[News] Super Street Fighter IV

The oft-rumored follow up to Capcom's highly successful fighting game Street Fighter IV, a game that managed to revitalize interest in the ailing Street Fighter franchise, is finally materializing. Its name? Super Street Fighter IV, taking a cue right out of the Street Fighter II naming conventions. I personally like it, even though Super SFII was arguably the worst version of that game.

While there's not a lot of concrete information yet, a lot of rumors have been making rounds and several of them have already been confirmed*. Long story short, there will be several new additions to the roster, mostly from previous games but also at least one entirely new character in the form of a girl called Juri[*2], and all characters will have two Ultra moves.

UPDATE:

In a surprising move, SFIV/SSFIV creator Yoshitori Ono revealed that there would be no
arcade release for Super Street Fighter IV. I doubt anyone saw that coming, even with the arcade scene being what it is. This will be the first time that a major Street Fighter game skips the arcades and goes straight into console.

It should be noted, however, that the actual arcade version of SFIV never really solidified its place in the Japanese arcades, often not making the top-5. Perhaps the ailing arcade scene isn't really the one to blame in this case, as the console version of the game has seemingly made a lot more money compared to its arcade counterpart.

Alongside with these recent confirmations, we've gotten a few videos of Super Street Fighter IV that seem quite promising, here's one featuring SSFII alumni T.Hawk and newcomer Juri[*3]. Their Ultra moves look absolutely amazing, especially Juri's.



TL;DR version:

HYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYPE!

* For a full list, check out EventHubs.com
[*2] Don't listen to people saying she looks like an SNK character. She's a Jet Set Radio character through and through.
[*3] Is it me or does her health seem like below average? Probably a rushdown character in the same vain as C.Viper

[News] The Shivah for free! (until Tuesday)

To celebrate the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, indie company Wadjet Eye Games is offering the critically acclaimed point & click adventure The Shivah for free starting this weekend and until next Tuesday.

The Shivah is based on Jewish culture and religion, and offers some of the best writing in an adventure game in recent years, indie or not.

Plus, free is always a good price in my book.

For more details on how to get your free copy, visit the Wadjet Eye website.

TL;DR version:

I'm starting to like this new trend of free-for-a-limited-time-only adventure games.

[Video] The Last Guardian, TGS 2009

The creators of such classics as ICO and Shadow of the Colossus are back with their third game, The Last Guardian. Their previous games are renowned for their ability to tell wonderful stories with minimal cut-scenes and dialogs. A rare feat in the videogame industry, where storylines are mostly told through 30-minute long scenes of talking heads. Suffice to say, expectations are really high.

Here's an interview of the game's Director, Fumito Aeda, with an extra game footage after the 4:40 minute mark, via 1UP.



TL;DR version:

I don't really understand what Ueda's talking about when he's referring to a certain level of realism that only exists through the imaginary, but I find it exciting none the less.

[Walkthrough] The Blackwell Convergence (Spoiler-free!)

This walkthrough only contains the basic actions you need to do in order to finish the game. You are highly encouraged to explore the game on your own, as the story is great and writing in this game is wonderful, exploring every single dialog option available is the best way to experience it fully. Keep in mind that you can control two characters at any time in this game, so observing something from both perspectives might provide you with interesting answers. Don't forget, you can't die in this game, so go nuts!

You're also advised to go through the tutorial at the beginning of the game if you haven't played a Blackwell game before, as it'll introduce the basic mechanics.

DAY 1

Abandoned Apartment:

• Left click on the door
• Switch to JOEY
• Left click on the door
• Right click on the shiny object, left click on the shiny object
• Switch to ROSA
• Select the CLIP from your inventory and use it on the door
• Left click on the desk drawer
• Left click on the middle window, left click on the hand
• Switch to JOEY
• Left click on the window
• Talk to the GHOST, question his presence, consult your notes and choose the second one, continue talking and convince him he is a failure in all aspects

Rosa's Apartment:

• Left click on the calendar
• Left click on the computer, left click on Search, enter the words "Park Gallery"
• Left click on the apartment door, left click on the elevator and on the map screen click on the Gallery

