Mini-review of The Secret Of Monkey Island (and a non-review of its
two sequels)

Introduction:

	So many words have been used to talk about this series of
	games, that I am doubtful that another opinion is of much
	worth at all.  However, due to sheer accident, I ended up
	buying and playing the three Monkey Islands games in reverse
	order of their release.  This may not make more knowledgable
	about the games, but it did provide me with a somewhat unique
	perspective.  This review is mostly about Monkey Island I (The
	Secret of Monkey Island), with some comments about the two
	sequels.  For brevity, I will refer to them by the
	abbreviations MI1, MI2, and MI3.  My apologies to Lucas Arts,
	but I really am as lazy as my reviews might indicate :-)
	Writing is hard work...
	
Graphics (quality, animations, cut scenes):

	As expected, the graphics got better as time went on, so I
	finished with the crudest graphics of the three games.  That
	being said, here's the shocker -- I found the graphics in MI1
	to be far superior to the others.  It wasn't the number of
	pixels that counted, nor the number of colours.  Somehow, MI1
	was able to capture that sense of mystery and adventure, while
	the sequels just looked pretty.  Maybe it was the purple
	colours and nighttime lighting on Melee(TM) Island, or maybe
	the artists just captured the essence of the game when they
	had a limited palette to draw from.  For whatever reasons, I
	found the oldest game to be the most immersive and impressive.

Sound (music, voices, special effects)

	The sound and music in all the games was quite good, with no
	jarring notes at any point.  Sound was used for proper and
	complete support of the game's atmosphere throughout.

	Small aside: For those readers that wonder what it takes to
	make me rave about sound, they should play Discworld Noir.
	The startling jazz in that game had me wanting to buy the
	soundtrack.  Other than that, I expect the sound to be
	supportive of the game's atmosphere; if I notice the sound,
	then it is probably failing to do its job.

Story (plot, theme, depth):

	Guybrush Threepwood (who ever thought up that name?) wants to
	become a pirate.  To do so, the usual quest is required, only
	this quest starts out silly and gets sillier as it goes on.
	It's all a lot of fun, and there is enough story to keep you
	enthralled from the start to the very end of the game.  From
	the very opening scene, you have the feeling of being dropped
	into some sort of Caribbean paradise populated by comic
	misfits.

	It was strange playing this game after its sequels, and it
	showed how much Lucas Arts was riding on a past success.  MI2
	and MI3 just didn't have the same joie de vivre of the first
	game.  They weren't bad games, but they were just riding on
	the coattails of a truly great game.

Characters (depth, development,interaction):

	Hey, come on now.  This is a humourous game, not any attempt
	to produce the adventurer's version of War and Peace.
	Guybrush Threepwood does exactly as much character development
	as required to get him to the end of the story.  And he does
	it in fine style too, thank you.  After all, he does need to
	have the right stuff to become a pirate.

Puzzles (difficulty, uniqueness, suitability, ugliness, linearity):

	MI1 presented some truly unique puzzles to the gaming world,
	and they were a lot of fun.  I won't say too much more, except
	for a giving a rousing cheer to such originality, especially
	someone who can come up with a use for hairy yaks with wax
	lips.

	The sequels were a completely different story.  Again, it
	really shows how much Lucas Arts just copied MI1 for the
	sequels.  Some of the puzzles were almost exact copies from
	the first game.  No fair.  Even worse, the sequels started
	resorting to timed puzzles and arcade sequences to fill in the
	gaps.

Controls (user interface, save/restore, sound/video adjustments):

	 MI1 was probably the loser in this category, since the SCUMM
	 engine definitely improved as time went on.  Pictured
	 inventory items instead of words, fewer verbs to worry about
	 trying, and more screen space allocated to the game picture
	 itself.  However, even the first game in the series gave me
	 no troubles whatsoever.

Bugs or problems:

	None at all. Ran perfectly every time, all the time.

Pros:

	The Secret of Monkey Island is a truly wonderful game that
	deserves the word "classic" that is often used to describe it.
	Adventure games don't really get much better than this; many
	games are graphically prettier, but this one succeeds in
	immersing you, even with it's limitations.

Cons:

	It had sequels which just didn't live up to its greatness.  I
	guess that's what you get when a game is so successful; Myst
	wasn't the only game that had clones.

Conclusion:

	By playing the games in reverse order, I expected them to get
	worse each time.  Instead, The Secret of Monkey Island showed
	up the other two games for the formulaic copies that they
	were.  The original game is truly an original, with an
	honoured spot in my top ten list.  Now, my only worry is that
	Lucas Arts is going to make the fourth game in the series yet
	another clone with yet more advanced graphics.  I want
	original art, not superb printmaking.