Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge - Xbox 360

 What We Already Know:

LucasArts’ seminal 1990 adventure game The Secret of Monkey Island introduced gamers to hapless pirate poseur Guybrush Threepwood, pirate wonder-beverage grog, and insult swordfighting, about which we shall say no more. Last year’s lush next-gen remake wasn’t so bad, either, and now 1991’s Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge is getting a similar HD treatment.

What We're Seeing Now:

Monkey Island 2 Special Edition enjoys all of the enhancements of the first Special Edition, and takes off from there. All of the classic VGA graphics are recreated in sharp high-res, with modern 3D effects and vastly improved background detail (you can switch between the old and new graphics on the fly, just to see how drastic the difference is). The music is completely redone, the series cast has contributed new voice work (which you can use with the classic graphics and skip past, should you wish), and a hint system ensures you’ll never have to beg for help on the Internet.

Then again, you just might. LeChuck’s Revenge was a massive game, roughly three times as long as its predecessor and quite a bit more challenging. The hint system will help a lot but some of the puzzles are just mind-blowingly obtuse. It may be advisable to don your thinking cap, and possibly to drink.

New features run the gamut from minor to nifty. The hint system can now highlight interactive objects, which might just give you that little push you need to solve a puzzle. Another update lets you control Guybrush directly instead of point-and-clicking, and you can further opt to use context-sensitive menus that limit your interactive choices to the few that actually make sense for a given object (which, given the zany source material, might still seem pretty weird anyway). Perhaps best of all, original game creators Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman offer recorded commentary on selected scenes, offering insights into how LeChuck’s Revenge came to be, or at least telling dirty jokes.

Make no mistake: LucasArts is listening to its fans, and Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge should provide ample proof.