Ever since I picked up my iPhone, I've been waiting  with bated breath for the arrival of Lucasarts classic back catalouge of adventure games. The platform is perfect for the genre and it would seem a mistake for Lucasarts to pass on the opportunity to bring its games to a new audience and make them portable for us adventure game vets. 

 

It seems Lucasarts has heard these prayers and have brought the classics back in force. They appeared on Steam, Telltale has started on Tales of Monkey Island, and the first game in the series, The Secret of Monkey Island, has gotten the HD treatment. The update released last week on Xbox Live Arcade and PC and has now made it's way to the iPhone, allowing us to take the adventures of Guybrush Threepwood on the go for some classic point and click gameplay. 

 

Too bad this iPhone port isn't as polished as it should be.

 

 

The Secret of Monkey Island begins with likeable and all too nice guy Guybrush Threepwood arriving on Melee Island. He want's to become a pirate and has come to the island to see if he can form a crew. He soon learns of LeChuck, an evil pirate who literally dropped dead after the governor Elaine, told him so, and has kidnapped her. It's up to Guybrush to pass the three pirate trials, gather a crew, and sail to Monkey Island to free her and save the day.

 

The iPhone version of Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is a standard definition version of the XBLA and PC versions. Almost every feature and visual detail is present here on the iPhone as it is in the console versions. You can even switch on the fly between the original version and updated one by swiping two fingers across the screen.It's nice to see the original version to see how far the game has come, but the art is so beautiful you'll just want to stay in the updated version. They keep everything looking familiar while also infusing the game with even more character and visual flair than before.

 

The voice work helps as well. The voice cast is simply superb and deliver their lines and jokes with great comic timing. I was laughing out loud at the brilliant delivery of the cast, which make the already excellent writing stand out even more.  The game's humor has really lost nothing in the time since it's release, save for a few pop culture references of the time, and the game is just as funny as it was back in 1990.

 

The puzzles are just as fun as remembered too. They are never irrational or require obtuse items or combinations to solve. While most adventure games required you to remember something said a few hours back, or combine items in a way that was truly bizarre, Monkey Island was smart, rational, and fun with it's puzzles.

 

 

Playing the game isn't so humerous though. With the iPhone and it's expansive touch screen, you would think that touching anywhere on the screen to play would be a given, but Lucasarts didn't think so. You have to touch and drag the pointer on the screen to interact and move Guybrush along and it doesn't help that the pointer moves slow under your touch. Precision is also a problem with this control method. Early on when you head to the SCUMM Bar, you have to move to the back of the bar to talk to the pirate leaders.  This would be so hard it the pointer would act intiutively. Once the pointer hits the edge of the screen, you then have to turn it around to point at the edge of screen, and then tap to move on. Why Lucasarts didnt just have point at the edge to move forward is a mystery and is incredibly frustrating. I wan't to solve puzzles and embark on an adventure, not fight with my onscreen pointer.

 

There is also no contextual function on the pointer. You have to "mouse" over the person or item, tap the menu screen to pull up your functions, tap one, then tap again to execute it. This is again frustrating and irrational. Why didn't they just have to double tap or hold your finger over it to have a radial menu pop up? Just shoddy work for a device like the iPhone.

 

If there's one device that is built for adventure games, its the iPhone. Lucasarts didn't think so though. While other games have done adventure gaming right, like Return to Mysterious Island, Lucasarts has shown that they don't get how to make a video game for the iPhone yet. That's a shame because Monkey Island is a funny and smart game that I want to see more of on the platform. It's just so frustrating to play that it's not worth it for the $7.99 price tag. Just stick to the console versions unless you enjoy fighting with a game to play it.

 

 

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