The Secret of Monkey Island - PC Game Review 

I fight like a _what?!_

What makes the Monkey Island series so enjoyable to this day is also the lack of the generic stock puzzles that plagued 90s adventure games, like the damned sliding block puzzles that form a picture, and anyone who has played The Neverhood, Toonstruck or any of the Myst games knows exactly what I mean.

I'll try to keep this short. Your channel is awesome and makes me happy. Watching your reviews has inspired me to actually play adventure games. I'm 30 and despite playing video games for most of my life, I never thought I possessed the patience or puzzle solving abilities to play point and click games. Now, just in the last few days I've completed The Secret of Monkey Island and the Charnel House Trilogy and honestly feel like I've completed a life-goal I never knew I had! Thanks again. I really enjoy your voice and perspective in a video genre (retro game entertainment?) that can get a bit same-y. You're awesome!

Favorite series of games ever! Great review too :)

I am rubber, you are glue.

Oh poor Stan - Breaking his heart slowly by telling him you don't need that particular piece of junk over and over. You could almost hear it splinter with every thing he brings up. :(

Ah, this was one of my first point 'n' clicks too. I love it a lot.

That intro music..... such nostalgic memories! I first played this on my friends Commadore Amiga. We played for hours trying to figure stuff out, and it felt like it took forever to beat it. Then came MI2 - which was even bigger and better. Great review. I have played it more recently, and the traveling system sucks! Still the dialogue and story make up for the minor frustrations. Love the swordfighting too "I will milk every drop of blood from your body!"

If you click in the corner the boat goes faster, same for the character

As a note, with the rowboat, you row MUCH faster if you click on a beach or the edge of the screen. It only paddles slowly if clicking on a random spot out in the water instead of an actual destination. :)

Really nice review!

Been playing Monkey Island since the Amiga days in the early 90's, have all 5 games and the sequel is my favourite video game of all time, plus Dominic Armato is perfect as the voice of Guybrush.

I love how Insult Swordfight was used in Tales of Monkey Island.

That story about LePup is truly heart-wrenching. I will never look on my dogs the same way again.

My favorite joke from the game is when you introduce yourself as Guybrush Threepwood to a pirate at the bar. When he says it's the stupidest name he's ever heard, you tell him it IS kind of dumb. Then he says, "that's ok. Mine's Mancomb Seepgood". Rofl.

Marcos Sesti Hrrmmmm....perhaps. But I like the story about LePup better. LePup makes for great drama AND is adorable. ;)

The review: "The tedious insult sword fights..." The insult sword fight system: "I'm shaking, I'm shaking"

Woo! I didn't play Monkey Island when it first came out, but many years later when I did, I had a blast. Easily my favorite overall point and click adventure game. Though the first Gabriel Knight comes really close. Thanks for the great video Roses!

Wasn't there a death scene ON Monkey Island? If you stepped too close to a certain cliff? I seem to remember a very Sierra-esque window popping up after you fall to your doom. Prrrretty sure it had a pun and had the "Restore" "Restart" "Exit" options. Did I dream this..?

I think this might be the FIRST game I ever played (Either that, or Battle Chess) and how I got shanghaid into gaming to begin with. Truly t'is a treasure, and it did wonders for my vocabulary, and taught me what horrid monsters parrots could be. Shivers me timbers, it does.

I agree about some of the puzzles (the monkey in the clearing on Monkey Island and all the related steps you need to complete to get his help ultimately for example). You can speed up your row boat journeys by either double-clicking on your destination, or clicking further ahead in your route. Otherwise, it's still a stellar game that will leave you feeling good for some time afterwards.

This was my first point & click adventure game too, such great memories - good review.

Do you know how cool it is to turn on your TV in 2014 and watch a brand new Monkey Island review? Love, love, love, love it! :)

Thank you for a fantastic review! This is one of my coming-of-age games, so it's really joy-inducing to hear someone speak with such love of it. Great presentation and insightful observations too!

