14 DAY TRIAL // 
Lucas Arts' series of remakes of the venerable Monkey Island adventure games continues with the second installment: LeChuck's Revenge. I have toggled with the Xbox 360 and with the PC version and I must say I am quite impressed with the excellent remake the developers managed to deliver.
I was quite a big fan of the Monkey Island games when I was younger so it was quite a nice surprise to hear about the old trilogy getting High Definition revamps from Lucas Arts.
While the Special Edition of the Secret of Monkey Island was good enough, there were some gripes, especially with animations and the fact that in was not possible to transfer the modern voice-overs in the classic mode of the title.
The Special Edition of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge fixes the problems present in the previous one and adds a lot of features to the old game, making this quite a high quality release. For those who haven't experienced the last Monkey Island remake developed by Lucas Arts, it is good to know that the title is playable in two modes.
In the Classic Mode, you get the old graphics and control scheme from the original and, this time around, the modern voice-overs. The Special Edition mode updates both the visuals and the interface, with beautifully redrawn backgrounds and characters, plus controls suited to this day and age.
It's worth emphasizing how great these HD remakes of the old scenes look. The artists behind them are really talented and I was very pleased with the great work they've done for this blast from the past. Moreover, extra animations have been added to streamline the characters' movements, giving the title an overall better look.
The voice actors have done a great job across the board, accurately bringing to life the characters we remember so fondly. It is surprising how well Guybrush is portrayed, the voice being quite close to what I had imagined back when I played the original.
Veterans have nothing to worry about as both versions, classic and HD, are fun to play and nothing of great importance has been removed. The system that allowed the easy on-the-fly switch between modes in The Secret of Monkey Island is back in this one too, making it easy to compare and decide (or not) which iteration to play. The new artwork does a lot of a justice to the old and the new music also works great. The classic version works fine and brings back a lot of nice memories. The dancing monkey intro is unfortunately missing, but that's why YouTube was invented.
In classic mode, the game uses the interface from the past, while in HD mode, it is updated. The mouse/keyboard combo is obviously the faster way to control the title, but I am quite happy with what they've done with the Xbox 360 gamepad and Guybrush is almost as easy to command on a console as on the PC.
Another great addition to the Special Edition of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is the commentary of the three legendary original creators of the game: Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. In some of the scenes, a button prompt will appear, if the player presses that, a Mystery Science Theater rendition of the three will appear on screen and they will talk about whatever is going on at that point.
Their dialogue is both funny and insightful, really showcasing the great talent that went into the creation of this classic gaming masterpiece. The only problem with this otherwise great feature is that the scene does not pause while the three designers talk, so players should be very careful when they turn it on. This is a really sloppy piece of design that drags down the quality of the remake a bit, but the rest more than makes up for it.
Furthermore, as the game progresses, original concept art gets unlocked in the main menu, transforming this remake into a real celebration of Monkey Island 2. This is a great version both for newcomers to the series and for those of us who have played the originals, offering features that should please even the most cynical audience.
In closing, I must say I am really pleased with what Lucas Arts has achieved here. It already had this great adventure, with hard and satisfying puzzles and incredibly well written dialogue, and its developers managed to bring it up to date almost without a scratch, though I can't imagine why the dancing monkey didn't make the cut.
The new artwork is amazing, the voice acting is great and the developer commentary is spot on, making me recommend this as a purchase no matter the platform you own. I was worried that Monkey Island 2 would not be the masterpiece we all remember it to be and I must say I was wrong to doubt my memories. This is still one of the best adventure games ever made and this Special Edition does quite a lot to introduce it to modern audiences.
