counting calories is kind of a funny idea, but they're still stereotypical "tribal" black characters who eat people and, like, yikes. And the voodoo lady is... actually I'm not even sure she's even supposed to be subverting anything? She gets a couple jokes but mostly she's just a spooky voodoo lady who's literally only ever called "voodoo lady". What is it with 90s adventure games and voodoo? It's a weird look.

I wouldn't say my experience going back to this game was a total disappointment, there's some genuinely great design and some good jokes that carried me through even where my nostalgia was tarnished. But like, I don't know, man.

Preliminary: As always, I plan to play the very original version. Either the 16-color version or the 256--color version will suffice, since just Oct 1990 vs Dec 1990. But definitely not the 1992 remastered version or 2009 remake. I am super excited for this game, tho I hope the fact I already played through several LucasArts games wont affect it, since this wont be "the first" or anything--I certainly hope it is the best! (in its original form, to boot). Ah! Sometimes I second-guess the limitations I put on for this chronology project, but here goes nothing.

Welp, right off the bat. Great music, great intro. I'm excited. The Look is nothing special for 1990, but that classic late 80s adventure game Look that reminds me of the earlier Loom game.

But the music continues to be particularly striking, and harkening the 1990s games I love so much like Humongous Entertainment games etc.

Early Game

Seems this is gonna have to be one of those games I tell myself not to screenshot every nice part, like cmon starting off with a sunset how perfect I love that. Just rest assured that the Look is great and does an excellent job with the limitations it had

Great humor, great use of colors for the ghost ship and the moods, and the overall nighttime theme like Loom. Entertaining, good 90s game music. I love the "Christmas Village" feel to it all.

The cat and mouse game with the guy who shows you where the Sword Master is was a bit tedious--never a fan of action segments in pure adventure games like this--but it's better done than most, and at least your character moves quite quickly compared to many other early adventure games. And not much waiting (yet) like most early adventure games were bogged down by. However, learning these insults/comebacks is getting really old. It's a kinda neat idea but they had way too many insults and comebacks it's taking forever to force them to say everything (and I thought you were supposed to automatically learn whatever they say, but it doesn't seem to always be the case blergh). I jsut wish that they'd always give you a new response when you said with a new insult and vice versa. But I finally got the point they said I was ready for the Sword Master... and then realized I forgot how to get to her house in the woods maze lol. Time to take a break for tonight don't wanna burn out on it cuz it's overall a great game, just usual early adventure game frustrations.

I'm worried that if more frustrating segments like the insult/response learning process come up, I might drop the game. It does seem quite lengthy, to boot. Thing is, I told myself with going into 1990, that I should drop games that I'm not thoroughly enjoying. And this would get at least a 3 star regardless for the amazing Look and precedent-setting Sound. Reality is, this wasn't the first to do this, many earlier adventure games of this style, and Loom has the similar nighttime Feel and music emphasis earlier. But this is a game I have heard about all my life so Imma give it another earnest try or 2. Gah! The struggle between my urge to play through respectable games vs. my recognition that it's okay to drop a game mid-way-through while still respecting and overall liking it. Gah!

Yeahhhh as much as I really like the music, the setting, and more--this mechanic of sword fights insults (currently trying to fight the Sword Master) is ruining it for me. Not worth it with more 1990 games coming up. Will probly return to this game some day, but for now moving on.

Look: 9/10 Amazing

Sound: 8.5/10 I wish there were more sound, but when there is sound--it's great.

Play: 7/10 For the most part, I was impressed with the improvements to the classic point and click adventure game. However, it eventually devolved into the usual tedium and frustrating antics/mechanics of early adventure games.

Feel: 8.5/10 Classic series, amazing Look and Sound, the Feel is a large part of why I wanted to push through. It just feels so special and harkening the 90s feeling, but so did Loom, and I enjoyed the Play of that more.

Attachment: 7.5/10 Important/classic series, and I do really want to try this again. (And kept returning to it). But with the tedious insult part of the game, it's just not worth pushing through in the context of this chronology project. If/when I return to this, this will likely rise in rating.

Overall: 8.1/10

Completion: Mastered Art of Treasure Huntery, was in the process of Sword Mastery

Playtime: probly about 1h30m? 2h? Not on a program that keeps track of time

While I played the original, this is regarding the 2009 Special Edition

It's a re-imagining of the first game in the Monkey Island series

Genuinely funny humor, improved graphics and music with a terrific plot and puzzles that I consider fair

The voice acting is superb

Hell, Guybrush would eventually become so iconic that he would make an appearance in Uncharted 4

Itselleni ensimmäinen kokemus Monkey Islandeihin oli sarjan neljäsosa Escape from Monkey Island, jota taidetaan yleisesti pitää liki huonoimpana sarjan osana. Silti diggasin jo siitä pelistä niin paljon, että ihmettelen miksi muiden osien kokeilu on jäänyt. Return of Monkey Islandin julkistuksen jälkeen, itselleni tuli kuitenkin sellainen olo, että pitäähän nämä kaksi legendaarista apinasaaren kliksuttelua kokea ennen uusimman pelin kokemista. No nyt on tämä sarjan lähtöpiste koettu.