Park Gallery:

• Talk to the girl, then talk to the old lady
• After receiving the woman's business card, try to exit the Gallery
• After watching the cutscenes, left click on the portal

DAY 2

Rosa's Apartment:

• Right click on the card in your inventory
• Leave the apartment as usual and select the new area (CubeStar Films) on your map

Cubestar Films:

• Talk to the woman, explore all dialog options
• Leave, and on the map screen select the Gothic Bridge

The Gothic Bridge:

• Switch to JOEY
• Talk to the ghost
• Switch to Rosa
• Talk to the ghost, choose any dialog option.
• Leave and go back to Rosa's

Rosa's apartment:

• Left click on the computer, select Search again and enter the word "Minetta"
• Leave the apartment again, click on the new area

The Minetta:

• Talk to the young man about everything in your notes, then head back to CubeStar

Cubestar Films:

• Talk to the woman, consult your notes, talk about the heart attack and then the apartment
• Leave and head back to the Gothic Bridge

The Gothic Bridge:

• Switch to JOEY, talk to the ghost
• Open your notes, ask about the Minetta and about the address.
• Switch to ROSA and head back to the Minetta

The Minetta:

• Talk to the young man, ask about Joe Gould
• Head back to the Bridge again

The Gothic Bridge:

• Switch to JOEY, talk to the ghost oncemore
• Ask him about the Fund
• Switch to ROSA, head back to CubeStar

CubeStar Films:

• Talk to the woman, ask about the cat.
• Left click on the cat
• Switch to JOEY, left click on the cat, immediately switch to ROSA and left click on the cat again
• Leave CubeStar and go to Frank's apartment

Frank's apartment:

• Left click on the door. Switch to JOEY and left click on the door
• Left click on the papers on the table, left click on the door, switch to ROSA and let's head back to the bridge

The Gothic Bridge:

• Talk to the ghost, and in order say the following options: 3, 2, 4, 1, 3. Optionally, giggle at Rosa's improv skills!
• Talk to the ghost, choose anything. When prompted with an option, choose the long version unless you've played Blackwell Unbound. After another cutscene, left click on the portrait on the right

DAY 3

Head right to the Gallery

Park Gallery:

• Left click at the painting of the old lady, at the left. Right click on the image of the old lady, and then on the lighthouse
• Talk to the girl, ask her about everything
• Leave and go to the Lighthouse

Roosevelt Island Lighthouse:

• Nothing much to do here, yet. Leave and head to CubeStar

CubeStar Films:

• Talk to the woman, ask her about the foundation and about the man being choked to death
• Time to go back to Rosa's

Rosa's apartment:

• Left click on the computer, use the search function and search for "Meltzer Foundation"
• Leave the apartment and visit the Foundation

The Meltzer Foundation:

• Talk to the man about everything
• Once you automatically switch to Joey, choose to eavesdrop
• Head to the left, stand in front of the strange machine (A.K.A. a simple router)
• Leave and head back the Minetta

The Minetta:

• Talk to the bearded man, try to get him to talk about the Dark Lady
  
• Leave and go back to Rosa's apartment

Rosangela's apartment:

• Right click on the new business card in your inventory
• Left click on the computer, select "Email". Logout, then use the username "PaulM" and the password "tennis53"
• Read through the emails
• Select "Search", enter "Artists" and read the article
• Head to the Gallery again
  

The Park Gallery:

• Talk to the old lady, then talk to the bearded young man. Select the options containing "provocative", "darkness" and "colorful"
• Left click on the Fire Escape door, and watch the cutscenes

DAY 4

Immediately head to the Gallery

Park Gallery:

• Talk to the girl, then go to CubeStar

CubeStar Films:

• Talk to woman, consult your notes and talk to her about the man's death
• Nothing else to do here, let's visit the Lighthouse again

Roosevelt Island Lighthouse:

• Switch to JOEY, click on the blue cup held by the old man. Afterwords, it's time to go back to Rosa's

Rosa's apartment:

• Left click on the computer, choose Search and enter the words "Gold Tech" then go back to the Lighthouse

Roosevelt Island Lighthouse:

• Talk to the man, discuss all of your notes with him. Once you're done, it's Home Sweet Home again

Rosa's apartment:

• Left click on the computer, choose Search and type in "Lazarus Technologies"
• Time to visit the Foundation again

The Meltzer Foundation:

• Talk to the man about everything. Once you switch automatically to Joey, choose to stay and eavesdrop again. Stay until you hear the conversation regarding a scooter
• Off to Rosa's we go again!

