The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (PC)

Guybrush Threepwood wants to be a pirate, and while it doesn’t seem like he really took the time to consider what that might entail, he did at least take the first step towards his goal by heading to Melee Island. While the island has plenty of swashbuckling sailors this eager young man could have sailed with, he also arrived at probably the worst time to try and become a pirate as every one of them has been scared into staying at port by the threats put forth by the ghost pirate LeChuck. Guybrush doesn’t seem daunted though, either due to dogged persistence or pure obliviousness, and he sets out to become a pirate anyway, although in LucasArts’s point-and-click adventure The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, the path to piracy is much odder than one might expect.

 

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is less about embodying the pirate lifestyle and more about some strange comedy that arises along Guybrush’s earnest quest to become a pirate. Thing do begin with him speaking with three pirate leaders and being told to perform three trials to prove his mettle, these lining up pretty well with the kind of action a privateer could expect in a work of fiction. Guybrush’s first set of main goals involves pilfering something of value, unearthing buried treasure, and becoming an expert with a cutlass, so it can sound very odd when you realize that working as a human cannonball at a circus ends up being part of the sequence of events involved in completing these trials. That’s because while Guybrush is told about the trials, he’s not given much guidance on how to get them going. You’ll need to have him speak with people around the island and solve their problems or curry their favor in order to get the items or info you need to work your way towards becoming a pirate. In time though your activities do attract the attention of LeChuck and the adventure does expand to new locations like the titular Monkey Island, and the more pressing matter of stopping the ghost pirate for good feels like the true test of if Guybrush has what it takes to be a true pirate.

The characters you meet along your adventure and the comedic interactions that arise from Guybrush’s activities definitely feel like the heart and soul of this adventure. Guybrush is mostly a plucky hero but still a bit out of his depth at times, especially since even as a native of this world he can still find the people he interacts with rather odd. For example, getting a ship to sail will require him to interact with Stan of Stan’s Previously Owned Vessels. While set during the classic age of piracy out in the Caribbean, Stan talks like a modern day car salesman, flinging his arms around manically while he tries to schmooze his way into getting you to overpay for a vessel. His storefront has a vending machine, but it dispense grog, and while generally the world does seem to play into pirate tropes quite often, it also quite enjoys puncturing them with odd bits of modernity or characters with personalities far different than you’d expect. Meathook, a burly pirate with two hook hands and an eyepatch, feels like the exact kind of guy you wouldn’t want to mess with, but he’s shown at times to be an affable goofball or outright coward. Governor Marley, whose kidnapping by LeChuck kicks off the effort to stop the ghost pirate, is not so much a damsel in distress as you hear frequently how few people think she’s in real danger and you even get to see LeChuck’s crew whine about having to recapture her constantly after multiple escape attempts.

 

The wonderful strangeness of your adventure is pretty apparent out of the gate, although outside of the catchy title screen music, the soundtrack can be surprisingly sparse, making navigation sometimes surprisingly moody. The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is a remake of a game from 1990 that had limits on what it could depict, although in a lovely touch you can press F10 at any time to switch between the modern spiffed up look to the original appearance and presentation. The original version of The Secret of Monkey Island does look a bit rough by comparison, the voice acting in this remake adds so much life to this comedic game already, and the stylized look feels like it suits the slight wackiness of this world of pirates better than the original game’s occasional attempts to present characters with realistic face art. One of the more interesting elements of being able to instantly swap between the past version and the remake’s depiction of the world though is it can even help with a bit of problem solving, as there are some things that are easier to find in the older graphics while the newer look makes some smart choices on how to emphasize certain objects and remove little bits of visual clutter.

While The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition has a strong personality it is easy to get swept up in, its gameplay does primarily involve puzzles and problem-solving by way of inventory items and dialogue choices. There are definitely going to be some sizable periods where you won’t be having delightful chats with the eccentric characters found on Melee Island and Monkey Island as you instead try to work out the way onward with your collection of objects. When it comes to the more typical tests of figuring out which items to use where, LucasArts does still inject their sense of humor into play some. Very early on you’re able to find a chicken with a pulley in it, a rather inexplicable item that sounds like someone was just mixing together their inventory hoping something would become clear, and yet this chicken pulley has multiple uses beyond just being a fun running joke. There are a good deal of logic tests to be found that are truly attempts to make you think though, some more clever than others. While on a ship you’re asked to cook a soup with a recipe for example, but the items listed in it don’t seem to be anything currently in your possession, the player having to think of clever ways to interpret the requested items to actually complete the meal. On the other hand, the need to grab a fish from a seagull at one point makes use of a mechanic only seen once and not really hinted at. There is a literal hint system that you can consult and one that goes from subtle nudges to outright telling you what to do the more you press it, but at other times you can feel like you have the right answer for a puzzle only to learn you you’re not standing in the right spot to execute it or you need to not click on the object itself but a specific part to perform the desired interaction.

