The Secret of Monkey Island (aka MI1)! I guess you all know this is my one and only favourite!

You play as ‘Guybrush Threepwood’, a pirate-wannabe who falls in love with Elaine Marley, and of course, almost every game has to have some kind of bad guy and in this game the bad guy is the evil zombie pirate ‘LeChuck’. Read more about the story below. I'll give my ratings for each point in the game separately:

Story:

As mentioned above, the story is about ‘Guybrush Threepwood’, a bloodthirsty pirate wannabe who has to face the three trials (drums)!

The first trial is that you have to Master the sword, the second one is that you'll have to Master the Art of Thievery! The third one is Treasure Hunting, yes; Guybrush will have to dig out some treasures in this game (and the treasure isn’t something you would expect! :P) The plot is basically to defeat the evil zombie pirate LeChuck! Guybrush also falls in love with the governor of Mêlée Island, Elaine. Later on in your quest you will gather a crew, and a ship, and you will set sail for Monkey Island, which you get stuck on. In the end of the game LeChuck will kidnap Elaine and try to marry her, but of course Guybrush will try to stop that from happening! Then you blow up LeChuck. Do I need to say more?

-Rating: 10/10

Graphics:

At the time when this game was released, the graphics were truly magnificent! The background has a great amount of detail on it, whether you're travelling through bright scenes or dark scenes like the woods, the background will always stun you. The designers must have put a lot of work in it! The in-game characters have a sort of blocky appearance, but are still good efforts anyway! The main character, Guybrush Threepwood looks like a sissy, with his shirt tucked in and his pretty little pony tail. The clothes make the man phrase fits exactly with Guybrush.

Overall the graphics are a pretty good effort; these graphics were way ahead of the other games so it did pretty well in the sales.

-Rating: 8/10

Sound:

Well, unfortunately the sound isn't that amazing. You sometimes hear some effects now and then, but when you do hear the main sound effects, it turns out to be pretty fun music! Like the Caribbean theme, that's pretty good. But hey, what do you expect from a game which is from the beginning of the 1990's? The music is pretty good for the atmosphere when it occurs and creates tension, but which, unfortunately, doesn't happen very often. :-(

Sound effects are mostly used to create some kind of attention in the game, like the dogs barking at you at the Governor's Mansion. There should be MUCH more music as this is a fun game and the music could improve the game a lot more!

Overall I would say that the music and sound effects are a bit between good and average, still, there should be a lot more of it!

-Rating: 6/10

Game play:

This is probably the best part of the game, the game play, is VERY good, it gets you hooked up with the game for hours! At least it did that to me. Everything in this game is based on puzzles. You go around, picking up objects and thinking of some stupid ways of using it on catching some other objects. Some of the puzzles are pretty hard and can leave the player stuck on the game for hours, except for if you check out a walkthrough which I highly recommend you don't! As you will regret it after you finish the game, as it is such a fun game! Even so, if you do need to check a walkthrough, we here at Diskworld have one.

The commands are basically at the bottom of the screen in text format, it will show some commands such as “LOOK AT, GIVE, USE, TALK TO, PICK UP, PUSH, PULL”, among others. All you have to do is click on the required command, and then click on the object you want to use the command with. The item description usually appears just above the commands, like "TALK TO Important-Looking Pirates." or "PICK UP Chicken".

One of the most fascinating things in this game is Sword Insult-Fighting. Like when you're fighting other pirates you will get an insult, example: He/She says: "You fight like a dairy farmer." Then you say: "How appropriate! You fight like a cow!". This is one of the most enjoyable things in the game, so enjoy it!

There's one thing I've forgotten to tell you all, that is that this game is VERY humorous! The humour makes this game very user-friendly, and appropriate for all ages. Another thing about the game is that you can't die, which is pretty damn good thinking actually. No matter what you try, the character just won’t… urr, well unless you cheat, he just won’t die!

Well, as a round up for this section, all I can say is that the game play is absolutely BRILLIANT! Some puzzles may be too hard for some people, but that just makes it more fun when you do finally accomplish them!

-Rating: 10/10

Lifespan, Humour and the Challenge:

Well, the Lifespan is pretty damn long, compared to the fact that this is a small game and you'll spend a lot of time trying to beat it. This is also that kind of game which you can play the game through again and again and beat it with different ways, which is a really fun feature!

The Humour in this game is Brilliant! By the time you've read through this I'm sure you’ll feel the same! The Humour is one of the many things that will keep you hooked on this game from the beginning to the end! The challenge I'd say is pretty tough, it's not an easy game to beat and some less-experienced players might find themselves stuck in some parts of the game. Still, the Challenge is pretty good.

-Lifespan Rating: 7/10

-Humour Rating: 10/10

-Challenge Rating: 9/10

Overall:

As an overall conclusion, “The Secret of Monkey Island” is a fantastic game which I'm sure almost everyone will enjoy! It's packed with fun, humour and puzzles. Obviously Lucas Arts have put a lot of work and care in this game, and it shows!

I would recommend this game to anyone who is in for a laugh and a LOT of fun! I would say this game is perfect for people aged between 7 to 30 years. This game and in-fact the whole Monkey Island series are some of the best games I have ever experienced. I completed this game when I was about 8 years old, and I was determined to get all the other games that would come out and had came out. As I said, this game is brilliant, get it NOW as you will be in for a lot of fun!

-Overall Rating: 10/10