The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition Review

Originally released in 1990, The Secret of Monkey Island was re-released with updated graphics in 2009 with full voice-over, even with Dominic Armato coming back to voice Guybrush Threepwood. The game starts out with this beloved wannabe-pirate arriving on Mêlée Island with a wish of becoming a real and true pirate. Guybrush is tasked to visit the pirate leaders on Mêlée Island, three pirates sitting in the backroom of the SCUMM-Bar. They task Guybrush with three trials: find some buried treasure, steal an idol from the governors mansion and win a sword duel against the champion sword-fighter Carla. In order to complete these objectives, Guybrush travels through Mêlée Island meeting it’s inhabitants and learning about the cursed ghost-pirate LeChuck. The first character we ever meet, who sets the stage for our travels, is the Lookout, with his enourmos glasses and hearing problem. Visiting other places on the island brings us to Otis, who was imprisoned for picking flowers, Meathook (on the apt-called Hook Island), who has hooks for hands due to a ferocious beat (parrot) biting them off,  the Voodoo Priestess with her mystical powers, Stan the charismatic Used Boat salesman and of course Carla  the Sword Master.

Last, but not least, we meet the guvernor of  Mêlée Island, Elaine Marley, whom our hero instantly falls in love with, her with him as well. Guybrush is not the only one who is smitten with Elaine, the ghost-pirate LeChuck also has eyes for the lovely guvernor, and invades the island in order to kidnap her to his secret hideout on Monkey Island. This leaves Guybrush with no other alternative than to kick off his swashbuckling career, and he hires a crew consisting on some of the people he has met earlier – Otis, Meathook and Carla. His ship is of course bought off Stan, and he sets sails for the mythological Monkey Island.

Upon landing on Monkey Island, Guybrush meets a hermit called Herman Toothrot, who is having a quarrel with the local cannibals. We go to visit the cannibals at their village, and through diplomacy (and a bit of item hunting), we settle the disagreement between the two, and retrieve some Voodoo Root from LeChuck’s ship in trade of a seltzer bottle with Voodoo Root Elixir within, that can kill ghosts. We are also given the Navigator’s Head – a talking shrunken head, that leads us through the labyrinth that leads to LeChucks ship. After returning with the root, and getting the elixir, we learn that LeChuck has sailed off to Mêlée Island in order to marry Elaine. We return in time to stop the marriage, but in doing so we ruin Elaine’s own escape plan (having two stacked monkeys in a wedding dress being her decoy), and also dropping our root elixir. This obviously displeases LeChuck, who kicks our ass all around the island. When we arrive at Stan’s ship-shop, before getting a knuckle sandwich by LeChuck, Guybrush buys a root beer from the vending machine, spraying LeChuck with it, causing him to be destroyed. The game ends with Elaine and Guybrush watching LeChuck exploding into fireworks.

Thus concludes the first Monkey Island game. And what a delight – a true love letter to the original game. The updated graphics are nice, not straying too far away from the original pixel art style, and the voice over is a lovely change – especially since they brought back voice actors from the later games. The game looks and sounds great, the soundtrack (like in every other Monkey Island game) is phenomenal. The story is hilarious, and still holds up over 30 years later. The game is a classic for a reason, it is an amazing game that any lover of the franchise should play (and most likely already have). If not, this is the one point-and-click game series I recommend the most, it stands the test of time, and is as good as ever!