The Secret of Monkey Island
"The Secret of Monkey Island" ultimately cost $200,000 to produce, and was developed over nine months.
The Secret of Monkey Island
Like the original release, "The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition" received positive reviews from critics. Sean Ely of "GamePro" praised its updated audio, and said that the new graphics "blow the old clunker visuals ... out of the water". He cited its script, humor, plot, puzzles and balanced difficulty level as high points, and finished, ""The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition" is impressive, hilarious and downright worth your money." Daemon Hatfield of IGN wrote, "Almost 20 years after its release, ["The Secret of Monkey Island"] remains a blast to play." He called the new graphics "slick, if a little generic", and noted that the "original graphics have a certain charm to them that the fancy pants new visuals just don't." However, he enjoyed the redone music, the new hint function, and the added sound effects and voice acting. He summarized it as "one of the best times you'll ever have pointing and clicking", and noted that "few games are this funny." Justin Calvert of GameSpot noted that "the Special Edition looks much better and is the only way to play if you want to hear ... what characters are saying, whereas the original game's interface is less clunky." However, he wrote that "the voice work is such a great addition to the game that it's difficult to go back to the original edition." He praised its humor, writing, puzzles and characters, and he believed that it had aged well. Eurogamer's Dan Whitehead wrote, "Purists like me will almost certainly find something to grumble about over the span of the game, but the overall impact of the redesign is undeniably for the better." However, he preferred the original game's Guybrush design, and believed that the new control system was "rather less intuitive" than the old one. He finished by stating that "few games can stand the test of time with such confidence".