Guybrush Threepwoodin seikkailut lähtevät käyntiin Melee Islandilta kohtuu rauhallisissa merkeissä. Pelin sankari tahtoo merirosvoksi ja tätä varten hänen täytyy suorittaa kolme koetta. Kohta mukaan soppaan heitetään kuitenkin sarjan pahiksena toimiva aavepiraatti LeChuck ja sarjan prinsessana toimiva pormestari Elaine Marley ja sen jälkeen homma lähtee kunnolla käyntiin. Peli on pääosin mukavaa kliksuttelua, vaikka osa puzzleista vaikuttaakin hieman vanhanaikaisilta ja vaikeilta. Pelastus on kohtuullisen hyvin toimiva vihjesysteemi, jota itse käytin melko surutta muutamaan kertaan. Muuten olisin varmasti vieläkin etsimässä yhtä pienen pientä laudanpätkää tietystä ruudusta yms kivaa.

Pelin parasta antia on sen käsikirjoitus ja huumori. Erityisesti ääninäyttelyllä ryyditettynä Threepwoodin sutkautukset pistävät väkisinkin naaman virneeseen. Pelissä on monia hyviä kohtauksia ja kokemus oli kokonaisuutena erinomainen. Mielenkiinnolla kokeilemaan sarjan toista osaa, sekä uusinta Returnia joskus vuoden 2023 aikana.

Kiitettävä 4/5

(This is the 27th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)

After giving up on the game some 5 years ago, I gave The Secret of Monkey Island another chance thanks to this challenge I'm currently doing, and I can take this away right now: I'm glad to have seen it through.

This game released all the way back in October 1990, 32 years ago now, and has released in multiple editions for multiple platforms. To play it today, the easy recommendation would be to purchase the Special Edition that came out on July 15, 2009 and is available for PC and PS3/Xbox 360.

The Special Edition added voice acting, improved the graphics, a remastered musical score and even added hints for those of you that are like me and either can't think outside the box enough to figure out a puzzle and/or don't have the patience to think about a single solution for hours.

I played the Special Edition myself, which goes against the idea of the challenge slightly, but not only does the game seamlessly allow you to switch between Classic and Special Edition mode, but this way I also got to experience the full experience, including the voice work, which adds so much to the whole thing.

In this game you play Guybrush Threepwood, who makes his way to Mêlée Island in hopes of becoming a pirate. A group of pirates make him take on the Three Trials and that's where the game, a point & click adventure in case you didn't know, begins. Immediately in the first location, you can find a guy who talks about LOOM, a different LucasArts game from the same year that I actually played a couple months ago when I started the challenge, so that was a fun little surprise and pretty meta.

And breaking the 4th wall is a frequent occurrence in this game. It's one that doesn't take itself too seriously and jokes are at the forefront of every conversation. Even the three trials all end up putting you in humorous situations. For example, you need to hunt for treasure. You need to seek out the map to find the treasure, but when you get it, it actually has dancing lessons on the piece of paper. What that means you need to figure out yourself. For another trial, you need to beat the Sword Master. But turns out, sword-fighting isn't just about sword-fighting, but it's much more important to be able to drop witty insults (or comebacks) during the short breathing breaks. [Have you stopped wearing diapers yet? // Why, did you want to borrow one?]

Stuff like this makes the game comical at worst, hilarious at its best. I can't say everything fully hit my sense of humor like it likely did with others, but I laughed out loud plenty of times, which is more than I can say for many other games that are meant to be funny. There are many jokes I don't want to mention so that you can hear it in game yourself, but here is one silly thing that I laughed more about than I should have. When a guy teaches you to insult during sword fights, he asks you what you would respond with, if someone told you: "Soon you'll be wearing my sword like a shish kebab". And one of the options you could respond with was "So's your mother!". Same with the next question. That line itself works with everything and will always make me laugh, but the voice work by Dominic Armato (voice actor for Guybrush) just was the cherry on top.

In general, the voice acting in this game is phenomenal and so varied. Characters are all caricatures and over the top, so it's really a job well done to have all of them have different personalities like that, though of course many at the end of the day have one combining trait: They're stupid.

The game is divided into four chapters, and the puzzles remained clever throughout, though that's not to say that I didn't find some areas a bit tedious. The third chapter in particular became really tiresome, because you had to go from A to B to C to D multiple times over and the track was slow each time. Being stuck on a puzzle during that part was like a vacation almost, because it meant you could just stay in one place and keep your brain active instead of clicking the mouse to your destination and look as Guybrush took 15 seconds to get there.

