[PC] Return to Monkey Island (2022)

How:
Got it through GOG for my birthday!

Pros:
- Several genuinely funny moments
- Great music, colorful graphics, several cutscenes
- Great voice-overs in general, with some misplaced accents
- Solid puzzles, although a bit on the easy side

Cons:
- Inventory grows fast pretty soon, although it does not get too confusing
- Some very sad vibes
- Some graphics are a bit below the bar
- Could have been longer

A small cameo of the purple tentacle from Day of the Tentacle (on the table).

[PC] Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon (1989)

How:
Got with the Activision Quests sale at GOG.com.
Pros:
- Very nice, consistent graphics and smooth animations
- Nice, rewarding puzzles as usual
- Less dead ends than previous installments
- Nice mood and some tense moments (e.g. fighting with the killer robot)
- Amusing close-ups and cut-scenes
Cons:
- Very abrupt ending, passed from a score of 308 to 598 in a matter of minutes
- Many unused inventory items
- I finished the game without playing Astro Chicken and thus without deciphering the help message within the game. This means I solved puzzles blindly without any clue regarding the plot (except for what I gathered from the manual).

My final score. This time I had absolutely no idea what I missed before reading a walkthrough.

The mini-game you get to play at the burger place...

...looks strangely similar to Joe Galaxy (Italian comic).

[PC] Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter (1986)

How:
Never played the game before, got during the Activision Quests sale at GOG.com.
Puzzles:
I only had to look up one puzzle, namely how to get the shard of glass from the crashed pod. I did have the idea of taking glass from there, but couldn't find any. It turns out that it only works if you examine the pod from behind (not from the side).
Pros:
- The command-line based interface is a favorite of mine
- Red herrings and moderately challenging puzzles make the game very satisfying to beat
- Amusing ways to die and optional puzzles (e.g. buying the wrong spaceship)
- The unfolding story remains fascinating, as simple as it is
- Likable main character
- Nice, tense escape moments
Cons:
- Some random, unpredictable deaths
- Parser is not so smart

Getting the maximum possible amount of buckazoids at the slot matchine.

My final score. Will I ever finish a Sierra game with the maximum score?
Basically I didn't talk to and kiss the Sarien guard this time around.

[PC] Monkey Island 2: Special Edition (2010)

Pros:
- Beautiful graphics and music
- Can play both versions at any time with a cool transient effect
- Much more fluent and swift than the original
Cons:
- Can't skip dialogue
- Music is not given proper weight, buggy transitions
- Guybrush seems floating when walking towards the screen
- New graphics and voiceovers kill much of the creepiness and goofiness of the original game
- The last part needs a very quick hand

[PC] Jack Keane (2007)

Pros:
- A lengthy, fun adventure which is pleasant to the eye
- Beautiful scenery
- Nice music
- Nice, lighthearted mood overall with fun dialogues, likable characters and lots of humor
- Good voiceovers
- Nice puzzles with some red herrings
- You get to visit many places, and use two different characters
- Unexpectedly fun situations, e.g. you move Jack around on the ceiling completely naked covering his private parts and sneaking behind the bad guys with Amanda distracting them
- Climb up! Up! And up!
Cons:
- Even if simple enough, mouse control is unclear and glitchy
- Ugly inventory
- Some pixel (vertex?) hunting
- Animations have up's and down's
- It can be difficult to understand what locations are explorable, and instructing the character around with the camera moving can be a REAL pain
- Some movement glitches (e.g. when walking on stairs)
- Some buggy dialogues and inventory combinations, not taking into account past events, or preceding future ones
- Amanda somewhat lacks character, and that long coat doesn't fit her much 

[FC] Final Fantasy II (1988)

Pros:
- The game opens right into the action!

- An emotional story shyly appears, we start to create bonds with characters
- Very nice music
- Nice graphics, animations improve on FF a little bit
- Many mysterious items, weapons, magic spells, armors
- A huge world, completely explorable since the beginning
- Many characters and monster types
- There is a dungeon in the belly of a Leviathan
Cons:
- The skill/leveling system is so much wrong, annoying, frustrating, deteriorating, and so much wrong
- The chocobo makes its appearance but is not much usable in practice (too distant, runs away after every ride)
- Quests are of the "chase the wild goose" type
- Random encounters are way too frequent
- The leveling system is so wrong
- Can't get rid of key inventory items once you've used them
- Too many trap doors
- Did I mention how wrong is the leveling system?

