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Oh, to be a pirate. To sail the high seas, sword in hand, patch on eye, parrot on shoulder and wood on leg. That's the life for young Guybrush Threepwood, who has never wanted anything more than to be spoken of in the same hushed whispers as Long John Silver, Captain Hook and Bluebeard.

Unfortunately Guybrush's home town - Melee Island - is in the midst of something of a buccaneering depression. Pirates have become very safety-conscious, due to an evil spirit known as LeChuck roaming the seas between Melee and the mysterious Monkey Island in his ghoulish galleon, killing everything and everyone he comes across.

And as if that wasn't enough to hinder a young pirate-wannabe's progress, the PTA (Pirate Tenant's Association) has demanded that our hero complete its three tests of thievery, sword-playery and treasure-huntery before they'll even let him apply for membership. Should Guybrush pass all three of these, then, just maybe, he'll be able to discover the secret of Monkey Island.

Just when you thought that it was safe to be a pirate again... LeChuck's back and he's out for revenge. The Secret Of Monkey Island II (a proper name has yet to be thought of) brings back most of the original cast, takes Guybrush across many different islands and tells jokes even worse than those in the first.

Digitised artwork is the current fashion amongst American adventure programmers - and Lucasfilm isn't a company to be left out. Each of the screens in the sequel is an original piece of airbrushed artwork, digitised, touched-up and generally mutilated to bring to life Guybrush's world of walked planks and grog-swilling pirates.

The sequel is still a long way from completion, but thanks to the response that the first game received, it should be one of the biggest releases Lucasfilm has ever had. Its only main competition should be the next in the Indiana Jones series.

Since the far-off days of October '89, there hasn't been an interactive adventure to beat Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade. Neither the silky graphics of Delphine, the sheer size of Sierra nor the complete absence of Infocom have been able to match the fun and excitement that Indy generated.

However, The Secret Of Monkey Island is about to change all of that. Lucasfilm appears to have taken all of the elements that worked in its previous releases and, not only incorporated them into this tale of scurvy swashbuckling, but even improved on them in the process! A hilarious storyline, strong characters and an intriguing setting make it impossible to fault the gameplay, while ever the near-perfect SCUMM control method has been improved.

If I do have one gripe, it's with the graphics. Although they're detailed to the point of perfection, the animation slows down tremendously when there's a lot happening on-screen. Add to that a somewhat jerky horizontal scroll and a fair amount of disk swapping and you've got the faults wrapped up.

Everything else works fine. The Secret Of Monkey Island is further proof that the Americans rule the micro movie world, with Lucasfilm once again showing the rest of us how to do things - and how to do them well.