Monkey Island 2; LeChuck's Revenge
Grade 6

Curse of Monkey Island
Grade 9

Escape from Monkey Island
Grade 7

The main character is Guybrush Threepwood, a true anti hero close to being a geek. His biggest wish in life is to become a mighty pirate. Another main character is Elaine Marley. She is a smart and beautiful girl, governor, and Guybrush’s true love. The zombie/ghost pirate LeChuck – Guybrush’s archenemy – is also struggling to gain Elaine’s heart.

It all starts with Guybrush landing in the harbour at Melee Island. He wants to become a pirate. To be a pirate he has to complete three quests given to him by the pirates at The SCUMM bar. Moments after he has finished his pirate training the governor, the beautiful Elaine Marley, is kidnapped by the fearsome living dead pirate LeChuck. Guybrush set sails for Monkey Island to find her. LeChucks secret hideout is supposed to be somewhere deep underneath the island. There is only one thing that can destroy LeChuck for ever - a voodoo anti-root.

The third part, Curse of Monkey Island, begins with Guybrush floating around on the ocean in a bumper car. He just happens to float right in the middle of a battle between Elaine and LeChuck. As always the game is about the rivalry between Guybrush and LeChuck. This time the ghost pirate is after both revenge and Elaine’s hand. In the end Guybrush is the one that wins Elaine’s heart.

Mandrill's goal is to transform the Caribbean to a huge tourist attraction by using the voodoo talisman The Ultimate Insult. Guybrush's mission is to find the talisman before Mandrill does.

Guybrush starts his journey as an innocent young boy who wants to become a mighty pirate. In the second part he has grown a beard and in the third part he has become twice as tall, he gets married and has shaved off his beard again. He defeats LeChuck over and over. In the end of the fourth part he has developed into a real... hmmm how should I put it... innocent young boy.

Some of the characters appear in all four games. There is of course Guybrush, Elaine and the ghost pirate LeChuck, but also the voodoo lady and the sales man Stan. Recognition plays a big part in the games success.

All games in the Monkey Island series are full of unforgettable sidekicks and support characters. Some of my own favourites are the demonic talking scull Murray and the diver Marco de Pollo.

Humour plays a major part in all of the Monkey Island games. It mainly consists of references to other games by Lucas Arts and to other adventure games and other contemporary phenomena. To put it simply it is a reference based humour, i.e. consists of ingame jokes. In addition to this insider humour the humour level is very low and kind of juvenile - in other words - a perfect level.

The games are also packed with "Easter eggs", secret commandos and hidden stuff. For instance - in one place in the fourth game you can play table tennis with Murray.

It is exciting to regard each game in the series as a link in a chain showing the development of the genre. Lucas Arts have always been in the front line, technically, and the first Monkey Island games were pioneering in many ways. The interface and the graphics show clearly to what point the contemporary development had reached. If you look at all the sequels at the same time you can see the best of the genre during that ten-year period.

My favourite, graphically, is Curse of Monkey Island. The backdrops are tremendously beautiful and detailed and at the same time the screens have a high degree of interactivity. The illustrations and characters are detailed without being messy.

MI1 and MI2 both use the SCUMM engine (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion). I have only played the cd-rom version of MI1 where it is updated to the same level as MI2, therefore I cannot compare the improvements between the games.

MI3 also uses the legendary SCUMM engine. At this point it is even more improved and I would dare to state that this is point and click at it's finest.

MI4 uses the GRIM engine from Grim Fandango, which means that the characters are animated in 3D and that you control the game via the keyboard.

In MI2 an option to choose between different levels of difficulty is being introduced. This is followed up in Curse of Monkey Island but is abandoned in the fourth part.

Combine a banana with a metronome and...

In all four games the puzzles are inventory based. Throughout the series the puzzles have been very farfetched. There is a certain built in Monkey Island logic in all the puzzles, though. If you start to get a feeling of how the game developers minds work, it is very entertaining to solve the puzzles. This is true for all the parts but for number two where the puzzles sometimes are too out in the blue. I would like to meet the person that made it through that part without using a walkthrough.

Some unforgettable puzzles have sprung out of this series. Take for instance "the monkey-wrench puzzle". Everyone I have spoken to clearly state that this puzzle is very, very difficult (but funny) and close to non-solvable if you don't speak English as your native language. Still - it is kind of logical and fun once you know what to do.

The characteristic of the puzzles changed quite a bit in the last (latest) game compared to the earlier ones. In MI4 a lot of puzzles were combination/number puzzles of a kind that Lucas Arts normally don’t engage in. Good or bad - you'll be the judge.

A lot of harsh words have been uttered over the depart from the pure adventure gaming Lucas Arts made with the Monkey Combat at the end of Escape from Monkey Island. I would say that they started to use mild action sequences as early as in the third part. In the first scene you use a cannon to shoot ships and later on in the game it is more of a strategy game in a scene with ships seen from above. I think these sequences were so adjusted and easy that even the hardcore adventure gamers should be able to get it right.

Who plays the monkey?

After Curse of Monkey Island the focus seemed to become a bit shattered. Could it be that Lucas Arts have target group problems with the Monkey Island series? Most adventure gamers seem to be either in the ages up to 8-9 years or 30+. It seems that Lucas Arts don't know which way to turn. You cannot reach both groups and at the same time keep the game stringent. I believe that when the first Monkey Island game was released, the target group was rather young. The games have to grow with its audience. One suggestion that might solve the problem is to differentiate the levels of difficulty even more.

Curiosities

One fun thing is that Ron Gilbert, the creator of the first two games in the Monkey Island series, got his inspiration to the game from a ride at Disneyland, California called Pirates of the Caribbean.

Guybrush V Threepwood?

So - how was it with the rumours of a fifth part? Simon Jeffery at Lucas Arts says in an interview made by the people at International House of Mojo:

At some point in the future, there will undoubtedly be more Monkey Island games. No doubt about that.

Tom Sarris, Lucas Arts says in an interview with PC Zone:

There'll definitely be another Monkey Island game. You've seen four incredibly well-done versions of Monkey Island, and there’s an immense amount of stories that remain to be told within that series. And not only that series – I mean Grim Fandango especially, we'd love to revisit.

Finally I have to mention the most well informed source of them all: the voodoo lady. In MI4 she says that she has a five game contract with Lucas Arts.

Now turn off your computer and do something constructive...

Monkey Island 2; LeChuck's Revenge, 1991
Grade 6

Curse of Monkey Island, 1997
Grade 9

Escape from Monkey Island, 2000
Grade 7

Developer: LucasArts (LucasFilm Games)
Released 1990-2000

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