Thanks to fan mods and the excellent special edition remake, I finally got a "talkie" version of the cd port to play on scummvm. Highly recommend any MI fan to look into it

Love this so much memories, is ther away of playing these old games on newer systems

One of my new favorite RU-vidrs and my favorite game ever. This is a spectacular week.

HAHAHA! I'm from Buenos Aires Argentina and I remember those headlines!! Man, all of us old school gamers here (now above 30 year old) laugh so hard about that when it happened... even my DAD was aware of this (he was fully aware of the games I played in my childhood) and had a good laugh... Thank you for showing this PushingUpRoses , our little argentinian contribution to video games silly notes XD

i recently played the "Ultimate Talkie Edition" & it is the best by far imo as it converts the original DOS version of the game into a voiced version with no subtitles

You can travel faster in the boat by clicking the edge of the screen. Where you have to click on certain screens can be pretty specific. But if you know to do it he travels around the island almost instantaneously.

As a kid, I had no idea you could even leave Mêlée town until my dad found a walkthrough from who-knows-where? If you've never played this game before, pay attention to the second Guybrush enters the game, and WALK BACK THAT WAY sometime later. I suppose it didn't occur to me, it seemed he just entered stage left.

5:01 I can show you the world, shining, shimmering, splendid.

I love the "homage" to the dog in the Scumm bar. Very cute. And great review for a great game. You're right, there was a lot of backtracking later in the game but I think I was more patient in playing it as a kid.

The third game is my favorite, probably because it's the first one I played. My mom just randomly picked it up for me one day because "it looked like my kind of thing". I think it was in a clearance bin somewhere - a special edition of the third game with a bonus disc containing the first two. I'd never heard of it, but as it turned out, it really was (and is) my kind of thing.

I just revisited this one for a review! I played this one as a kid and again not long ago, so much fun! You don't see games like this these days! Great review!! Cheers!

There are more non-canon deaths. MI2. In LeChuck's Torture Chamber, if Guybrush takes too long to work out how to escape, he and Wally will fall into the acid and be killed. However, the scene will then change to Threepwood and Marley in the pit as he realizes that he must have told the story incorrectly. EFMI. In the Mysts o'Tyme Marshe, if future Guybrush gives present Guybrush a revolver, he can use it to shoot and kill future Guybrush. When present Guybrush becomes future Guybrush, he is shot causing a time paradox. Threepwood can also once again drown after spending more than ten minutes underwater.

I love that part on the ship when your fired at monkey island it's so fast paced

A sneezing parrot might just be the cutest thing EVER !

A great review to one of my childhood faves, Roses! I can't want for the next one! Keep up the brilliant work! :)

All this time I thought the Monkey Island game on Steam was just a modern sequel. Not that the original story (with classic mode!) was on Steam. HOLY CRAP thank you for schooling me!

I remember the “Le” of “LeChuck” made me wonder if he was French, in which case the “Ch” was probably supposed to be pronounced as “Sh.” So I pictured Pepe Le Pew saying “Le Shuck.”

Great review, even if i'm more a console gamer I'm a big fan of Monkey Island and hoped that one day you do this video. I like the style and the humor of your videos very much and looking forward for your next games.

Oh, the intro music of Monkey Island 1 brings up so money memories!

The death scene is only possible in the original floppy version, with it being impossible in later releases. (He then automatically gets the necessary items if you wait in the CD version and later iterations.)

Great review! Love the Monkey Island series and a lot of those old school adventure games, but I'm definitely with you on the backtracking. Although, at least the rowing part of TSOMI had the decency to lampshade it after a few times around the island ("After much rowing...much, MUCH rowing...").

If you click in the middle of nowhere, the boat travels slowly. If you actually click on a destination, whether it be the beach or the edge of the current visible map, then the rowboat goes 10x faster.

