Could so much awesome really be in one game.?! A story about mystery (Monkey island), ambition (To become a pirate), love (True love lasting over a series of 5 games), betrayal (Carla and Otis), epic humour (A red herring) and the start of the most awesome of it all….insult sword fighting! Without a doubt the best Adventure series out there, and this is where is starts.
How appropriate, you fight like a cow!

Still on of the best games in the world with a graphic update. 5/5

I love this game. I'd say it is a must-play game.

The Secret of Monkey Island - a game reverently enshrined in a hallowed place of honor from the golden age of adventure games. The Secret of Monkey Island is indeed a definitive masterpiece of adventure gaming and one of the most important games in its genre. It's also incredible fun to play, even today. While the Special Edition is a mixed bag, the underlying game is as funny and charming as it has always been. Every gamer deserves to treat themselves to this timeless masterpiece.

The Secret of Monkey Island was a watershed game for Lucas Arts. While their earlier efforts were also excellent (especially Zak McKracken, which is so unfairly forgotten), The Secret of Monkey Island is where everything comes together and the stage is set for a truly incredible run of masterpiece adventure games that would culminate with 1998's Grim Fandango - the greatest adventure game of all time. The Secret of Monkey Island takes the brilliant ideas in Loom and for the first time, fully realizes them. The Secret of Monkey Island is a game that refuses to allow the player to reach a dead end - one of the most maddening aspects of earlier adventure games where the player could reach a point in the game where further progress was impossible due to the lack of an item missed earlier in the game. This required reloading an older save game, or even restarting the game entirely. Not fun. The Secret of Monkey Island also refuses to kill the player. Unlike so many other early adventure games where death was a frequent and often unforeseeable occurrence, Monkey Island recognizes that dying is unnecessary and detracts from the fun. The heart of adventure games is the exploration, story, and puzzles - and these are exactly the elements that The Secret of Monkey Island embodies. The Secret of Monkey Island thus laid the foundation upon which the future of adventure gaming would be built. No longer were adventure gamers going to be satisfied with unforeseeable deaths or maddening dead ends.

Not only is the game a hallmark of the genre, but it is also a joy to play. The characters are simply drawn, but charming. Mighty pirate wannabe Guybrush Threepwood is a hilarious lead character and he is impossible to dislike. His one liners will have you rolling. Even some of the dialog choices you don't choose will have you snickering. The story of Guybrush's quest to become a pirate is a wonderful mash-up of pulp piracy cliches. There's buried treasure, thrilling sword fights, voodoo magic, mysterious islands, and even cannibals. It's an inherently lighthearted and silly game, and every one of those elements (and much more) are inverted or lampooned in very funny ways.

The Special Edition update, however, is a mixed bag. The game's graphics have been updated for significantly higher resolutions than the game's original 640x480 resolution and now supports widescreen resolutions. I have mixed feelings about the update. There is a certain flatness to the graphics work that I don't find attractive. I do give the artists credit, however, for their attempt to remain very faithful to the original artwork as well as subsequent games in the series. The animations are also rather rough. Characters moonwalk around the screen in a decidedly unnatural way and there are some clipping issues. All of these faults are almost certainly due to Lucas Arts not investing enough resources and trying to get by on the cheap. It's a shame, because there is indeed potential for a wonderful remake. The game also now supports full voice acting for all characters using the familiar voices from the later Monkey Island games. The main cast is wonderful, but some of the supporting voices are a bit rough. Also, some of the jokes are ruined with the poor timing of the audio - for instance, try asking the Men of Low Moral Fiber in town about what's in the keg. It doesn't work like it does in text. The other poor aspect of the Special Edition is the changes to the inventory and verb (interaction) system. The game no longer has the classic SCUMM verbs in the lower portion of the screen along with inventory items. The inventory must now be accessed via keyboard hotkey, and verbs must be selected via mouse scroll wheel or hot key. This is a significant downgrade, in my opinion. The original system was more streamlined and allowed for faster interactions. There was one puzzle in the game that I couldn't manage in the Special Edition due to the cumbersome inventory system, but can easily accomplish in the original. I won't spoil it for you, but will say that it involves grog.

The truly brilliant aspect of the Special Edition, however, is that the original, unaltered game is included and can be seamlessly switched between. Essentially, you get two games and you can try them out and see which you like better, or complete the game both ways. I still prefer the older version, but I'm an old grey beard gamer. As I see it, there's just no improving on perfection, and The Secret of Monkey Island is a very near perfect adventure.

