Chris Higgins
The Secret of Monkey Island Returns
by Chris Higgins - June 5, 2009 - 1:51 PM

One of my favorite video games of all time is The Secret of Monkey Island, an adventure game published by Lucasfilm Games in 1990. Monkey Island successfully combined humor, adventure gaming (walking around, picking stuff up, talking to people), and terrific music. It was also notable in its emphasis on fun and puzzle-solving — you can’t die, and puzzles are always solvable. It’s sort of a low-key game in that sense: though there is some light swashbuckling, it’s never about jumping or clicking fast or shooting. And it’s genuinely funny. That’s rare in a computer game.

So the big news for Monkey Island fans is that there’s a reissue of the original game coming to Xbox 360 and the PC later this year. The art has been repainted in HD — a bit of a step up from the original 320×240 resolution — and the interface has been updated. In a recent blog post, Monkey Island author Ron Gilbert played through the original MI and recorded his notes, along with some screenshots. It’s a great read for old-school gaming fans, and gives some insight into his game design decisions. For example:

While Insult Sword Fighting is one of the first things people think of when they hear Monkey Island, I thought it seemed little tedious (but fun) as I played though it again. There is a point where you say “I get it”, but your [sic] still forced to go though the motions again and again. If I was going to do Insult Sword Fighting in a future game, I’d make it more free form allowing the player to be clever and construct their own sentences.

During the early stages of the Monkey Island design, we would watch old Errol Flynn era pirate movies. One thing that stood out was during the fights they always taunted each other with insults. I knew we needed to have sword fighting in the game – it was about pirates after all – but I didn’t want to introduce any action game play and the old pirate moves provided the perfect solution.

So now that you’re pumped up with nerdy anticipation, preview the Monkey Island reissue, read Ron Gilbert’s notes on the original, or watch this amazing video in which someone plays through the entire Monkey Island game (the Amiga version). The whole thing. On YouTube. It takes two and a half hours. (Though it took me weeks.)

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Comments (11)

  1. Thank you!

    I loved those games! (The first 3, never got the 4th one.)

    I actually just got done revisiting Monkey 2 in DosBox earlier this week.

    LucasArts had the best adventure games – “Sam and Max – Hit the Road” and “Day of the Tentacle” were other favorites of mine. They never get old.

    I’m going to have to check out those notes.

    posted by Nerak on 6-5-2009 at 3:04 pm

  2. I had one of the Monkey Island games on the PS2… funny, yes, but unfortunately had no replay value.

    posted by Steve In San Diego on 6-5-2009 at 3:41 pm

  3. I’m Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate!

    posted by kathleenelise on 6-5-2009 at 3:41 pm

  4. Maybe when this hits it big, someone will bring back Space Quest, too.

    posted by SpaceMonkeyX on 6-5-2009 at 4:19 pm

  5. Where’s my StarControl??? Someone needs to make a game like/as great as StarControl 2…

    posted by burninator (nostalgic gamer) on 6-5-2009 at 4:49 pm

  6. Lucas Arts made some the most entertaining games I’ve ever played, Monkey Island, Loom, Grim Fandango (check out the Grim Fandango trailer on YouTube) Too bad they’ve concentrated so much on Star Wars games. Yes, I know. It’s HIS baby, and I loved the movies, but seriously, how many ways are there to play the same game? Over and over and over. Guess I’m not enough of a geek to appreciate all the nuances of the Star Wars world. The whole Star Wars franchise pretty much jumped the shark for me when they came out with the Legos version. Bleah.

    posted by Pam on 6-6-2009 at 12:32 am

  7. Thank you! I loved this game! I was just thinking that I need a good adventure game to play this summer. Now, I have it!

    Recaptcha: peoria veteran

    posted by beki on 6-6-2009 at 12:06 pm

  8. Gahh, I was hoping this meant there was going to be a 5th game…

    posted by Erika on 6-6-2009 at 3:06 pm

  9. I loved the original Monkey Island, but I’m not sure new graphics will entice me to buy the XBox game. However Telltale Games is set to release an episodic adventure called Tales of Monkey Island in July. Hopefully it will be as good, or better, than their recent Sam & Max games.

    posted by JW on 6-7-2009 at 11:44 am

  10. Wow, my sister sent me a link to this page, and I’m glad she did.
    One of the first games I ever played, ever, was a Monkey Island game. Now I have “Escape From Monkey Island” for my Playstation2, and plan on eventually playing it again once I decide to get over the fact that I somehow messed up and can’t progress no matter what.
    One thing though, I think it’s a colossal mistake to only have it show up on the PC and 360, because, let’s face it, it would totally rock on the Nintendo Wii. Point and click adventure, right? Wii. ‘Nuf said.

    posted by masterwriter42 on 6-7-2009 at 2:02 pm

  11. @masterwriter42 How have you messed up in Escape From Monkey Island? These are my favourite games and I know them all pretty well, perhaps I can help you.

    Also agree this game would be wicked cool on the Wii.

    posted by MissMortimer on 6-8-2009 at 1:07 am

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