I know, I know -- you probably want to throw a banana at me (poo if you're a dirty monkey), but I'm not afraid to admit I've never played the classic adventure game The Secret of Monkey Island. Because it's not like I didn't want to play it. More like I couldn't play it.
You see, back when this game came out in 1990, I didn't have one of them newfangled gaming computers. That means I missed out on just about every PC game that came out 20 or so years ago. So you can imagine how stoked I was to discover at E3 that the original Secret of Monkey Island is coming to Xbox Live Arcade this summer. Mostly because I can finally stop getting pelted in the face with bananas and poo. 'Bout frickin' time...
But it makes me wonder how many people are in the same boa, err, pirate ship as me: Folks who have heard about this classic game but never had a chance to play it. Luckily, LucasArts is treating this port right. Instead of just slapping it on XBLA for a quick doubloon, they're actually putting in a good amount of spit and polish to make it appealing to both newcomers like myself and long-time fans who fancy reliving the classic ha-ha's.
Obviously those crusty ol' computer graphics aren't too eye-pleasing, so the whole game is getting a fancy dancy high-definition facelift. But nostalgia freaks shouldn't worry because you can seamlessly switch between both the old, crappy visuals and the pretty updated ones via a simple push of the "back" button.
To me, this is awesome, because while I do enjoy the effort that goes into spiffing up the looks of a 19 year old game, I actually want to experience what it was like to play this back in the day. Which means I won't be using the new idiot-proof hint system. Well, as long as I can, at least. Which basically means I'll be cheating within minutes of playing because I'm a impatient idiot. Hey, it's 2009! I got other stuff to play.
Like, say, the all-new Wii-exclusive Tales of Monkey Island episodes that were also announced at E3. Strangely, though, I'm not as jazzed to play these as I am the original. Sure, they look fun, but it's almost like comparing Raiders of the Lost Ark to the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull -- sometimes it's hard to recapture the magic of the original. Of course, I still have to discover if there's any magic left to plunder. I hope so! I better not have waited 19 years for nothing.