Rosa's apartment:

• Click on the computer, choose to view E-mail, log out. Log in with "CharlesM" as username, scooter as password
• After the cutscene, left click on the exit, then left click on the door in the middle. After another cutscene, enter your apartment again
• Left click on the moving picture, select the picture from your inventory and use it on the ghost.
• After the cutscenes, talk to the fancy looking ghost. Once you resume control, you'll find yourself in a new location

The Diner:

• Talk to both ghosts about everything. Talk to the left ghost about the CIGARETTE. Ask the right ghost about the ESSAYS. In the essay close-up, left click on the paperclip and then exit the close-up
• Left click on the paperclip in your inventory and use it on the door at the left
• Inside, left click on the middle stove. Talk to the... thing about everything
• Go back to the previous room and ask the ghost about the CIGARETTE again. Click on the door to the left again
• Once inside, select the pack of cigarettes from your inventory and use them on the ghost
• Left click on the lit cigarette in your inventory, and use it on the middle stove
• Head back outside, and watch the cutscenes, before finding yourself at...

The Meltzer Foundation:

• Left click on the the glowing cigarette in your inventory and use it on the ghost
• Left click on the tie, and then left click on it in your inventory
• When the ghost prepares to throw a punch, use the tie on it. Switch to JOEY, left click on the ghost

Congratulations, you have just finished The Blackwell Convergence! Enjoy the ending sequence.

TL;DR version:

My first ever attempt at a walkthrough, so be kind with any inconsistencies you may find. Review of the Blackwell Convergence coming soon!

[News] Tales of Monkey Island Episode 1 for FREE! (1 day only)

Today, as you may already know, is the International Talk Like a Pirate Day. To celebrate this, uh... unique occasion, Telltale games have decided to offer the first episode of their latest point and click adventure series, Tales of Monkey Island, which debuted last July, for free. The catch? The offer only stands for today.

So hurry up, get yours here before the offer expires!

TL;DR version:

The cynic in me wants to say that this offer is partly due to the mixed/average reception for the Tales of Monkey Island games so far, but hey, who can resist a freebie, right?

Also, yarrr me harties.

(I'm sorry)

[First Impressions] PES 2010 demo

Exactly one week after the release of the FIFA 10 demo (read my -rather lengthy- impressions here), it was due time for Konami to release a demo for the latest edition of their long-running own football game series, Pro Evolution Soccer (PES). It's important to note that PES is FIFA's only real competitor in the market, so PES 2010 has an uphill fight in front of it already.

In my FIFA 10 impressions, I made an overly long introduction* about sports games and their yearly updates. What I neglected to mention was the fact that it was initially the FIFA games during the late 90's and early 00's that started this trend, only to be succeeded by the PES games in the mid-to-late 00's. In all honesty, the only real change in recent PES games was the pre-game menus, which admittedly were pretty awesome.

Amusingly enough, aside from the new menus that are still visually very impressive, initial impressions of PES 2010 make it feel like a radically new game. The graphics are great for a football game, especially the character models that are really well done and true to their real-life counterparts. Furthermore, the control system has been overhauled, with promises of a new 360-degree control similar to FIFA's.

However, ironically even, the moment you start to play you realize that not that much has changed from PES 2009. Despite the beautiful character models, players animate in a very unrealistic and sloppy manner, almost as if they are sliding on ice, not unlike previous versions. To make matters worse, the game speed is still much faster than FIFA's (or indeed, the tempo of a real football match) and it still is too easy to simply run past the defenders [*3]. It feels more like an arcade game rather than a simulation of football.

