The Secret of Monkey Island
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 8 of 24 adventure games by recommenders
Classic point-and-click adventure loved for its pixel art, music and charm; it is short, and critics say some ports were lazy conversions.
Classic point-and-click adventure loved for its pixel art, music and charm; it is short, and critics say some ports were lazy conversions.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 79%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Strong pixel art and platform assets
“with custom assets which fully used the capabilities of the various platforms”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Monkey Island for Commodore 64 Ground Up” “Amiga struck the best, IMHO, balance between good hand-crafted pixel art”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Monkey Island for Commodore 64 Ground Up” “I think the VGA version often looks better at least post-intro”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Monkey Island for Commodore 64 Ground Up” Memorable music and floppy audio
“the music on the Monkey Island CD-ROM remaster was a real jaw dropper”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Quake Shareware, a CD-ROM just a little too full” “what worked best for me was the Floppy Audio”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Monkey Island for Commodore 64 Ground Up” Nostalgic, formative childhood memories
“I love the Monkey Island games, they're a part of my childhood.”
Comment from 30 Jul 2026 in “Ron Gilbert started production on Thimbleweed Park 2” “we played it for months on the Amiga 500 at the time”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “The science of Monkey Island: can grog dissolve a metal mug that fast?” “Monkey Island taught me English.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Magic: The Gathering Took Me from N2 to Japanese Fluency”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Weak ports and conversions
“the Amiga port still feels like a good example of why there were lots of complaints about "lazy" ports”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Monkey Island for Commodore 64 Ground Up” “Based on reviews, it was a bad conversion”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Monkey Island for Commodore 64 Ground Up”
Other adventure games people recommend
The four most recommended other adventure games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sid Meier's Pirates! | 61 | 11 | 85% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Grim Fandango | 41 | 8 | 84% | 3 | 20 yrs3 owners | — |
| Myst | 31 | 7 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Monkey Island | 29 | 3 | 91% | 9 | — | Approved |
| The Secret of Monkey IslandThis page | 11 | 3 | 79% | 5 | — | Approved |
What people said
All 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's exquisite, but short. A lot of care went into that journey though.”
“we played it for months on the Amiga 500 at the time”
“the music on the Monkey Island CD-ROM remaster was a real jaw dropper”
“the only way to find the solution is to systematically try all combinations as there is no way to apply logic”
“MI1 was nice IMO. Not too hard, the insult game was innovative.”
“MI1 will always be the top for me i guess”
“I love the Monkey Island games, they're a part of my childhood.”
“Monkey Island taught me English.”
“Amiga struck the best, IMHO, balance between good hand-crafted pixel art”
“the Amiga port still feels like a good example of why there were lots of complaints about "lazy" ports”
“what worked best for me was the Floppy Audio”
“with custom assets which fully used the capabilities of the various platforms”
“Based on reviews, it was a bad conversion”
“I think the VGA version often looks better at least post-intro”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.