Retro|Spective 165: Monkey Island

[Neon Ignition]

History in Games:
1990 - The Secret of Monkey Island
1991 - Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
1996 - Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge Remastered CD
1997 - The Curse of Monkey Island
2000 - Escape from Monkey Island
2009 - Tales from Monkey Island
2009 - The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
2010 - Monkey Island 2: :LeChuck's Revenge Special Edition

Overview:
Riding on the more humourous lighter end of Lucasarts point and click adventure games, the fourth wall breaking high seas sailing series spanned five unique adventures over the course of twenty years as players aided Guybrush through each tale surviving the mysterious of the titles Monkey Island. For a while the franchise stood tall amongst the PC gaming market but now it falls deep under lock and key within the Disney vault.






What are your memories and experiences of Monkey Island?

[Cepp]

The first game is my favourite. Superb writing and art.

I didn't play it properly until the remake came out. I switched to the original art and got to the scene where Elaine reveals herself. The game shows a full screen pixel art portrait of her and Guybrush is just lost for words. After seeing that image, I could believe it! This was in 2011ish but it really hit me at the time.

Apart from that, I've only played the sequel which was fun but didn't have the same impact for me.

[Digfox]

I played the second one on Amiga first with its 11 disks! And I actually bought the game and a box of floppies with it to protect the disks, rather than copy it, like everyone did.

Loved every minute of it, including that ending. Went back and played the original in the late 90's on PC and was just as good. So I think of the first two very fondly although in places the second one definitely feels more accomplished in how they built on the first game.

The third one is where things go awry and don't feel like the same series to me. I've not tried the Telltales game.

This thread reminds me I should try the 1&2 remakes.

[Cepp]

The artwork isn't anywhere near as good in the remake but I'm not sure it ever could be tbh. The way you can instantly switch between both styles was really cool though, and the first instance of that kind of feature that I know of.

[Neon Ignition]

I've owned the first two and the Tales game but only went through the special edition of the first. I tailed off the second about maybe a third of the way in as it felt very samey and though they were likeable it felt like there was an air of having to be there at the time.