It's really no wonder that this, unlike many of its kin, got a special edition nearly two entire decades after. I did not play this back then, only know this version. As far as I've been able to tell if you want the exact same experience you could just press F10. I do agree with those who say that it's too bad that the voice acting is only in the newer. I mean even if hypothetically someone didn't want it just make a toggle function for that.
Yes, they did bring back the amazing cast. I will never tire of Earl Boen(rip) as ghost Pirate LeChuck, an alpha male who is it goes without saying toxic. By contrast you play as Guybrush Threepwood who wants to be a pirate but is frankly way too nice. He's also not really physically intimidating. I love that they don't try to make him into an anti-hero. As much as I do love stories about them, not everything needs to be that. Sometimes it's great to have a positive role model.
This features literally every single type of joke. Verbal, wit similar to Blackadder, sight gags, gross out, absolutely everything is in here. It's also one of those comedy games that appreciates that in addition to the aforementioned it makes a ton of sense to actually have you do things that are funny. 2 minutes into this I knew it was my kind of thing when it allowed me to attempt a conversation with a dog. Not one that speaks English mind you it barks and growls and so can you. I'm not going to pretend that it goes any better than you would figure it does but I adore that it even allows you to attempt it. It is a well established strategy to talk to everyone in these kinds of things so of course someone is going to think of attempting this and the fact that you can actually go for it is wonderful.
I definitely do think that the user interface should have been updated instead of leaving so much intact. This came out 12 years after the Curse of Monkey Island, the third in the series which remains my absolute favorite of the subgenre. It 100% nails the goldilock zone in my opinion where it is neither so complex that it scares off those who are not already ride or die and also not so streamlined that you find yourself feeling like you're barely applying yourself.
Basically in that you point hold down the left mouse button, there will be a hand icon for, for example, pick up, a set of eyes for examine, and a mouth for talk to. You move to indicate which you want, release and it does it. In this you have to select one of the dozen verbs whether by the menu that doesn't take up enough real estate I mean it's not like you're gonna need anything else at all before you've selected one, scrolling slowly in either direction or use one of the hotkeys which I will freely admit I never ended up memorizing in part because there wasn't quite enough need for many of them. Honestly looking at the entire list I actually never ended up using at least one of the ones that there are and completely forgot that it was even a thing.
To be clear I'm not saying that something that came out in 1990 should not have this, merely that they should not have stuck with it once they landed on it later. In case you are unaware one of the reasons for having people choose actions like this is that what we at the time referred to as graphical adventure was an offshoot of the text-based ones like Zork where whether you're learning about your surroundings you're being told story stuff or yes if you are working on solving something all of it is words no images at all and as such of course you are constantly having to tell it what action you want to take and it was of course very much an acquired taste. It's not the kind of thing you see a lot of people going back to today if they didn't love this really complicated and old-fashioned way of doing things. What we got in the first of these was a major upgrade as far as technology goes.
The inventory likewise has issues that could easily have been solved. It just does not take up enough of the screen again I am not doing anything with anything else until I've already used an item from it and even if I were I would just press the key to put it back away. Because of this it only shows 12 things at a time and when you scroll it only shows another four at a time. Keep in mind some of the stuff in this is time sensitive and it gets to be really obnoxious. I'm not the first person to point out that the art style here doesn't quite fit this particular entry. I appreciate that they were going for it matching some of the more recent ones and without a doubt some people got into this one on account of having played some of the later ones. I do think it was a mistake. There are also some glitches: sometimes you'll be told a hint on how to achieve an objective before you formally been given it when it really shouldn't show up until after.
The very ending does have some issues but I do greatly appreciate that it does conclude this one. I'm not certain they were planning sequels but even so it's just nice to be able to take in just one. Like if you love this one there's more if you were okay with just doing a single point and click game then you're not missing a conclusion. It doesn't leave you on a cliffhanger. 8/10.
