The Secret of Monkey Island

"Excellent game with a pulley in the middle"

The Secret Of The Monkey Island is an Adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games. Everyone that considers himself an Advanture game fan and HAVE played this game please raise your hand… good we're all here… hey! You in the back!!! You mean you haven't played this fabulous game!?! Grab your rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle and continue with the review to find out why you should play it… what? The chicken? Oh, you'll need that later…

Story: 7.2/10
Presentation: 9/10

You are Guybrush Threepwood, quite possibly the most popular adventure game character of all time, but at the same time a 100% wimp!!! You've reached a certain island where all the dirty sea rats are hanging put, drinking their highly acidic ale or something and generally having a good time. You're mission: To become a pirate! But of course becoming a pirate needs more than just asking for the damn job, so Guybrush is given three trials but while at it, something terrible happens in the island and Guybrush must now face a dangerous undead pirate who has kidnapped the girl of his dreams!!!

You might say, “Oh, it's a typical damsel in distress plot”, but you are wrong. Yes the scenario is basically a simple one but the presentation rocks and rocks hard! First of all the game is ultra-funny. I can't even begin to describe of the various dialogues I've read while playing this game, the countless funny gags and the hilarious characters. Especially the comments Guybrush makes in many situations are great. The game even makes fun of the various aspects of videogames like death, crashes and many more. But I digress, this game isn't just funny but it DOES have a good plot with great characters and some entertaining plot twists… and don't forget Guybrush, who quite probably is the best comical character in the entire gaming history… along with Larry Laffer of course…

Gameplay: 8/10
Replay Value: 7/10

The Secret Of Monkey Island is THE typical point & click Adventure game. You search around the place finding items and talking to people to get some clues of get things moving. There are many action you can make like the typical Walk, Look, Use, Take and some that are used very rarely in the game, (and in a newer version of the game don't even exist). The bad thing here is the fact that before making a certain action you must select it or press the corresponding button in the keyboard, something that in later Adventure games was replaced with a multifunction cursor. Its not something extremely bad, it just takes more effort\time.

This game is a puzzle game. You must use the items you find in the right place in order to do certain stuff. Sometimes the solution is pretty obvious but most of the time it isn't and not only that but it is also a bit weird, but contrary to other games here this is not bad since you actually CAN think what to do before and not just randomly experiment with your items. There are many puzzles that are challenging, entertaining and quite funny. The game is a bit short even in your first playthrough but since it is so well directed and so damn funny that's not a problem.

Graphics: 8/10
Design: 8.5/10

The quality of this game's design shows us that high resolutions and 3D graphics don't mean a think… the game looks great without them, even after all these years. Nice character design with nice and simple animation for our hero with some wonderfully designed full size screens of close ups of some specific characters. Another great think is the level design where no pixel was wasted! A wonderful starry night with spooky forests below, nice interior design of mansions, taverns, shops, jails and many more and in the end the lush jungle of Monkey Island and the hell below it. All wonderful, even for today's standards.

Sound: N/A
Music: 7/10

We're playing a game in the era of the floppy, so there isn't enough size to include much sound effects, music and graphics, so there isn't much sound variety… in fact I can only remember 3-4 sound effects, but since this is an old Adventure game and not an Action game, that's not exactly a problem. The music on the other hand is pretty good without something special about it, just good.

Positives:
-Extremely funny
-Good plot
-Challenging and fun puzzles
-Very good graphics

Negatives:
-The controls are a bit old-fashioned, (not multifunction cursor)
-A bit small

Also Play:
Day Of The Tentacle (PC)
Leisure Suit Larry (Old-School Series)(PC)
Monkey Island (Series)(PC)
Out Of Order (Freeware) Highly recommended!!!

Overall: 7.8/10

This game is one of the few little that I consider actual pieces of art. It is funny as it is challenging and entertaining. It is surely one of the best in the genre and for many the best in the series, so grab it as soon as you can and have enormous amounts of fun!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/09/09

Game Release: The Secret of Monkey Island (US, 1990)