The Secret of Monkey Island

"One of the wackiest journeys ever witnessed by the eye of a pirate."

The Monkey Island series was invented by a guy called Ron Gilbert, and with this game Lucas Arts not only started a legend, it also created some of the most beloved (not to mention inept) and memorable characters in the video game history (Gybrush, Stan, LeChuck, Herman...).

The Secret of Monkey Island starts the tale of Gybrush Threepwood, the most stupid and ridiculous intend of a pirate ever imaginable. One day Gybrush decides that he wants to be a pirate, so set sails to Melee Island (it is just to say something because didn’t even had a little rowboat). While trying to become something near to a pirate, Gybrush meets Elaine, the governor of the Island, and of course he falls in love with her, but guess what?, the evil zombie pirate LeChuck kidnaps Elaine, so Gybrush starts one of the wackiest journeys ever witnessed by the eye of a pirate. If you have never played this masterpiece and think that this is the same plot we find in every game you just can’t be wrong enough, Monkey Island has one of finest, wittiest, craziest, and entertaining story lines you will see in your whole rotten life. Granted.

If I am not wrong, the typical gameplay (called SCUMM System by Mr. Gilbert) we used to find in every graphic adventure was introduced in this game (that is the “point and click” system). Another little interesting feature of Monkey Island is the fact that you can’t die, never, and considering how skilled Guybrush is in the noble art of messing everything up this is a relief.

One of the star features the game has are the “insult duels”, the most hilarious way of fighting imaginable. In a certain moment of your adventure you will have to get experienced in combat, so to practice you will have to try to beat the local pirates in these duels. Once you encounter a pirate and start to fight, insults will appear at the bottom of the screen, you have to choose one of them, and if your opponents know the best way to neutralize that insult then it will be his turn, if you loose too much the battle is over for you, but the insults you leaned will be available for the next battle. At the beginning your insults will be very “uninspired”, because Guybrush will have to say things like “you fight like a cow”, but once you get more experienced more and better insults will be available.

The graphics nicely done with just a few colors, I think they are good even considering how old the game is .The music is almost non-existent, but the main theme is a classic, one of the funniest and catchiest tunes I have ever heard, only because of the main theme it can be said that Monkey Island has great music, you HAVE to heard the main theme.

I just can’t recommend this game enough, the biggest stupidity you could do is passing this game by, that simple. Hats off to Ron and all his crew!

””My lack of vocabulary and grammatical errors (if there’s any) are because I’m not from an English speaking country, sorry.””

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/12/03