I gave the original a 10.0. Sadly, this re-make is mostly downhill from there. The music helps save it from damnation.
This version of the game is essentially identical to the original with four primary differences: the graphics, the voice dialogue, the interface, and the music. Three out of four of these are just plain bad. The fourth helps save this game from being a complete waste of money. In short, if you've played Secret of Monkey Island in the past, you'd do well to just skip this re-make entirely. Playing it may actually make you like the original less.
For this version, all of the original graphics were replaced with hand-drawn HD graphics - though none of the scenes or animations have changed in any fundamental way. Visually it's the same exact game, just with higher-quality backdrops and high-res sprites. Instead of redoing all the graphics from scratch, the developers chose to re-draw existing sprites, and in some cases this works just fine. Unfortunately there are downsides to making low-res graphics finer: unless you also increase the quality of your drawings by a complementary amount, the result will usually look worse. By being low-res and somewhat vague, 8-bit graphics have a lot of leeway, leaving finer details to the player's imagination - the player's brain fills it all in. It's a bit like how HD video is said to have impacted the porn industry: you don't really want to see all those skin blemishes and cellulites, do you?
So with HD Monkey, the low quality of the new animations is fully exposed. It actually LOOKS like an 8-bit game that's been graphically upgraded, and it is grating. Animations are as jittery as they were in the original, except now they're so much harder to accept - you can see them as clear as day. They look plain amateurish. And although for the most part the artists tried to replicate the original very closely, some stylistic choices were made here and there that are just plain bad. Faces, in particular, are absolutely horrid here. The artists went for a more cartoonish appearance (more on this later), where the original had more realistic portraits - and it looks embarrassing. Guybrush, in particular, bears no resemblance to the original character anymore. Elaine Marley is no longer an attractive young lady. And LeChuck... I'm not sure what he's been turned into, best not dwell on it.
The voice acting is the next point, and it is sore. Virtually none of the actors seems to have caught the spirit of the characters they were voicing. They all sound empty and generic, reciting their lines at times - so much so that it would be a challenge telling some of the game's characters apart just by their voices. Even Dominic Armato, who may have done a respectable job in previous games, fails to deliver any of the punch lines, and all of the humor falls flat on its face as a result. I suppose it's because this time, the dialogue wasn't written for him as it was in Curse of Monkey Island and its sequels - it wasn't written to be spoken by anyone in fact - and Armato apparently isn't skilled enough to do anything with it. His voice, which may have suitable for that lanky, goofy fellow from CoMI doesn't fit Ron Gilbert's original character at all... though I guess that's slipping into commentary on how CoMI is so blatantly different from the first and second games anyway.
There seems to have been a design choice here that affected everything: Secret of Monkey Island, a game which was applauded for its mature wit, has basically been redressed as a cartoon - a children's game - much more in line with the later sequels than Gilbert's original work. This essentially strips Secret of Monkey Island of the majority of what made it one of the greatest and most memorable adventure games ever made. I don't know what Ron Gilbert's opinion of this re-make is, but if I had to make a wild guess I would say that he probably isn't pleased. It simply isn't The Secret of Monkey Island, it's a very shiny but ultimately empty replica. While playing I realized that this game reminded me heavily of something else - the later Leisure Suit Larry sequels, which were (unsurprisingly) also criticized as being immature and which ended up basically killing that franchise. Never a good sign.
I also mentioned the interface, and as many reviewers have said before me here, it's terrible. It is easily the worst point-and-click interface of any adventure game ever, and I am not exaggerating one bit. Actually it isn't even point-and-click, since you have to use the KEYBOARD to access your inventory or make any quick actions - which means it's actually a STEP BACK from the original, a game made over 20 years ago! You almost need to applaud these guys for managing to screw up 20 years of progress in interface development.
Two things save this game from being a total waste of money. The first is the music. Even though I have great nostalgia for the MIDI music of the original game, which I could play by heart on a piano while blindfolded, I have to admit that the re-done music is quite good and in some places even outdoes the original. Again, a little of the inherent creepiness of the original game is lost in favor of more "lighthearted" melody, but the band did a good job on most tracks and their effort shows.
The other thing saving this game from being a waste is... well... the fact that you can switch to the original version _while playing_, just by pressing F10. However it exposes the fact that the remake was basically built on the foundation of the original - the mechanics are exactly the same, no effort was put in to improve the small flaws in the original in any way. It's all gloss. I actually caught myself reaching for the F10 button so I could go back to playing the GOOD version that I loved so much, and had to stop myself and chant the MST3K mantra each time.
So why did all this happen? I'd hate to say this, but I just think that nobody on the re-make team had any idea what they were doing. Someone had the "great" idea to re-make the game and sell it for great profit, but no one there was bright enough to understand what made the original so good. Which isn't really that hard - heck, I'd say they should've just hired Gilbert again and let him lead (assuming he'd agree to it at all). Instead they just completely missed the point.
By the way, just one more snide remark, if you'll allow me, by way of comparison between re-makes. A group of guys and gals have recently (well, a few years ago) remade several Sierra adventures, among which was the epic Quest for Glory 2. They actually managed not only to refurbish the game to great degree, and add tons of new graphics, but to actually make the game BETTER than the original. Can you guess how much they charged for it? Yes, it was absolutely free. They proved in every way how much love they had for the original - it's quite inspiring. And Monkey Island SE? ... well... not so much.