The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

First, a moment of full and honest disclosure: The Secret of Monkey Island is the game that got me into PC gaming. Sure, back in 1990, I was loving me some Super Mario Bros. 3 and Final Fantasy for the NES, but playing a game focused on dialogue and solving wacky logic puzzles tapped into the book-loving part of my brain at the time. It also helped that Monkey Island was unique in that it was about pirates (not something I ran into a lot as an NES gamer) and was genuinely funny. I realize this is probably nostalgia affecting my viewpoint, but Monkey Island grabbed me, caused me to seek out other adventure games, and then branch out into other genres on the PC. So, yes, Monkey Island had a substantial effect on my gaming history, and when I first heard about a remake -- The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition -- I immediately considered it one of the best piece of gaming news in years. I'm really glad that I happen to attach such love and admiration for a game that did, and still does, legitimately much of its praise. Even after 19 years, Monkey Island still stands tall on LucasArts' slate of perfect point-and-click adventure games (along with Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Day of the Tentacle, and Grim Fandango). The story (which is, of course, actually important, due to being an adventure game) of fresh-faced fellow Guybrush Threepwood and his journey to becom a pirate (which took me about four and a half hours since I generally knew what I was doing, but a total newbie could take six to eight hours) has not aged badly at all -- nor has the gameplay.

Let’s rewind to E3 2009. I’m inside LucasArts’ conference room. I’m a few minutes early for the Star Wars: The Old Republic presentation. They have food and drink in both ...