Well, I went a head and got the Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition for my xbox. If you are a fan of the original Monkey Island, I can say beyond a doubt that this is worth ten bucks. But, it isn't perfect...
The good:
- Switch from original to the special edition on the fly with the click of a single button. Really cool to watch as the screen fades from the old graphics to the new (as well as the old interface) right before your eyes. Really great for comparisons. You can even switch in mid conversation. If only a certain other LFL franchise could have been shown that kind of love... eerrr, let's not get started on that!
- Full voice acting!
- Really great new interface.
- Even with the updated graphics, it remains very true to the original.
- Same ol' quirky humor just as you remember it (e.g. You are in a bar talking to a pirate with one eye, and one of your speech options is to ask him where the dart board is located).
The bad:
- Guybrush looks like a total retard in the SE. I am really having a hard time getting used to him.
- This is a big one NO VOICE ACTING WHEN IN CLASSIC MODE. Not sure what possessed them to do this, as I really would have loved to have played it with the original graphics while hearing the voice acting. Instead when you switch to classic mode, it also switches to text only. To me this is really a shame, and really knocks the quality of the game down a good deal. This realization really bummed me out. There is really no reason not to have included voice in both modes.
- I am also kind of disappointed there is no option to use the new interface with the classic graphics. The new interface is so much more streamlined and easy to use, especially on a console. The old style interface you are forced to use with the old graphics is really clunky with a console controller. The new interface is so smooth and perfect, I really wish I could use it while getting the visual nostalgia of the classic graphics. This along with the lack of voice in classic mode, really leave very little reason beyond curiosities sake to even play in classic mode. It is really annoying to have to go to the bottom left corner of the screen, click the "open" icon, then go to the right side of the screen where the door is located, click on it, then have to go back to the bottom right corner, click the "enter" icon, then go back to the right side of the screen to click on the door again. In the SE interface, you simply put the cursor over the door and click it twice.
- Some of the voice acting is pretty bad. Guybrush is as good as ever, but some of the other characters (the Melee Island watchman for example) really sound like they are just reading a script while putting on a silly voice. Narration is really cheesy too. The guy reading it seems to treat it as a joke, with the kind of voice you might use when reading a really corny script.
- Achievements look to be ridiculously easy. I would have liked to have seen them be a little more creative in really making you go out of your way to get these, but most of them look like they will be really easy. The worst is the achievement you get for playing in classic mode, I though perhaps you had to beat the whole game in classic mode to get it, which would have been cool, forcing people to play the game throught completely in the original to get it. Might actually fit the description of "achievement" then. But nope. Literally the first time you hit the button to switch to classic mode you are awarded the achievement. I have seen some lame achievements in my days an a 360 owner, but this one... wow... what a joke.
Final verdict: This game is definitely worth your money, whether you are an old MI fan who grew up with the game like I did, or someone who is really curious to try it out for the first time. This game may look a bit juvenile, but it is actually quite challenging, and contains several very un-juvenile appropriate jokes. I cannot freakin' wait until Lechuck's Revenge (one of my all time favorite games) gets this treatment (come on LucasArts! You've got to do that one!), and will be very disappointed if for some reason they don't bother with it.