[PC] Mystery Case Files: 13th Skull (2010)

Pros:
- Puzzles are well integrated and of average difficulty, making for a pretty casual long game (around 10-11 hours)
- Many human characters to interact with
- Excellent art and production (as always), with human actors well integrated into the environment
- Engaging mystery
Cons:
- The game tells you what needs to be done
- A handful of hints and objects are useless as they refer to the Collector's Edition
- Acting skills are sometimes dubious
- Dialogues are one-shot and there is not much of a choice
- A couple of ill-posed puzzles
- Many silly puzzles, e.g. dispose rubbish, make gumbo and look out for brushes and dusters for the housekeeper
- At times, the diary reveals facts that are still to be discovered

[PC] Tales of Monkey Island - Episodes 1-5 (2009)

Pros:
- Very funny and likable
- Excellent dubbing
- Adventurous, intriguing story
- Excellent animations, facial expressions do their damn work
- Beautifully described characters
- Excellent music (as always)
- Excellent graphics and landscapes (as always)
- A plot full of twists, always keeps you wanting for more
Cons:
- Puzzles are very simple, although not trivial nor silly
- The movement system is incredibly unpractical and frustrating
- Some glitches, requires a good amount of computational resources to run fluently
- Too many recipe-like and map-like puzzles, too much arcade in the final segment

[PC] Jolly Rover (2010)

Pro:
- Spiritoso, smart, divertente e originale
- Avventura dinamica e rocambolesca
- Personaggi ben caratterizzati
- Gli elementi di casual gaming contribuiscono alla longevità
- Simpatica trovata del voodoo
- Enigmi ben calibrati
- Interessante sistema di hint in-game
- Bei disegni e animazioni
- Belle musiche
- Buon doppiaggio
Contro:
- Qualche volta la grafica degli sfondi cala un po' di qualità
- Trae ispirazione parecchio da Monkey Island

[PC] The Curse of Monkey Island (1997)

Pro:
- Divertente, rilassante e molto longevo
- Enigmi molto belli e ben congegnati
- Musiche stupende
- Dialoghi divertenti come sempre
- Doppiaggio ottimo
- Cut-scene ottimamente realizzate, così anche le animazioni e le ambientazioni
Contro:
- C'è di nuovo una prova di spada e di cannoni, che può annoiare (anche se si può scegliere di saltarla)
- La grafica molto cartoonesca rovina un pò il mood originale (LeChuck è addirittura simpatico)

[Amiga][PC] Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1992)

Pro:
- Storia bellissima, dialoghi, musica e grafica altrettanto
- Si incontrano i personaggi del primo gioco
- Ottimi enigmi
- Divertente e spiritoso più del primo
- Si può giocare a due livelli di difficoltà
- Ottima longevità
Contro:
- La parte finale dell'inseguimento può diventare frustrante
- Un paio di enigmi hanno poco senso (uno è basato su un gioco di parole inglese che in italiano non funziona)

[Amiga][PC (VGA,EGA)] The Secret of Monkey Island (1991)

How:
My father got the game for my Amiga in my last year of primary school.
Pro:
- Storia e sceneggiatura epiche
- Grafica, colonna sonora e animazioni meravigliose
- Enigmi geniali
- Si può fare di tutto e nulla è lasciato al caso
- Longevità eccellente
- Dialoghi ottimi
- Divertente e spiritoso
Contro:
- La prova di spada può seccare

Ending in the PC EGA version:

 

[Amiga] Hook (1992)

Pro:
- Rende abbastanza giustizia al film
- Ottima musica e ottima grafica
- Enigmi interessanti e non banali
- Viene spesso voglia di rigiocarlo
Contro:
- Pochi dialoghi, il cui solo scopo è dare suggerimenti per gli enigmi o crearne di nuovi
- Troppo breve, il gioco finisce proprio sul più bello