As a devout Pastafarian it makes me smile to see you dressed as a pirate, which is our holy garb. May you be touched by His Noodly Appendage, friend. (that may sound creepy and weird but it's a Pastafarian blessing. Honest.)

Oh god I forgot about that news report. Truly not the greatest moment for my country =P Ahh, nostalgic memories, great video.

great review. found this channel via LGR recently, love watching both in my "man cave" with a nice glass of beer (or two) in sunny England! Wish we had "thrift stores" here though doh!

When i encountered the underwater death scene, i thought it was meant to happen... and so i clicked repeatedly on "decompose" to hope Guybrushs foot will become loose from the chain and drift up to the surface....

I was just thinking of this video last night and was gunna look for it this push is creepy and needed thank you

I still have this drone when I first came out, but sadly growing up with mild dyslexia I found it really hard to play the game as I got older and my ability to read got better I really Enjoyed it.

I am circling back to my favorite Monkey Island reviews before the release of the new one coming to the Switch! Honestly it’s one of the games I’m most hyped about for this year! How about everyone else? Excited? Skeptical? Over it? Lend me your thoughts!!!!

I wish that someone would make a mod for the Special Edition, so I could play with the original graphics and hear the spoken dialogue at the same time, like you can with the second game. I love to hear Dominic Armato and the crew's voice acting added to the first two games, but I'm not a fan of the updated graphical style.

The story of LeChuck is actually told by one of the very first pirates you meet inside the Scumm Bar: He fell in love with Elaine, she told him to drop dead, so he did. Litterally.

I knew about this game for so long but it wasn't until 2010 that I actually experienced the game. So much time I lost playing this gem of a game.

I'm so glad you did this. So much nostalgia. Muah!

You absolutely need to do Monkey Island 2. Arguably the greatest game ever made.

Dominic's voice is just perfect! He is Guybrush imo!!

Lifehack: Guybrush paddles lots faster when clicking onto a specific landmark or the edge of the screen😎👍🏻 Great review as always🤗

Needles!! :D Your birdie is such a cutie. Btw: great review :)

Wait a second, that bird looks so familiar...YOU STOLE JACQUES FROM JONTRON!

The rowboat will move faster if you click an adjacent screen or named place. Same with Guybrush on foot.

Oh talk about memories. I suspect this was the first point and click I played and oh it stuck with me where I picked up the first two games on DVD trading off the original version I had for a copy of the Dig/Full Throttle. Good times.

umm...if it truly were impossible, then toilet paper would not exist in supermarkets and groceries across the land. 0_O

There's also a way to die in MI2. In LeChuck's dungeon. :)

I've never had the patience to test it, but I believe you can get yourself stuck in this game if you put all your gold into the Grog machine at Stan's boatyard. Maybe they put in some kind of a check for that, but like I said, I've never had the patience to sit there and do it a couple hundred times. I was annoyed by the slow travel on the maps as well. If you use ScummVM, you can turn on fast mode and map travel becomes much more bearable. Finally, I haven't played the special edition, but I watched a video of it and it seems they left out one of my favorite jokes. When you get caught by the cannibals and give them the small idol, Lemonhead runs through the list of ways it looks like one of his works. The last thing he mentions is that it says "Made by Lemonhead", which you would think would be a tip-off that Guybrush stole it, but the native just think it's a good copy. That last part seems to be missing from the special edition, completely ruining the joke.

The hardest part of the game for me was where you had to watch how the shopkeeper turns the dial on the safe and then turn it the same way to get the paper you need to show Stan the boat selling guy.

6:10 HA HA! I remember that news report! "GROG XD" Awww man my friends and i lol'd for days ^^

You want a easter egg/spoof for this game? Okay, here is a fake Game Over. If you walk too near a cliff edge, Guybrush falls, you get a cheesy pop-up window that looks straight out of the Sierra's "Quest" series, and then Guybrush bounces back up, where he offers two words of explanation: "Rubber tree!"