This is the funniest game I've ever played. The writing in this game alone makes it one of the best games you can buy. The soundtrack is also spectacular and the graphics are plenty stylish. Only real downside to this game is the puzzles can feel a bit ridiculous at times.

The Secret of Monkey Island is one of the best games ever made, SO BUY IT!

An excellent remake of an absolute classic. The Secret of Monkey Island is the quintessential point and click adventure game that is full of puzzles, witty humour and memorable characters. The game is obviously at its best when you are playing it for the first time as it will be difficult and all the jokes will be fresh. This hasn't stopped many players, including myself, playing the game dozens of times.

This remake allows you to play the game in its original form or with updated graphics, voice acting and controls. This is where I found there to be a few problems. The updated special edition gives you a fantastic way to play the game, but I found myself switching back to the old version during a few puzzles that require specific timing. The updated mode forces you to scroll throw actions such as "Look at" or "Use" instead of having them all on the screen at once. This can be frustrating and I think this is the wrong sort of game to force a controller like interface on players. Having to switch between versions due to a frustrating control scheme isn't really good enough.

The game itself is challenging and it has more than one puzzle that will stump new players. I would also go as far as to say that one specific part of the game has a ridiculous amount of back and forth between a few locations. This has always bothered me, but it's a minor issue. I simply recommend that you avoid a guide and give this a try, it's difficult, but you have all the time in the world and it's certainly rewarding when you make your way towards the end of the game.

This special edition is well worth the purchase as it offers new players the chance to experience a fantastic adventure game while offering the old fans a chance to play it with a bit of a makeover.

Nostalgia-fest. Really good. The fact that you can toggle between the remake and original is REALLY COOL (or at least the 1980s nerd that this game brings out in me thinks so).

I never finished the original, so, now is my chance, and I'm pretty friggin happy about that.

Runs great on modern hardware and Windows 8.1.

Not much else to say. If you like point-and-click adventures, it's a must-have. Unless you don't like comedy. In which case, I've got a long, sharp lesson for you to learn today.

By far my favourite game ever.

Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is a 2009 remake of old classic DOS point'n'click adventure title, that came out back in 1990. This version actually allows switching between original and remake on-the-fly. If you just want to play original, you can do it pretty much from beggining to the end, with almost no changes!

Monkey Island itself is a classic LucasArts adventure game. It's well remembered for it's pirate (including voodoo) setting and humor, having world to expore and having puzzles to break head against, guessing what they want player to do. By that point, adventures games already had point'n'click setting in place, just clicking on needed verb and using it on object. Just clicking on object itself always uses the most logical verb (and often the only one possible), so you may just forget of this aspect.
The game is divided into three chapters, the first one being the biggest and most open one, travelling on Melee Island, talking around and trying to complete three main objectives in order to become pirate, while starting to figure out what Le Chuck has to do in this game. Second chapter has you on another island, bigger in space, but less in NPCs, just having this funnily annoying slightly crazed inhabitant of island dropping in and out. Final chapter, "Kicks Butt", kicks some serious butts. Linear, short, but bumps you up and is very worthy compared to Adventure games.
Now, being classic adventure game, it's more concentrated on non-stop solving of 'puzzles' and interaction, with the only action sequences being sword fighting. Well, not exactly what you think. INSULT sword fighting, used only in chapter 1 anyway. Worth noting, you have to beat such "battles" by choosing correct reply to insults, while later throwing your own. Heck, most of them is spend on "farming" new insult and replies, by losing, to collect them all and beat the Swordmaster.

Otherwise, standart classic LucasArts. Which means few things. First, there is no way to die or get stuck in dead end in this game, so you can do stupid things all the way you want, unlike classic Sierra. Second, you can choose few options in conversation, but none changes the plot or progression - it's either a puzzle by itself or "choose your own joke to make". (You can even choose "what we have learned" reply in the end of the game!). Third, the puzzles are either easy and logical or they are hard and make no common sense. Quite a common thing in classic adventure games, doing something unexpect for goals that plotwise aren't the ones you would want to do, Like, suddenly finding out that you have and actually can 'combine' items in your inventory, for single puzzle, to rescue some shady figure who probably wouldn't be much of good if freed.