It doesn't end there, though. Gameplay overall feels a bit stiff, and despite the promises of true 360-degrees control, when trying to dribble you feel restricted by arbitrary, videogame-y, rules. You feel like you should be able to do a certain dribble, and yet your player decides to do something completely different to your input. And when you add the fact that there seems to be a slight lag between the input and the moment your player reacts to it, you can imagine that this can get annoying.

Despite all my complains, however, I cannot deny the fact that the demo of PES 2010 is simply fun to play. While it may not resemble the "beautiful game" [*4] as realistically as FIFA 10 does, it is still a very enjoyable videogame and realism be damned. That being said, not only does FIFA 10 feel more realistic, it's also more "fun", thanks to its responsive controls and overall smoother gameplay.

Naturally, we'll have to wait for the full versions of each game before we decide which game is better, but so far FIFA 10 has the definite advantage.

TL;DR version:

Don't pre-order PES 2010 just yet, unless your a huge fan of the series. It's hard to pass judgment yet until we see the full game, especially for the new online mode and revamped Master League, but so far it still seems to be lagging behind FIFA in terms of gameplay.

* I think I need to stop playing Rufus in SFIV. His win quotes are seriously messing up the way I speak and write. [*2]

[*2] So like, I was trying to write a post in my blog, right? Then I remembered this time when I was playing SFIV, and there was this guy that kept taunting me, you know? Why do people do that when they are losing, makes me think that people don't know why they're doing what they do, kind of like M. Night Shyamalan and his attempts at making movies. Anyway...

[*3] Ironically, a problem that plagued all the FIFA games of the early 00's.

[*4] Football is overrated.

[Review] Hotel Danger

Every now and then, a game comes along that presents you with a dilemma. On one hand, it's hard to fault it for what it is, yet at the same time it's hard to praise it for what it is. Hotel Danger is such a game, as you may have already guessed.

It’s a puzzle game available for the Xbox 360 through the XNA platform, an independent production by North West. The game’s description is as simple as they get, “Let’s play a little game” its creators say, and that is really all there is to it.

The game takes place in the eponymous hotel, which takes the form of a 3x7 grid, each block of the grid representing a room. In these rooms there are several civilians and an increasing number of killers. The player has to choose two blocks to open, if there are two civilians beneath them, they are set free and once you set ten of them free you progress to the next level.

If, however, there is a killer beneath one block and a civilian beneath the other, the civilian is killed. When ten of them are dead, it’s game over. To make matters trickier, the killers move around randomly so a block that was safe earlier won’t remain that way for long.

The thing is, there is no way to know what will be beneath any given block that you choose to open. In other puzzle games similar to this one, you often get to see the whole board for a few moments, so your decisions are made based on your memory. Here, it all comes down to dumb luck.

Hotel Danger is initially fun in all its simplicity, but it all gets a bit mindless before long. Even worse, there doesn’t seem to be any significant change between the different levels, aside from the number of killers in the level that increases in every level. In other words, there is no real sense of progression in the game.

Another thing that needs to be mentioned about Hotel Danger is its price. Probably due to its simplicity, the game is offered at the price of 80 Microsoft points, which roughly translates to 1 U.S dollar, or half a Euro. I’ve never seen a game being offered at such a low price before.

Still, even at such a low price, is it a game that’s worth playing? On with the intention-meter!

Things Hotel Danger does right:

- The artwork, though mostly comprised of still images, is quite nice, if somewhat inconsistent. It will most likely remind you of certain board games that you used to play as a child.

- It’s hard to argue with the price. I’ve bought chewing gums that cost me more than this game.

Things about Hotel Danger that aren't that hot:

- There’s really not much of a game here. “A little game”, as North West puts it, is correct. You choose two block here and there, rinse and repeat, with a little cringing here and there if you happen upon a killer. The fact that it’s all luck based means there’s not much reason to replay this game after the first couple of times.

- Half a Euro is a really low price, but it is hardly worth it for a game that you’ll never play more than once. Most people will probably get more mileage out of their money by buying an item for their Xbox Avatar, for example.