I remember very well playing The Secret of Monkey Island on the old family Amiga 600... That's part of my childhood right there. I played it A LOT. I still know it by heart.

This is still my favourite adventure game, even more than Curse of Monkey Island.

While I kinda suck at them and am bad to google most puzzles.I have always been fascinated with point and click adventure games.I like the relaxed paced game play I remember playing this game at school.Thinking you can't get these type games on the snes.Games like this helped define the PC. Awesome review!

I remember my Dad bringing two games home that he got from a guy at his work, a blue floppy and a purple floppy. On the blue floppy was Indianapolis 500. On the purple floppy...Secret of Monkey Island...

Good review. If you want the true back story of LeChuck, play Curse of MI. It's actually very intriguing.

I love the LeChuck backstory! LePup!

This game has a good humor and likeable characters going for it.

Where did all the rum go? Avast, I spot a flagon of Malibu just behind the Captain!

PushingUpRoses you deserve so much more views. Love your vids :D

6:19, there's axle grease and battery acid in the Argentinean Grog. My neighbors are clever people as you might have guessed. Also, conveying sarcasm in YT comments is hard.

This franchise is marked in my childhood soul! Love this game.

"there's nothing like the hot winds of hell blowing in yer face" agreed LeChuck.

I love the way you presented this game with all the detailed information including the remake with the original game in it. I know the game by heart, but I think you totally did it justice. Really awesome to watch your reviews. I want to see your lets play of Grim Fandango too but since I plan to play the game I really cant :P Good luck with it and I look forward to see it once I finish it.

in monkey island 2 there is a little of a back story for lechuck he is guys brother

3:09 Thumbs up!

Those were good times... I played it with my father in the early nineties. He had a solution, I think, from some mailbox service. I'm not sure, was too young. Still my favorite instalment of the series. Oh, and when Guybrush and Elaine were shown full screen at the end I was *blown away*! So realistic graphics! :-D As I said. Good times...

Yaaarg! Tis be a fine video. An ah can't wait fer yer next video ahn review. All people who haven't seen this here review: " Prepare to be borded, no more! Yahaharr !

Great review for a great game. I agree that it really does hold up well today. The demo (which I played on a system at our area's first CompUSA) was terrific. It's what definitely got me hooked and wanting to play this one for years. FYI, the CD-ROM version of the game with icons instead of text for the inventory was still a DOS game. At least, mine was.

I played this for the first time on XBLA--two full play throughs, all achievements, loved it.

"I'm not sure he has a backstory-" ... Could always follow the sequels ya know... Though, I guess MI3+ doesn't really count since they're not the original story.

Oh maaan this brings back memories! Nostalgia ahoy!

Needles has some pretty good comedic timing there.

I can't believe I've never actually played this. Then again, the only adventure games my dad really liked were Sierra games, so those were the only ones we ever had--although we did have Legends of Kyrandia for some reason. I remember my brother talking about playing Monkey Island at his best friend's house, though. Not sure which one they played--which one had the reformed cannibal?

Wonderful look back. Been a long time since I played it, but it's still such a charming game. (And I loved the ridiculous LeChuck 'backstory' - so over the top it had me in stitches :))

You don't know LeChuks back story? One of the pirates in the Scumm Bar tells you that.

Actually there is a "backstory" for LeChuck... He was a mighty pirate who fell in love with Elaine. She told her to drop dead and he did...and came back to claim her... or something like that... Hey, look a three headed geek! *Sigh* Monkey Island was my first adventure game and the one that I replayed the most.

Played this game way too much as a kid. It's been very nostalgic playing it again :)

You and LGR are my favorite PC nerds! You make awesome videos!

lovely review, for all pirate lovers i recommend the "Secret Of Monkey Island - Special Edition". the new graphics and sounds are really nice and you get it for less then 10€ on steam. There are no clever moves that can help you now. ; )

yeahhhhh finally a review from my favorite graphic adventure game :D i love you :D :D :D