An excellent remake of a classic adventure game that shouldn't be missed the second time around.
If you don't know anything about Monkey Island you've missed out on some very odd, but very enjoyable video games. This is a remake of the one that started it all. Originally released in the 1990's, the Secret of Monkey Island tells the first story of the origins of Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate™, and lets the user take him on his first adventure.
The game follows the typical point-click interfaces of the day, generally requiring you to click a verb from the menu and then an object either in your inventory or in the world. The special edition makes it rather simple by reducing everything to a right- or left-click for the most common actions. For example, if you see a door, a left click would walk to it while a right-click would open it. If you need more options you can easily use them through keyboard shortcuts or open a "verb menu" with the CTRL key.
The problem of occasionally obtuse puzzles has been all but alleviated with the addition of a hint key. If you're not quite sure what to do, press the H key. The game will give you a one-line "hint" nudging you in the correct direction. Continuing to press the H key will give you more and more specific hints until a large yellow arrow appears pointing you where you need to go.
The graphics have been updated but haven't lost the classic look at all and the remake follows the original scene-for-scene. If you're curious as to how close the remake is, you can press F10 at any time during play to "warp" the game back and forth between the remake and the 1990 original. As adventure games go, this one isn't quite as much of a pixel hunt as some others are, but you may still have occasional problems clicking on exactly what you want.
The soundtrack, for the most part, is spot-on. The remake is fully voiced, which was an amazing thing to hear since some of the conversations are so hilariously absurd. Characters like the Fettucini brothers or Stan were a joy to hear. There have been several conversations in the game that I had to save before just to hear the VO for all the options and responses.
I haven't been particularly annoyed by any of the voice actors yet, however, there are two characters who share a voice actor with a very obvious voice that may be an inadvertent spoiler if you've never played the game before.
And, of course, the odd and wonderful humor is back in full effect. I consider myself an older gamer and was in grade school when Monkey Island was first released. It was the first real computer game that I had played and one that I've always remembered fondly. This remake absolutely does it justice and should not be missed by anyone even remotely curious. For $10 you can't go wrong, and with the F10 'way back' key, you basically get the remake AND the original for one price.