The final verdict is:
Paving the Road to Hell

TL;DR Version:

It’s hard to argue against the intentions of Hotel Danger, from the get-go you are presented with what is a simple game that aspires to be fun, and its price is quite honest given what its offering to the player. It’s hard to ask for less than a dollar, after all!

Still, this is one of those occasions where something is not really worth the low price of admission, as you’re not really likely to play Hotel Danger more than once or twice. This feels like the kind of game that would be better off as a free game, rather than a commercial one.

[First Impressions] FIFA 10 demo

When it comes to yearly updates in sports games, I am one of those people that dread the moment when they actually get to play said update. You see, it's almost a tradition within gaming companies to often neglect the new installment in a sports series and only do the most basic and obvious of changes, such as changing the player rosters.

With that in mind, I approached the demo for the newest FIFA game, FIFA 10, with great cautiousness, especially since I really enjoyed last years installment.

Initial impressions were mixed. The graphics are almost identical to 09, animation feels a little stiff and the announcer has the exact same tone of voice as he did a year ago. A silly thing to complain about to be sure, but it really stands out when you first play the demo. You can't help but feel that you've already seen this before, that you've already played this game.

Still, if experience has taught one lesson when it comes to new sports games, it's the fact that perseverance eventually pays off. Quite a lot of changes in such games don't really stand out at first, you need to actually spend some time to appreciate them.

So, after that overly long introduction, are the really any changes worth talking about that are obvious in this demo? Short answer, yes. For the long answer, read on.

The first thing that really stands out is the new physics for shooting and passing. It feels a lot less "videogame-y" for lack of a better expression, in the sense that passes no longer magically find their target, nor do shots have perfect trajectories every time. This added realism means that FIFA 10 is slightly more difficult than its predecessor, but it also makes it that much more satisfactory to pull off a great pass and a beautiful goal.

The other thing you notice once the initial shock is over, is the fact that the animation is actually better than last year's. At first it feels otherwise because in 09 all players were practically animated the same, while in 10 certain players mimic their real life counterparts. It's this difference between animations that gives the initial impression of stiffness.

The last big change to the game is the new controls. The new dribbling method (called "360 dribbling") works like a charm, as it allows you to move your character in any direction you want to, instead of feeling restricted to just the eight basic directions in a joypad.

A few other, small, things include improved goalies that will now often snuff your first shot at them, referees calling for a free kick/booking does not always trigger a cut-scene anymore, the A.I. is still not that great, and is it me or do more shots end up at the post in this version than before? Also, I think that the goal itself is larger than last year, when it was unrealistically small.

All in all, judging from this demo, FIFA 10 seems like a worthy update to the long-running franchise. There's enough changes to make the game feel fresh, while retaining the qualities that made FIFA 09 such a fun game to play.

TL;DR version:

If there's one testament to how fun the last FIFA games have been, it's the Arena mode (where it's just your player and the goalkeeper in the field). Just trying out new dribbles and shot angles never seems to get old, especially with the wonderful soundtrack these games have. It's not unusual to spend a lot of time there, before getting in a real match.

That's value for money, right there.

[Trailer] The Secret World

One of the most secretive upcoming games is definitively Funcom's The Secret World, Ragnar Tornquist's new project, the visionary creator of The Longest Journey and Dreamfall. The Secret World (TSW) is an MMORPG that promises to be vastly different from the genre norm, deviating in both setting and gameplay mechanics, doing away with both level progressing and the subsequent grind factor.

The setting of the game is based on a contemporary version of our world, and it promises to provide players with a quite scary experience, something that MMORPG's in the past have consciously shied away from.

While it's too early to tell whether TSW will live up to its promises, especially when considering that Tornquist's previous games though brilliant, they never moved passed the conventions of the adventure and action-adventure genres, one can hardly doubt Funcom's ability to hype their game.

The official site contains an entire psychological test that chooses the game faction that is most suited to your personality*, and I was glad to discover that all three available factions reside in different shades of grey, nothing appears to be morally black or white in TSW.

In the recent PAX convention, a cinematic trailer was unveiled for the game, though it shouldn't come as a big surprise to anyone that it does not reveal much about the game itself, nor its world. Still, it's visually very impressive and appropriately moody, so it works great as a teaser.