That and the fact that some of the puzzles were a bit silly or required you to do things in a certain order are probably my only two complaints here. For example, for one puzzle, I did one thing first, the other next and then wanted to do the third part but it never worked. Finally, I checked a guide and it turns out, I had to do the one thing second, and the other thing first, to successfully be able to do the third part. The thing is, either way should have worked.

That said, I think there are these adventures out there that can be way more tricky and way worse with its puzzles, so it's not that bad here. I think overall the game did a good job of incorporating its areas and puzzles into an overarching story that was actually fun to follow, even if it felt like there could have been a bit more, especially in the second half of the game.

OVERALL

Overall, The Secret of Monkey Island is a great point & click adventure and one any fan of the genre should play. If you're curious about the genre, I'd recommend this, Day of the Tentacle or Grim Fandango as starting points personally, and I'd not shy away from using a guide or a hint (if available), in case you're stuck. All of these games have a ton of charm and even if you do find yourself being stuck here and there, to me it's just really a comfortable and relaxing time to play through these games that all have this chill vibe to them.

WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME

• Otter Matic for GamePro, Issue 43 (Feb 93): "The dialogue is funnier than a simian's uncle."
• Ed Dille, Issue 27 (Apr 91): "The control interface for Monkey Island is superb."

This first entry in the Monkey Island series didn't blow me away with its main narrative, locations, or gameplay, but it made me smile many times with its colorful side characters and self-aware humor.

The question with this kind of game is not really if I'll love the gameplay and puzzle-solving, as much as if everything else is good enough to tolerate this old-school kind of design. That being said, while this game has some convoluted-feeling stuff, I found it pretty forgiving as long as you had the patience for trial and error. And the biggest part of the game, the starting island, branches off well in a logical manner that feels well-considered and easy enough to keep track of. Generally the point-and-click logic could have been a lot worse, and there is a hint system to smooth it over (though I just used Google. lol).

The "Special Edition" adds some pretty fun voice acting and new visuals. It also updates the UI in a way that I actually think is straight-up worse than the original's on-screen menu, its attempts to clear up the main view and support controllers only making selecting basic actions clumsier. It's especially a hassle dealing with a few timing-based challenges, even with keyboard shortcuts. It highlights just how much further this kind of interaction would be streamlined in future gaming generations from the "verb -> noun" selection rooted in old text-based games.

I think the best parts of the game are when it focuses in on quick little "skits" where the funny writing gets to shine. The Governor's mansion is a great example that plays with the point-and-click genre, has a couple of the game's best jokes, introduces new characters, and fits in well with the overall story and progression of the game. The ghost ship is also a neat area that mixes things up visually at least. Unfortunately some other theoretically solid ideas like the insult-based sword-fighting minigame were in practice slightly drawn-out and not that entertaining to me personally.

Don't get me wrong, nothing really felt bad, it was more just that a lot of the stuff capped out at "fine"/"pretty good" for me. I wish I loved this as much as many people seem to, but I think it's a solid time. Would be especially great for a patient middle school-aged gamer I think. (Or maybe not, I don't know what kids are all about nowadays...) I think I just needed a more interesting central narrative and more personally appealing setting, style, and concept to really fall in love with this sort of game.

*This review is for the special edition found in digital stores*

I played through this game one more time and got surprised how good it still is today, 20 years later. Now we get an enhanced edition with the awesome feature that let you "hotswap" between the classic and the new version. It's very cool! However, I feel that there are some minor flaws in the enhanced edition that keeps it from getting the full grade:

-Not possible to skip single dialogs. Enhanced edition only lets you skip whole cutscenes, very annoying! I actually sometimes switch to classic mode which has the ability to let you skip single dialogs.
-No speech in classic mode. The voicework is great! Which makes it a shame that the speech is not enabled in the classic version. Everytime I hotswap I wish that they could just let speech stay on.
-Animation is quite ugly in new version, it actually looks better in the old one!

The classic version is a true 5 star game.

It took me 25 years to play this game. It's not always easy to get into a game that everyone regards as a classic - it comes with some baggage and can color opinions before you even boot it up - but I was in the mood for a funny pirate game, so I figured I was in the right state of mind.

When I first started I actually didn't like it very much. A lot of that had to do with what I consider really poor game design - like, puzzles that you're more likely to accidentally solve rather than work toward a solution via logic.

But the narrative got its hooks in me, and despite featuring a meandering and frankly uninteresting story, the dialog, characters, and humor really made up for it. I especially liked the self-awareness it had of both itself and the adventure game genre generally.

In terms of the Special Edition specifically the voice acting was superb and the music was top notch. The new art is very beautiful, but I also appreciated the ability to switch back and forth, especially as someone who never played the original.

In the end, I really enjoyed the game in spite of the old game design issues of 25 years ago. I was in the mood of a funny pirate game, and man, that is exactly what I got - 4 stars.