 

You can get around some of the awkwardness by doing a quick scan of most screens with your cursor to make sure you don’t miss labeled interactive objects though, although a little more awkwardness arises due to the verb system. There are many ways Guybrush can interact with objects. You can look at them for a brief explanation, open them or close them, pick them up to carry with you, and other more specific actions like talking being reserved for people. The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition does have each item or person default to the expected interaction to speed things up a touch, but there can be odd moments like when opening one thing has you immediately look inside and take out the object within while at other points opening it just opens it, looking at it just looks at what’s inside, and then you need to actually pick up the object within yourself. This is the kind of speedbump to progress that you can easily overcome once you’re aware of some situational strangeness, and already with these warnings you’re likely going to have a smoother experience than going in blind. Most importantly though, these quibbles are mostly slight hitches rather than bottlenecks borne of strange logic.

 

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition does have some stand out interactions as well that mix the fun reinterpretation of pirate life with some puzzling. Being a skilled swashbuckler in its world for example requires not so much a mastery of the sword but the ability to catch your opponent off guard with clever insults. The player must train up Guybrush through insult sword-fighting duels where he picks up rude taunts from wandering pirates and uncovers the proper comeback by turning them against other duelists, the final confrontation using this mechanic involving more clever use of your insult repertoire that serves as a fun payoff to your work. Navigating around Monkey Island can be a bit of a chore since you utilize a full map view and important locations don’t stand out unless you do the cursor scan method mentioned earlier, but once you know the actual available locations, the puzzle solving in that portion of the game starts to lock in place as you get the satisfaction of all the items and places you uncovered realized as part of the broader puzzle at play. The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition does get in its own way at times when it doesn’t lead into its moments of stranger logic well, but at other times it can be impressive how subtle a hint can be while still doing its job expertly when the time comes.

THE VERDICT: While some of its puzzle solutions feel a little odd in the type of logic expected from the player, that almost feels in line with the strange world that The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition presents. Sure you’ll set sail, dig up treasure, and swing a sword about, but it rarely ever goes the way you expect and the other pirates of its world are entertaining and unusual to match. Some of the creativity does come through into certain inventory puzzles, and while not every bit of out-of-the-box thinking feels a fine fit for the game’s design, Guybrush’s journey to become a pirate is still teeming with imagination that keeps you on board with its quirks for the entire voyage.

 

And so, I give The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition for PC…

A GOOD rating. Much like viewing the game’s original 1990s graphics can show you how rough some things looked back in the day, some of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition’s puzzles still retain a bit of roughness since they were faithfully preserved. Most of it is easy enough to soldier on through despite some odd logic involved in solutions here and there for the moments where you do find a puzzle with interesting solutions that make you feel creative for sussing them out. The main draw is definitely going to be the character of the world though, the delightful parody of pirate life a constant source of fun and memorable surprises. Even once you know about something like Stan’s Previously Owned Vessels, seeing how far the joke can go still makes the time you spend with it enjoyable, and it actually ends up a bit of a shame that a good deal of time has to be ceded to point and click activities like wandering about two separate islands in search of interactions and items in order to make progress. The game is definitely at its best when it’s holding your attention with a quirky character or a puzzle that is actually presenting clues rather than asking you to move your cursor or character in every possible spot in case there’s something of value, but the search never comes down to something as aggravating as searching pixel by pixel. Once you push past the few less clear moments, it’s much easier to appreciate the moments of wit and silliness that make this game so endearing.

 

The 1990 version of The Secret of Monkey Island was feeling out the space for its puzzle approach, but what it seemed to have spot on from the start was a creative approach to situations and characters that stick in your mind and work their way into your heart. The dialogue, concepts, and even a few puzzles can elicit a laugh, this parodic pirate journey certainly worthy of its classic status among the already beloved range of LucasArts point and click adventures.