TL;DR version:

The Secret World promises to be an entirely different kind of MMORPG, free of all the annoying elements of the genre, such as level grinding. Fans of said genre know better than to take such comments at heart, given that countless games have already made that claim only to introduce a different kind of grind, yet with TSW, even if the grind rears its ugly head again, at least we'll have a unique setting and an genuinely intriguing game world.

That's something.

* I ended up in the Illuminati, which isn't really a big surprise.

[Opinion] Heavy Rain and its delay

Today, it was announced that the long-awaited PS3 exclusive Heavy Rain by Quantic Dream will be delayed a few months from its initial release date of late 2009 into early next year. The reason for this was the following:

"A game like Heavy Rain needs space, needs to be explained and shown. At the end of the year, people can't afford to buy all those games so we wanted to give Heavy Rain the chance to have its own release window, and for us to really talk about it so people really understand it."

(via Computer and Videogames)

It makes sense, Heavy Rain does not seem like the kind of game that you can play in-between of multiplayer rounds in Call of Duty, instead as with most story-based game you need to invest time in it. Fair enough so far. But the next statement by the Quantic Dream co-CEO was a more controversial one.

"If Heavy Rain doesn't succeed it's going to have important implications for other developers and for ourselves - maybe people will think 'those innovative games don't work, games cannot really convey realistic emotions.' And they will continue to do the standard shooters and the like that we have been doing for however many years,"

To put it in a highly sophisticated, eloquent way:

Poppycock. Spare us.

I understand the need to build hype for an upcoming game, especially for one that is exclusive on just one console (a rarity these days), but saying that your game is essentially the one last hope for "innovative" (whatever that means) games is simply pushing it. Especially from a publisher with such tarnished track recored as Quantic Dream.

Don't get me wrong, I want Heavy Rain to be good. I love story-based games. Much like I was really looking forward to Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy especially after playing the demo, the only truly great part of the game. But after being burnt badly by the aforementioned game, I'm keeping my expectations low. Maybe it's for the best.

Back to the original point, however. Claiming that your game, any game, is the last hope of such and such is almost akin to hubris. If nothing else, Portal is a direct result of one of those "standard shooters" and its success, and who could argue that it's not an innovative game that conveys real emotions? Not to mention that it does so without any cutscenes at all, nor any convoluted control schemes.

This "shooters are ruining the industry, bad shooters!" finger pointing has gotten old. Quake did not kill adventure games, and neither will Call of Duty or Halo kill "innovative" games. Assigning blame at the wrong targets is not the way to make the industry better.

Hell, if anything, this scene from Call of Duty 4 (spoilers abound) and its aftermath conveyed a whole lot more emotions to me than the ridiculous story and Simon-says gameplay of Fahrenheit.

TL;DR version:

If you want to make bold claims, it's good to be able to back them up. I want to believe that Heavy Rain will make me eat my words, but I'm frankly skeptical after this nonsense (Fahrenheit spoilers) :



In all fairness, Quantic Dream's first game Omikron: The Nomad Soul, was held back mostly by the limited technology of its time rather than bad writing and design decisions. So here's hoping they get it right this time.

[Review] The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition

When it comes to adventure games, there’s a few staple names that even people that have no experience with the genre should recognise. While the number of these names is dwindling over the years (anyone still remember King’s Quest*?), Monkey Island and its assorted secrets should be familiar to most people.

However, given the fact that the original entry to the series is old enough to buy alcohol by now [*2], it means that newcomers to the series might have a hard time getting into a game with a measly 16/256 (depending on the version) colors in total. Provided they can even find a copy, at that.

Acknowledging this fact [*3], LucasArts decided to give us another, “Special Edition” version of the fabled Secret of Monkey Island, this time with all-new graphics, music, sound effects and voice-overs, as well as a completely overhauled control system. Truth be told, SCUMM may have worked like a charm back in the day, but nowadays most people don’t have the patience to be clicking on verbs every time when they want to perform an action.

