The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

Is it worth playing an older game if you’ve already played dozens of games that were directly influenced by it? In most cases, I find the answer is yes, because the derivative titles usually take only surface-level mechanical inspiration and are unable to replicate the spirit and execution. This is definitely the case with The Secret of Monkey Island. It features some cookie-cutter point-and-click inventory puzzles, so its lineage is full of cookie-cutter point-and-click inventory puzzles, but it didn’t become iconic and memorable because of that. It became iconic and memorable because it’s fucking weird. You’d be hard-pressed to find another game from this era that’s so irreverent of the established mechanics and storytelling techniques that it’s working with. It’s this factor that elevates both the writing (and the gameplay to a lesser extent) from merely funny to outright fascinating, regardless of the current year.

From a cold, sterile perspective, Monkey Island doesn’t actually transcend its peers too much. It was released before developers learned not to put related puzzle pieces on opposite sides of the map, and there’s at least one puzzle per area that will trigger a “How was I supposed to figure that out” reaction. However, in most of these cases, the difficulty arises because the developers are experimenting with the interface and asking the player to do things they probably don’t realize they can do. Ordinarily, novelty is the first casualty of a remake, but this isn’t the sort of sensation that you can become accustomed to over the years. Additionally, the Special Edition offers a mildly-useful hint system and greatly improved audio, most notably some terrific voice acting and lovely atmospheric noise. On the other hand, the redrawn visuals can be a little iffy, and the verb/item menus have been made more inconvenient to use. Ultimately, the version doesn’t matter – Monkey Island is worth playing regardless.