Gird Your Insults… Monkey Island Returns

Whip out your rubber chicken and dust off your best insults because if the latest piece of gaming news is to be believed, then The Secret of Monkey Island is setting sail for XBLA. I’ve never looked forward to plank-stamping a seagull quite so much and as the word spreads, it would seem that amongst my fellow Ready Uppers at least, I’m not alone.

According to a small nugget of news on C&VG this week, a listing for the ‘Special Edition’ Xbox 360 re-release has appeared on the German USK Rating Board, sparking feverish speculation about a bigger official reveal at the upcoming E3.  With some undoubtedly prepared to dismiss the news as wishful thinking, those of us who remember the Amiga classic with the sort of misty-eyed nostalgia usually reserved for Werthers Original sucking pensioners, are going to be screaming their joy from the rooftops.

LucasArts’ The Secret of Monkey Island was released in 1990 and fast became a classic, with its quirky humour, hopeless lead, and a cast of odds and bods all serving alongside the imaginative puzzles to paint the entire game with a particular vibrancy that has rarely been matched since.  Many aspects of the game, from its self-aware nods, to the famous insult sword-fighting have gone down in gaming history as much as Guybrush Threepwood himself and his quest to become a pirate.

With the current generation of touchy-feely control schemes such as the DS pointer and the WiiMote, one would have expected Guybrush and his nemesis to have reared their heads before now, especially in these days of the cynical fast buck and retro cash-in mania… but there has only been silence from Mêlée Island ™.  At least until this exquisite sliver of information slipped onto the internet.  Could the rumours be true?  Dare we doubt the Germans and their fearsome ratings board… after all, they are hardly likely to have pulled perhaps the cruellest belated April prank conceivable are they?

So what then… is it true?  Will we be swilling Grog in the Scumm Bar and taking on the evil LeChuck before the summer is out?  I truly, madly, deeply hope so.  It has been too long.  To be able to play this classic on Live on the big TV and as the icing on the cake, actually earn achievements for it would be nothing short of pure bliss.  For a new generation to experience and (hopefully) appreciate its charms would be a wonderful thing.  The creative genius of the characters, humour, and story are responsible for its longevity and I have no doubt that it will be as playable now as it was close to twenty years ago, which is no small feat once nostalgia is set aside.

So raise a glass of Grog at the news as LeChuck sets sail once more, the Swordmaster picks up her blade, and the secrets of Monkey Island open up before our hapless hero once again.