The International House of Mojo

That's true, I was acting a bit spoiled on that front. I figure I'll need to add something else I really liked about the special editions (I don't think the developers were evil, just limited by budget/time): the soundtrack for both games is really, really good. They reinterpret some stuff there as well (the Guybrush/Elaine love song from MI1 comes to mind), but it all works splendidly.

Maybe I reached the point I reached with Star Wars a couple of years ago and stop complaining about these things. There's a lot of good Lucas stuff coming up after all.

On the plus side, they coded the engine so that any art assets found in the directory would be loaded instead of those in the game's container files. I don't know if they did that on purpose, or accidentally left it open when it shipped. But, it's good that they did, since a lot of the nitpicky stuff in the art that fans didn't like has already been fixed by fans (and I'll fully admit that I'm of the nitpicky sort myself. I much prefer playing the special edition with the fan patches).

Complaining about the voice acting is the definition of looking a gift horse in the mouth, for the reasons you admit. It's absolutely the best voice work that could have been accomplished given that it was applied to a game made in 1990, and it is of course optional, like everything else. I'm still delighted to know that voicework for MI1 starring Dom and directed by Darragh O'Farrell exists.

No excuse for the font on all those signs though.

I don't necessarily mind them reinterpreting the original art for a remake - after all, the classic is still there to be played if you want something that looks exactly the same as it used to do (I'm disregarding the graphical/audio glitches in classic mode for the Monkey SE's at the moment). Trying to give those games a more detailed artstyle changes the feel of the game, whatever you do. The problem was that the artstyle they chose was simply ugly. Environments were often messy (especially in the first one). I don't mind the added details like the added ships in the Melee Island docks for instance, but it's clear that certain locations just got a lot more attention than others. Like the comic sans wordart used for Stan's shack or the ugly use of color in pretty much the entire game. The original felt like every scene was made to look pretty, to lose yourself in. Can't say the remake had the same effect for me. A lot of the mood was spoiled for me because of the awkward voices (not the actor's fault mind, mostly the fact that the script works better when you just read it, and the spoken lines had all these awkward pauses killing all sense of timing). Also I'm a grumpy old fart.

They learned a lot at the time of the second remake though. I'll give them that.

Still, I trust Double Fine to give this the attention it deserves. Can't imagine them releasing a version of DOTT that looks like the MI:SE.

I'm not expressing love for MI1:SE's art when I say that pointing to the 256 color close-ups for evidence that the original game isn't cartoony is unconvincing. Those close-ups themselves are "remakes" from Purcell's EGA originals which were far more compatible with the game that surrounds them.

I don't buy this idea that Monkey Island graphics were too crude to have a set style. The game is full of big closeups of what the characters looked like, and the graphical style isn't that different from what you see in the Indy games. The special edition made a conscious choice to force a cartoony style on the game that wasn't there originally.

The interface was a pain to use in the first special edition on the computer and console versions. I sometimes either switched to classic mode or used shortcut keys instead of the clunky system of bringing up the inventory individually for each item and then scrolling through the icons for the verb you want to use (I kept on running out of time on the mug puzzle when trying to use the special edition's standard controls). The iOS version is really good though, as it has a streamlined classic interface, with the icons for verbs and inventory always at the bottom of the screen.

Care to elaborate on that they messed up? I always hear this complaint from MI purists yet never hear anything constructive to go along with it. Like I said in my earlier response, if it has to do with the art style, you do have to realize that's completely subjective as the game was too old and the graphics were too crude to really have a set style to comply with, so it was left to interpretation. In any case, what would you have done differently? I'm genuinely interested.

I am still very pissed that Lucasarts and LA Singapore messed up the first Monkey Island special edition. That has always been more valuable to me than the second game, which is also a great game of course.

They should have had the commentary reel already in place for the first game and not mess up the character graphics like Guybrush's hair etc.

*sense

Damn iPad autocorrect

I knew it. I even said when they announced DOTT special edition would they be using the Singapore assets it makes since if it's there and ready to use

It's not all that tricky. Monkey Island was created before the characters could really take shape, so it left a lot of room to the imagination when creating the Special Edition. Day of the Tentacle, on the other hand, came at a time when you can tell what the actual characters look like, so rest assured it's not going to be that much of a change from the original.

Also, that's an exciting thread to read. It feels like I'm watching this guy receive the assets from LucasArts in real time.

It's important that classic mode is offered for this game in a way that wasn't necessary for Grim (even though I appreciated it).

It doesn't shock me that it's being hinted that the Singapore assets are decent. Monkey Island 2: SE was a damned marked improvement over Monkey Island 1: SE.

I'm more eager to hear whether or not they were able to find the uncompressed voice recordings. Also the new score will undoubtedly be incredible. Maybe they could invite Jesse Harlin to pitch in if McConnell needs some help? Dude has certainly earned his credibility on the Monkey Island remakes. The soundtracks alone justified those efforts.

This is a tricky subject. I'm one of those people who didn't care for the Monkey special editions, especially the characters. The backgrounds were better in the second game, but still.

At least DF has enough talent in-house to improve on them as needed though.