Here I sit, still waiting for my copy of Grim Fandango to arrive.
Meanwhile, I had ordered the LucasArts Classic Adventures, too, and got
them already, so I thought I would pop them in and see what was what. Out of the
five games included on the diskettes (yes, it’s true–diskettes!), I had only
played Loom before and so had a pretty good selection. I chose to start
with The Secret of Monkey Island because I had enjoyed Monkey Island
III (The Curse of Monkey Island) so thoroughly. (It seems as if I am
always playing more recent games in series first and then going back to the older
ones.)

You are Guybrush Threepwood, pirate wannabe. As the game opens, you
find yourself at the lookout point of Mêlée IslandTM.
You talk to the lookout to find out where to go to learn how to be a pirate. He
directs you to the SCUMM bar, where you get three missions to complete from three
disreputable, grog-drinking, “important looking pirates.” You also learn
that the pirates are unable to ply their trade because the ghost pirate LeChuck
has been patrolling the nearby waters, hoping to make off with the toothsome Governor
Elaine Marley. In the course of completing your pirate training, you meet and
fall in love with Governor Marley, and as you have just finished your last quest,
LeChuck kidnaps her and makes off to Monkey Island. You vow to rescue her, assemble
a crew, and set off for Monkey Island. There, you must befriend a castaway, a
monkey, and some cannibals to further your mission; when you have obtained what
you need, you descend into the bowels of hell to destroy LeChuck and reunite with
your sweet Elaine. LucasArts has never skimped on plot, even if it is not deeply
philosophical stuff, and this game had a lot of laughs–I give the plot an
A.

The interface is one of those where you get a list of verbs at the
bottom of the screen next to the list of your inventory. When you move your cursor
over an object that you can interact with, an appropriate verb is highlighted,
so at least you don’t have to try all of the verbs on everything. Sometimes the
highlighted verb is not the most appropriate, but you still don’t have to try
them all; it’s pretty intuitive as to which one to choose. The game plays like
every other LucasArts game I’ve ever played; you mainly learn things from conversing
with characters, pick up inventory items, and use the inventory items either with
other items or at other locations to accomplish given tasks. What I like second-best
about LucasArts games is that you can’t get stuck; if you neglected to do something
and then move past it, you can always go back again, and the program won’t let
you progress to the next phase if you haven’t completed the earlier phase. (What
I like the best is that you can’t die.) Gameplay gets a B+ instead of an
A only because I prefer the more modern style of games without the verbs.

This
is a cartoon game that was released in 1990. (In fact, the credits on the game
referred to one of the developers finally getting a 286–that brings back memories
to us geezerly types.) The graphics by today’s standards have some mighty big
pixels, but I could tell what everything was, unlike in some other older games
with big pixels. In extended conversations, LucasArts employed the very-little-or-no-movement
kind of closeups of the characters, but there were only about five instances of
that. The backgrounds were very well-drawn in inimitable LucasArts style, and
integration of the character movement on top of them was seamless. If this was
still 1990, I would give the graphics an A, and I don’t think it’s fair
to penalize them for the vast advances in personal computers since then, so I
will let my A stand.

There is no voice acting; you have to actually read
the words. The music has a Caribbean feel; lots of instruments that sound like
kettle drums with a reggae flavor. I really like it, but there is not enough of
it, due to the limitations of floppies, I guess. There were also not very many
sound effects, and what there were sounded like they had not completely made the
transition from being designed for those tinny built-in PC speakers. (I’m kind
of surprised at the quality of the music, in fact; I don’t remember sound cards
and speakers being available in 1990–they must have been, though, or else why
would LucasArts bother with music?) I give this category a B; while the
music is great, the sound effects bring down the grade.

I got a lot of pleasure
out of playing this game, but it was quick. I have played quite a few LucasArts
games and have a good feel for how they work, so I probably spent about six hours
total on this game with no hints. Actually, that’s pretty good, considering that
all five of the Classic Adventures only took up seven floppies. I enjoyed
it a lot, especially the humor. I also believe it holds up quite well in these
Pentium II, 24X CD, 16-million-color-monitor days. Overall, I rate the game
a B+ and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys LucasArts games, or for that
matter, anyone who has never played a LucasArts game. I know some folks take their
gaming pretty seriously and play only serious games–they probably don’t like
LucasArts games much–but I say gaming is supposed to be fun, and this is a fun
game.

P.S. As I was writing this, the UPS truck drove up, bearing my Grim
Fandango, so I’ve gotta go now.

Final Grade: B+