The Curse of Monkey Island

[Reject_666_6]

I saw Yahtzee's review of Tales of Monkey island last week (it came out a few weeks ago but I forgot to check the site for a while) and something he said surprised me, namely that CMI should be lumped alongside EMI and TMI as watered-down fan-wank when compared to the first two games.

Now, CMI was one of the first non-platforming games I've ever enjoyed as a kid and have fond memories of it (I replayed it around 5 times), and I also liked the first two games a lot - I even thought that EMI was pretty decent, aside from its horrible graphics - but is CMI really looked down upon as dumbed down shit by most fans of the series?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Definitely on par with the others. Yahtzee doesn't even know what he doesn't know.

 

[phanboy_iv]

COMI is fan-friggin'-tastic. Sure the ending is a bit of a miss, but it's a stellar game overall.

 

[catfood]

I liked it a lot and in fact it's the first in the series that I've played. Then again I also like the fourth installment.

 

[Metro]

Yeah, the ending was horrible but overall it was a solid addition to the series and there are many memorable moments from it. I think a lot of people view it as en vogue to dismiss it because it was the first one to not involve Ron Gilbert.

 

[asper]

ES EL POLLO DIABLO!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E28WrhpTzQA

Of course it's a brilliant game, absolutely great visuals, humor and puzzles. I'm not sure if the first two parts aren't better though, but who cares, all three are excellent games. Everyone should play the first three Monkey Islands, the fourth and fifth can be skipped.

 

[laffer35]

Worse than the first two but better than the last two.

The humor didn't appeal to me as much as in the first two games, I found it too easy and I didn't like the last chapter much at all.
I also didn't like the art direction they took... don't get me wrong, the backgrounds look fantastic, but they're not the graphics I'd want in a MI game.
And because of CMI, all later MI games have that really exaggerated cartoony look.

 

[Quilty]

For me it's the best in the whole series. Admittedly, it's the first I played, so that may have influenced me quite a bit, but I feel it has a better sense of humor and better writing. Also, anything hand-drawn in games makes me weep with joy.

Death to these THREE-DEE abominations!

 

[HanoverF]

I think if people love the emo ending of MI2 they hate MI3. Hence Yahtzee hates MI3.

 

[WDeranged]

I think its a hair's breadth below the first two in terms of gameplay but the art direction and voice work is so damn good it makes up for all those ship combat sections.

 

[Metro]

I will say, though, that Zombie Pirate LeChuck > Demon Pirate LeChuck > Ghost Pirate LeChuck.

 

[ghostdog]

All first 3 MIs are very good but in my opinion :

MI1>MI2>MI3>....>MI4+

 

[Castanova]

It's my favorite of the series followed by MI1 then MI2. The rest are not worth playing, imo.

 

[DriacKin]

The Secret of Monkey Island game was the first video game I've ever played. And as a result, it's always had a special place in my heart.

I don't consider Curse to be nearly as good as the first two, although it still has its great moments and a lot of good humor. Even though it might not be as good as the first two, it's still a worthy sequel, imo.

 

[Darth Slaughter]

Well, I love the monkey island series. But truth be told, 2 and 3 are funnier for me than the first one.

This is due to the fact that when i played the 1st monkey I barely knew english. And I aways played it with the feeling it was a serious pirate game. There were fun moments, but the core was as serious as Indiana jones and the last crusade, fate of atlantis and other lucas games from that time, which all had a dose of humour.

The second monkey game was a masterpiece. Every single thing in that game was a joke. and normally, it was aways funny. And it assumed itself as a humour title, by having cartoon animation like twisting necks, jawdroping animation and eyeballs leaving their sockets. And when i played the 1st time, I was better at english. The joke I remember the most is the mug-shot poster of guybrush in Phatt Island, that would describe every crime guybrush made up to that point and it would go on updating.

I think monkey 3 is on par with 2 in the joke/funny level. Clever recurring jokes (papapishu). What bothered me the most at the fisrt time was the design of the characters, now really cartoon.

But after playing about 20 times each game, knowing them by heart, I learned to appreciate monkey 1 subtle humour (it was mostly dialogue humour), but the 1st time is the one that marks us, and for me monkey 2 is unbeatable, and monkey 3 comes second. Monkey 1 is just like "the classic".

Though i like monkey 4, It is a game that tries to be funny but is not aways succesfull.

Tales is going ok. I liked the second episode better that the 1st.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

To me, Curse is the best one. And it's one of the few games which I give extra points for the graphics.

 

[OSK]

All first 3 MIs are very good but in my opinion :

MI1>MI2>MI3>....>MI4+

MI2 > MI1 > MI3 > crap

 

[VonVentrue]

All first 3 MIs are very good but in my opinion :

MI2>MI1>MI3>....>MI4+

Fixed.
LeChuck's Revenge is the most charming, intriguing, best designed game in the series - how is that even debatable? Besides, nothing can beat the ending's surreal nature which sparked the debate regarding its meaning - the debate that is still ongoing, even after all those years.
"Curse..." isn't THE MI3 we were supposed to get, but I would lie if I said I didn't enjoy every minute of it.

 

[Berekän]

MI2 > MI1 > MI3

This

 

[DriacKin]

I'm surprised there so many of you that consider 'Lechuck's Revenge' to be better than the original.

 

[Berekän]

Well, it looks to me that 'Lechuk's Revenge' had more interesting puzzles in general (combined with some non-linearity so if you felt frustated at some puzzle you could always go to another island) and it had a lot more humour and jokes all the way.

Anyway, I think both first two games are masterpieces of Lucasart's Golden Era, the 3rd game though doesn't qualifies to such a great honor it still manages to be a good and fun adventure game.

The 4th... well, it was just a mix of bad jokes and history (though I enjoyed the school-alarm puzzle )

 

[WDeranged]

Yeah, I never completed Escape, it just drags on and you can't feel much humanity in it.

MI2 > MI1 > MI3 > Tales > MI4

Tales is looking OK so far, shame about the recycled assets and shitty character design because the writing isn't bad at all.

 

[Reject_666_6]

So Curse is well-liked among the codexites. That's good.

So would you guys recommend playing Tales? I thought the art direction looks horrible, but it might have some amusement in its writing.

 

[WDeranged]

I'd say it's worth a shot, it's cheap and there is decent humour in there, rough edges though, it's not an insanely polished jewel like the first three.

 

[NotAnAlt]

The hell have people got against 4?