Special Edition keeps all of those and provides an upgrade to both graphics and sound, while messing around controls. Hands down, music is superior to soundblaster and art has more resolution than what original offered. But the gap is too big and those who grew with original may be put off. Difference between pixels-art that leaves something for imagination and defined art, you see. Where main character, Guybrush, was a normal guy in black and white in original, with who most people could reliate, becomes character in it's own with that hair. And sure thing, close-ups aren't drawn in same realistical way. But otherwise, it's fancy in it's own!
It also added voice acting to it, but because of limitation of original engine, it has awkward pause between each line, putting some players off. And once again, "it's not the way we imagined it when we played original".

And you can switch between original and remake on the fly, with press of single button, no loading required! Nice! Though, you can notice that animation in remake somehow feels to follow animation of original closely, having same amount of animation frames, not always having art to make same sense in these cases.

Actually, it switches not only visual and audio, but interface too. And it's another reason to stay on original, being made with in way to allow it to be controlled by gamepads on consoles as well. It tries to be as good as in modern point'n'clicks, but clumpsier. Much. Main fault comes from technical aspect, actually, where for some reason sometimes it playes like the actual cursor is placed lower/higher than it's actually shown.
And sure thing, to keep modern players sane, it incorporated hints system, when on the magical press of button, you get a hint hint hint. Good joy, much needed. Not always as straight as you would want it to be though, but anything helps.

Thus, nice remake of classic adventure game, which most recommend to play at least once, having humor, story and some puzzles that make no sense, this fault of adventure games eased up with hints. Not too long either and with charm.

My name is Guybrush Threepwood and I want to be a pirate !

It's a shame Lucas didn't opt for a more sensitive treatment of originals' wonderful backgrounds and character design. Soulless outsourcing did not manage to destroy the wonderful game underneath though. And the new voiceovers + music are great.

I can't really add anything that has not already been said about monkey island. It is a wonderful graphic adventure. Developed with a lot of heart, you will take a way a lot of memorable scenes. The special edition is in some regards wonderful. The new recorded orchestral soundtrack is the best version of the memorable songs, that you can find. The voice work is top notch, and adds a lot of flavor and production value to the game. The backgrounds are ofter wonderful drawn, BUT, the characters now look far too cartoony, and are not close to their originals. There controls, especially the inventory could have been made nicer, with a permanent inventory row on the top or something like that. But all in all, it is a good idea to play this title. It is wonderful.

If you no longer have an Amiga 500 or this game on a floppy disk near you, this version will do just fine. Game still holds up, good humor and the most absurd puzzle solutions. Still one of the best point n click adventure games on the market.

One of the greatest games of all time. The apex of the Golden Age of Adventure Games. Created by Lucas Games, the project was headed by Ron Gilbert.

The music--composed by Land--deserves its own review. It is rich, varied, and seamless from scene to scene. Reggae, calypso, sea shanties, and other forms of music combine to form the soundtrack, which helps to place the game in the Caribbean.

Anyone who has not played this owes it to themself to play it.

Du kämpfst wie eine Kuh
Wie passend, du kämpfst wie ein dummer Bauer

Hi. I'm selling these fine leather jackets.

Sometimes the old ones just can't be beaten. A lick of paint certainly helps Monkey Island look better nowadays, but the script is still first class. Not many games can boast pacing, timing and dialogue as good as this.

I also love the fact that this Special Edition actually runs on a modified version of SCUMM so you can switch between old and new at any point in the game by pushing a button. The only thing I don't like about it is that you can't run it in SCUMMVm, which unfortunately limits it to Windows only. Oh well.

Having played the original Amiga release, there is a high nostalgia factor in this game for me. One of my favourite games of the era.

So the Special Edition has been updated for the 21st century and the graphics are a lot easier on the eye, but what set this game apart back in '90 is still at its core - the humour.
Play with the original graphics and it still has the entertainment factor.
The puzzles aren't too difficult to figure out, but at the same time they're not overly obvious either. At worst you may need to back-track to get something you didn't know you needed.

TSOMI is a delightful trip through silliness and fun. Not a long or deep game at all by today's standards but it never needed to be. Just buy it at the ridiculous price is usually is, then install, relax and have fun.

A really hilarious and difficult point-and-click adventure game, which avoids being too difficult by having no deaths. The script is fantastically funny, coming from the mind of Tim Schafer, and the story almost seems there just to allow as much comedy as possible. This game is a classic and the ability to swap between classic and redone visuals and audio is fantastic.

One of the best adventure games ever made.

Always come back to this game for a laugh, originally owned on my Amiga and played to death on that now on to PC with a graphics overhaul