Dealing with backlog: The Secret of Monkey Island

The 90s were strong with this one. I played the remastered edition but the 90s vibe was still incredibly strong. The humour was childish but still made me giggle every now and then. The point-and-click aspects were old-school but worked really well once you learned how to use them.

So you are Guybrush Threepwood and you want to be a pirate! You start at Melee Island where you go to the local bar and talk to the pirates there. They tell you what's required to become one of them (the Three Trials) and you're also told a story of why they are all sitting there rather than being out with their ships - it's due to the ghost ship of the ghostly pirate LeChuck. They tell you the story of how he became a ghost and why nobody dares to even go close to Monkey Island nowadays.

But off you go to become a pirate. First step is to get a sword. To get that you need money and so you become a temporary circus act. When that is over you take your money and go buy a sword, make sure to ask the shopkeeper about the Sword Master. Then you go to train with the trainer and when he deems you ready he sends you out to practice duelling with random pirates you meet on the streets. When they start getting impressed with you, you're off to find the Sword Master who lives in the forest. When you defeat her she gives you a T-shirt as proof, and now you're off to do the second trial - find the treasure of Melee Island. When you do it's a tourist attraction and you get another T-shirt as proof. Now it's time to break into the Governor's mansion and complete the Trial of Thievery and steal the Idol of Many Hands. It goes well, except that the new sheriff catches you and throws you into the ocean along with the Idol.

When you manage to get out of the water and bring your victories to the pirates at the bar to prove you're a pirate you discover that the Governor has been kidnapped by LeChuck. You decide to go and save her so you start chasing down a crew and a ship, after a lot of running around you're finally on your way to Monkey Island.

Or so you think. Your crew isn't happy and they decide to just work on their tans and let the ship drift. Guybrush follows the recipe to Monkey Island (yes the directions are a recipe) and the result completely knocks him out. When he comes to they have arrived at Monkey Island. After some running around dealing with the locals (cannibals), the castaway and the monkeys Guybrush is finally able to find LeChuck's hideout, but when he's ready to fight and defeat LeChuck the ghost ship is gone. A left-behind crew member of LeChuck's tells Guybrush that they left for a wedding to be held in the church at Melee Island. So off we go again.

Guybrush arrives back at Melee Island and while killing ghosts he makes his way to the church where it's revealed the the Governor had everything under control and actually didn't need to be saved. But in the end Guybrush defeats LeChuck with root beer and then the Governor and Guybrush watch the ensuing fireworks together.

The game had its annoying moments, but mostly it was a lot of pretty straightforward fun. I did use a guide for some of it though. I liked this game and I'm looking forward to play the sequel (at some point).