It is not the only nod aimed at the direction of hardcore fans, either. Heck, they even restored the close-up of Spiffy the dog in the SCUMM Bar – that pretty resolutely answers the question of whether or not the people involved knew what they were doing. Still, this all feels really nitpicky to write about, and all in all the art team has to be commended for a job well done. As a result, the game loses a degree of the grit and even, ironically, some of the detail of its pixel-laden foundation. This unevenness extends to the character designs and animation, the latter limited to the same number of frames as the twenty year old game being drawn over despite using far crisper sprites. I want to be clear: the rich, high resolution backgrounds, adhering slavishly to the VGA art as reference material, are a pleasure to look at the whole way through, but some awkward choices here and there (the font used on any given sign is an eyesore) and the occasionally messy residue of rush work (see if you can spot the leftover pixels from what wasn’t painted over) make the revamped scenery a worthy effort, but not one which can be called definitive. Sporting an appealing, stylized look (some have likened it to a painted picture book) that is both distinct and a reasonable fit for the franchise as a whole, the results are generally admirable although somewhat mixed, especially at the details level. ![]() ![]() Visually, the game looks great, although calling it an improvement doesn’t feel accurate. ![]() That this toggle feature is even possible means, of course, that the core game remains virtually identical, with all the changes to tailor Monkey Island to new audiences being purely presentational. In addition to the tremendous value of having a built-in copy of the original game in its entirety, it’s a total blast to switch back and forth and compare the versions in order to appreciate/scrutinize the team’s translation at an obsessive level of detail, making at least one playthrough a worthwhile experience even for those of us who know the original game better than we should. This allows for the game’s greatest feature, which is the ability to toggle between the enhanced and “classic” versions of the game at any time by hitting F5. One decision that speaks to this level of reverence is the fact that the remake is built directly on top of the code of the SCUMM powered original (the VGA CD-ROM version from 1992, to be exact). ![]() The small team assembled to craft this remake (the same group who went on to make Lucidity and will allegedly be concocting future original titles) were clearly bound by a limited budget and constrained schedule for this experiment to be justifiable, but an enthusiasm shines through in the final result, and it’s clear when playing the special edition that everyone involved in the project took pride in ensuring that their mark on the Monkey Island legacy wouldn’t be a blemish.Īside from the fonts used for signs, the visual update ain't nothin' to sneeze at. On top of both projects being quality efforts, they are significant on another level for what they represent on LEC’s part – the welcoming embrace of a fanbase that spent the better part of a decade left out in the cold.Īlthough just about all the adventure builders from the old days are long gone – in many cases, to places like Telltale and Double Fine - it turns out there are a nonetheless a number of folks still employed at LucasArts who, like us, harbor a deep-seated love for the classic adventure IPs. After years of neglecting their old franchises with such commitment that you couldn’t help but admire the sheer unassailability of their track record of apathy, LucasArts abruptly unveiled a remake of The Secret of Monkey Island alongside Telltale’s episodic fifth installment of the series, Tales of Monkey Island, in a move that epitomized a substantial and rather refreshing shift in direction for the company. Monkey Island’s one-two punch comeback last July caught all of us off guard. Note that this opinion of the Special Edition is of its merits as an update to the classic game it includes, a game which is indisputably a five skull masterpiece.
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