The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition Review

By , on July 24, 2009


The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
Download on the AppStore
4 out of 5

PROS

  • Huge soundtrack and voice work.
  • An intuitive interface and hint system (just shake!) will keep you moving quickly.

CONS

  • Sluggish cursor movement and fiddly item recognition can test your patience.

VERDICT

Adventure enthusiasts and fans of Monkey Island will have no trouble making their minds up about buying this game. For those new to the genre you'd be hard pressed finding a better game to introduce you to the genre that defined a generation of gamers.


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Have you ever found yourself stranded on the high sea with a mutinous crew and nothing but a strange voodoo recipe to escape a tricky predicament? If so you're probably already familiar with LucasArt's classic adventure The Secret of Monkey Island. For those of you who aren't so familiar, this remastering of a legendary series will have you swilling Grog and stealing idols in no time.

Sadly little has changed in the way of controls since the game was first released in 1990. Much of the interface is interacted with intuitively, however the game's stubbornly slow cursor can make even the most patient of gamers feel like making this game walk the plank. A swipe with two fingers at any time will switch to the original game and in some cases you may even find yourself doing so to make life easier.

If you can look past the somewhat dated controls, what you will find is a feast for the eyes and ears that is rare amongst iPhone games. The improved graphics are inspired remakes of their original work (which you can check for yourself at any time) and the characters of the Monkey Island world couldn't be more perfectly voiced.

Adventure fans are sure to fall in love again (or for the first time) with the world of Monkey Island, but even the best of games can fall flat if you're spending more time wrestling with the controls than you are enjoying it. Thankfully there's more than enough to enjoy in this repackaged offering.

Screenshots

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