Still, for us MI purists out there, it’s possible to switch back to the classic VGA revision of the game with the push of just one button. This transition between versions is absolutely seamless, to the point where voice-overs continue mid-sentence if you happen to switch back and forth during a conversation. One last thing about the classic version of the game is the fact that even after all these years, and despite their age and simplicity, the graphics of The Secret of Monkey Island still ooze with character, and that’s testament to how inspired this game was [*4].

While on the subject of the game and how inspired it was, it has often been debated what made The Secret of Monkey Island stand out all that much, in an era where great adventure games were coming out practically every week. Arguably, and this is the opinion I subscribe to, this can be summed up by the very first thing the protagonist, Guybrush, says in the game:

“My name is Guybrush Threepwood, and I want to be a pirate!”

And there you have it. You play as a young man that wants to live a life full of adventure, mischief and beautiful women. What follows in the game is Guybrush getting what he wished for, even if it is not as easy as he would have hoped. Who hasn’t dreamed of something like that at least ones in their lives (substitute “women” with your sexual partner of choice)? In other words, The Secret of Monkey Island is essentially the ultimate form of dream fulfilment [*5], which is arguably what games are about.

Regardless of how inspired this game was when it came out, however, it’s still a nineteen-year old game, underneath the all-new coat of paint. And are all the new additions respectful of the original, or has LucasArts gone all “Digitally Remastered” on us?

For those looking for the answer, right this way please:

Things MI SE does right:

- Age, smage. MI SE is still as funny, witty, charming and emotionally-affecting as it was nearly twenty years ago. The quality of writing is simply top-notch, almost unparalleled in the gaming industry, and in a game that’s story-based such as this one, that’s all you need.

- The all-new voice-overs work incredibly well. The main cast from MI3 and 4 are back, love ‘em or hate ‘em [*6] and they are absolutely on point, with Dominic Armato being once again outstanding in his role as Guybrush. One little detail I particularly liked about the voice-overs is the way Guybrush sounds unsure and insecure when he gives the wrong answer during his fight with the Swordmaster. Hilarious stuff.

- Speaking of new things, when it comes to graphics, the backgrounds really stand out. They are beautiful, have great animation and generally are really inspired (there’s that word again) and even though they are quite different to the original concepts on most parts, they don’t feel out of place in the least.

- The new control system is intuitive and simple enough to use. Newcomers shouldn’t have to fiddle to much with it in order to make things work.

- Even after all these years, it never ceases to amaze me how most of its puzzles are so wonderfully woven into the story itself, something all adventure games should aspire to.

Things about MI SE that aren't that hot:

- Alright, I lied. There are a few things about MI that show their age. During the “open world” segments of the game, that would be parts 1 and 3, I really wished there was an option to fast-travel to anywhere on the map. Clicking around for no other reason than to simply watch Guybrush walk about gets tedious after a while.

- Part 3, “Under Monkey Island” has always felt like the weakest part to me. There’s a general lack of direction without a clear path of where to go or what to do. This is something that really stands out in this time and age, where games practically guide us all the way through from the beginning to the end.

- While the new backgrounds are great, some of the new character sprites are a bit... eh. That’s not to say they’re bad, per se, but they lack the character of the originals. Although some, like the ridiculous-looking pirates you fight in Insult Swordfighting, do look better.

- This flaw is exclusive to the Xbox 360 version, but thanks to its god-awful d-pad, it is often hard to pick the correct verb (you do this by pressing up, down, down-left etc.) and when you’re pressed for time, this really gets on your nerves. During a specific puzzle, I had to switch to classic mode to avoid getting frustrated.

Things I just don't get:

- Was it really necessary to have the special and classic completely separate from each other, with no option to mix-and-match? I would have loved for a classic version with voice-overs, as I’m a huge sucker for Dominic Armato’s hillariousness.

The Final Verdict is:
The Genuine Article

TL;DR version:

Buy this game.

* Especially anything after #6?
[*2] It came out in 1990. Holy shit, that’s a long time ago
[*3] As well as the fact that they once made more games than just Star Wars ones
[*4] Of course, if you never played it back in the day, it will just look fugly to you
[*5] Unless you’re a ninja-zealot, I guess?
[*6] I love ‘em, so should you