I love Lucasarts\’ graphic adventures. I played them all back within the 90s: Indy, Day of the Tentacle, and my favorite: Monkey Island. But even putting personal taste aside, Monkey Island 2 defines what smart, awesome iPad gaming must be.

Lucasarts\’ graphic adventures are legendary. The humor, the graphics, the animation, the puzzles… whoever plays them falls in love with the art, the dialogue, the characters, the music, and everything else. The Monkey Island series are considered to be the epitome of the genre. It tells the story of the most effective game anti-heroes ever: Guybrush Threepwood. His objective within the first game is to become a pirate and find the Secret of Monkey Island. He doesn\’t find it, but plenty of things happen instead. In Monkey Island 2, he is on in finding the largest treasure inside the Caribbean: Big Whoop. Instead, he’s going to find worthwhile endings I will be able to remember in any game.

New art and music

The Monkey Island 2 Special Edition team did an excellent job, from top to bottom. While the first had some problems with the user interface (more on this later), this one is pure joy to play. Sure, they missed out the outlet title scene-which I loved inside the original-but anything is a flawless rendition of a classic. The art, the music, the animation, the extra content, the notice to detail… everything in its production sounds like a real game. I wish all iPad games had this quality.

Like Monkey Island Special Edition for iPhone, MI2 also has two modes. That you would be able to play in classic mode-that’s a precise reproduction of the old game-or inside the new special edition mode, set by default. To alter between modes you simply must swipe two fingers across the screen.

The special edition mode Monkey Island 2 is far better and detailed than Monkey Island 1 for iPhone, owing to the higher resolution available inside the iPad. It captures the whole charm and rich color of the original game, with every single detail of every scene. The animation is superb too. As opposed to using sprites for the characters, the game seems to implement a new 2D animation engine that rings a bell in my memory of puppetry. The effect is superb.

The game also maintains iMuse, an interactive music system that mixes tracks dynamically to fade between soundtrack themes. Within the special edition, the quality of the samples and the music is superb. The voice work is actually good too, and you may use it on the classic mode in addition.

User interface

The first time I saw an iPhone, I instantly wanted Lucasarts to re-release all their classics for it: These games were made for touch control. Sadly, the first Monkey Island 1 for iPhone didn\’t implement direct touch control. It required you to pull the cursor on the screen-identical to you will do with the mouse on the PC, Mac, or Amiga-and then use commands that have been displayed in a window. Due to the, it took it slow to get used to the awkward control scheme, detracting from the entire experience.

In Monkey Island 2, however, the touch interface is perfect. You only ought to use it like you could possibly use any iPad application. Touch the screen where you will have Guybrush to move, and he’s going to go there. If something can also be picked or used, just double click and the action will happen. It\’s natural and a true joy to exploit.

The game also enables you to identify the objects you should use, pick (steal, really), or inspect: By tapping once together with your two fingers, they’ll light up on the screen briefly:

The extra cool stuff

The game also comes with a hidden treasure of its own: Audio commentary. Some doesn’t care about it, but people who played the original games would really like to hear legendary Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman-the designers of the game-talking about most of the scenes, telling anecdotes and going into completely random ramblings.

They even take a dig at Sierra\’s graphic adventures (and anyone who has played King Quest would know why):

The audio commentary feature is perfectly implemented, and may be activated at any time by clicking on the end right corner microphone icon. I only wish there was more of it.

The game also has some hidden Easter Eggs. One example that isn’t exactly hidden, since it was in plain view inside the original game: Inside the last component of the game-inside the island where Big Whoop is hidden-you’ll discover a phone on a palm tree. It connects you to Lucasarts\’ hint line (back first and foremost of the 90s, with the net still in its infancy, hint lines were big for corporations like Lucasarts). Within the special edition, you get to speak to a few random guy, but within the classic you get to chat with another legendary member of Lucararts: Tabitha Tosti. Back inside the time, Tabitha was in control of customer support and ran Compuserve\’s Lucasarts forum-God only knows what number times we exchanged messages back then, chatting about Monkey Island, Indiana Jones, SWOTL, X-Wing and TIE Fighter.

A must play

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition is $10, but it surely\’s absolutely worth every single cent. For folks new to the game, the pricetag is easily justified with hours of joyful gameplay. It really is actually inexpensive. For those who have already played it-and for old farts like me, who have played it a dozen times-it\’s even more inexpensive: Along with the awesome new art, music, and user interface, it has the extra charm of nostalgia.

Go get it. It\’s the neatest, smarter, and funniest gaming you will see that on the iPad today.

Source

This post is tagged: Apps], Gaming, iPad, island, monkey, [IPad