Saturday, September 18, 2004

The Best Games in the World, Ever Part 1

This series of posts is to celebrate some of the best games ever made. If you have any suggestions for future posts feel free to let me know in the comments section and I will see what I can do. It's very hard to pin down exactly what is the single best game ever made as everyone has their own opinion on the matter, so each entry in this series is treated equally and no game is regarded as being better than the rest. Let's get on with the first entry, shall we?

The Secret of Monkey Island - Multi Format, but PC is easiest to come by these days.

Back in 1990, LucaArts took the adventure gaming community by storm when they released the first in the highly regarded Monkey Island series. The game saw you in the role of Guybrush Threepwood, as he attempts to fulfill his dream of becoming a mighty pirate and save his love Elaine Marley from the evil clutches of Ghost Pirate LeChuck.

It was the start of the golden age of graphic adventure games, and the easy to use interface and frustration-free design made the whole game an absolute pleasure to play from beginning to end. The gentle but entertaining sense of humour, the brilliant animation (which still holds up today), and the wide range of colourful characters such as Stan the used ship salesman and the Cannibals who are on a low-fat diet, all help make The Secret of Monkey Island one of the most endearing games ever.

I recently fired up the game once again on my PC and it's still a pleasure to play 14 years after it was first released. The graphics may be only 2D and in a fairly low resolution, but the gameplay, script, plot and attention to detail make sure it remains worthy of your time. If you've never played this game, and you're willing to try a more cerebral and slow experience than many of today's releases, then I recommend you hunt a copy of this game down on Ebay and enjoy a slice of gaming history.

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