Somewhere deep in the Caribbean on the remote island of Melee, Guybrush Threepwood the aspiring pirate is looking for fame and fortune.

A quest that unknowingly take him to islands long hidden, buried t-shirts, flesh eating piranha poodles and crossing pads with the fiercest pirate to ever sail the seas. The mighty undead pirate LeChuck and his ghastly crew of buccaneers.

It has indeed been a long time coming for the Monkey series but Lucas Arts in cooperation with Travelers Tales did finally step up to answer the heed of the fans and has revived the franchise through this remake of the almost 20 year old PC classic and also an entirely new game delivered as episodic content; Tales from Monkey Island as available on PC and WiiWare. This is the secret of monkey island special edition in glorified HD with all the bananas you can eat. Unless the three headed monkey gets to them before you do that is..

The original secret of monkey island is today considered as one of the all time early 90's era classics and one of the defining games for the puzzle/point and click adventures that thrived during those early years. The formula has been tried and true but this time delivered in glorious HD and a completely revamped score with all new recorded dialogue. It's splendid to say the least. Sparkly watery colors paints up the exotic locals of melee island and the surrounding areas and the dialogue is delivered in a snappy manner dipped in a heavy dose of piratesque accent. Yarr!

But what use would all the flash and pirates in world do if the story couldn't wave proudly from the top of the mast scaring the living life out of all pesky commoners? Luckily the script from the original Secret of Monkey Island remains as splendid and laugh out loud silly as it was twenty years ago. Still unaltered say for a few words being changed out for the better it's also re-recorded with the voice talents from the previous monkey games who all deliver the lines in a believable fashion. Or at least to the extent required for the game.

The story follows the escapades of the would be pirate Guybrush Thriftweed... sorry Threepwood, and his quest to complete the three trials to prove himself a worthy enough salty dog to sail the seven seas, plunder and pillage. These three trials are; the art of thievery, treasure hunting and finally sword mastery. You will hit quite a few brick-wall puzzles that might hinder your overall progression but if only momentarily. The newly built in hints system which is activated by simply holding down a button does a great job of pointing you in the right direction. Leaving out some of the frustration that might have come from playing the game originally back when it came out.
Something that I for one can recall.

Even with this hint system you're looking at a good hour per buck spent. Divided into four parts this beast will easily give you anywhere between six to ten hours before you've seen the end of it. Possibly even more if you're not using the hints system and/or has never played any of the other Monkey Island games before.

The original Secret Of Monkey Island has been faithfully recreated in this special edition. The love and care shines through everywhere and as an added bonus there's a feature which allows you to switch on the fly between the new enhanced graphics & sound and the old style. Something you will undoubtedly do a couple of times to see just how splendidly the old environments has been recreated. It's really quite extraordinary.

Without a doubt this is one of the finest games available to date on the Xbox live community and on steam, of course the slow storytelling game play and puzzle solving won't satisfy the most die hard action fan. But to everyone else this is something that needs to be experienced. Both new fans as well as for old ones. There's enough new material here to justify a purchase even if you happen to own the original.

Closing comments:
So pirate, sharpen your insults, pop open a jar of rum and set sail for Monkey Island. It's time to once again to use that rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle that you've been having laying around in the attic and put an end to the terror that is LeChuck. Just don't forget to watch out for that damned three headed monkey.

4/5

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