Video games review: The Secret Of Monkey Island
The Secret Of Monkey Island: Special Edition Xbox 360
6 August 2009
Remember Monkey Island? In 1990 it revolutionised the idea of the point-and-click graphic adventure. It was smart, sarky, and even played games with the concept of the game itself (prompting many confused calls to technical support). In short, it was the first postmodern game. And now, as a breath of fresh air to samey shooters, it gets a retro refit.
The story remains – you play gawky, young Guybrush Threepwood as he’s tutored in the ways of piracy on the mysterious island. The pixelly old graphics get a hi-def makeover and the pointing and clicking is quaint and retro, but smoother and more intuitive with a two-stick joypad. Players of a certain age will welcome the instant save option, too (it used to take three days of “floppy” disk mayhem).
The humour still fizzes, with silly/surreal/gloriously unnecessary options for every encounter, and the addition of voice acting fleshes out the action for a generation who’d balk at pages of flickering text.
The puzzles are tough, with bright and funny solutions. The writing is sharp, the characters strong and it’s big and deep enough to keep you locked in for weeks.
It’s well worth £7. Even Amiga diehards who want a nostalgia-tinted wallow are in for a few pleasant, self-referential surprises.
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