"Finishing the Trilogy Off On a High Note...Then Going a Step Too Far. (Whoops.)"
by Stuart Newsom

Whether it’s school, personalities, or awkward social networks, there are some things that just bring people together. What got me in touch with our lovely all-knowing Chix0r was a mutual love - a mutual love of Monkey Island. Monkey Island is one of the first video games I actively remember playing – or, at least watching my mom play while I helped solve puzzles. (WTF is with the stupid shop guy’s bank vault? Seriously, is he a sprinter and just hiding under that grizzled beard?) It’s one of those gaming memories that has lasted me all my life. While some remember first cursing at pong or pounding quarters into Mrs. Pac-Man, I remember telling pirates they fought like bovines.

I love the series as a whole and still think it is the pinnacle of writing in a video game. Seriously, it should be a movie. (I marched right next to our lovely host in the MI film thing.) Now, we’ve already covered Monkey Island 1 and 2. Many games could stop after two and be mighty fine, but LucasArts decided to go that step further after the rabid fans yelled for more.

*SPOILER ALERT* I’M WRITING ABOUT THE THIRD AND FOURTH GAMES IN A SERIES SO OBVIOUSLY I’M GOING TO BLOW WHAT HAPPENS BEFOREHAND. IF YOU HAVEN’T PLAYED THESE GAMES, SERIOUSLY WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU? FIND A COPY SOMEWHERE, PLAY, THEN COME BACK. YOU’LL BE A BETTER HUMAN BEING BECAUSE OF IT.

After Monkey Island 2, there was a major dilemma – the “effed up” ending. LucasArts decided to go totally meta, play the Empire Strikes Back card, and make LeChuck Guybrush’s brother and then end with them both as children lost at a carnival where their parents collect them and all is well…except for Chucky having glowing red eyes and an evil smile. Cut to black, credits, the end. Wait, what? A cliffhanger? I call foul!

At least it meant there’d be a third game, right? Well, six years later came The Curse of Monkey Island. The wait was agony, but finally it came. (EDITOR’S NOTE: THAT’S WHAT SHE -) However, the Monkey Island that was presented to us began with an orchestrated soundtrack and a fully animated cutscene. Gone with the 8-bit and on to full on animation! Sweep to the side, where we see Guybrush, reciting from his captain’s log. Wait? Guybrush is…speaking?!?

Yes, there is voice acting in games 3 and 4. This could’ve gone horribly wrong, but it went fantastically right! Dominic Armato, who plays Guybrush, seems to totally feel Guybush in his soul and you can hear the care and love he puts into the character. In fact, all the characters sound exactly as they should - a perfect transition from the old to the new.

The humor is all the same, but hearing it performed with the proper comedic timing makes every joke that much more powerful. Within the first moments of the game, the major plot device, where Guybrush turns Elaine into a giant gold statue by giving her a voodoo cursed engagement ring, is a set up for a joke five levels later! We also meet Murray the Demonic Skull, one of the most hysterical characters ever to grace a cathode ray. The game even made failure funny during what I call “The Skull Island Fall,” where, if the puzzle is done incorrectly, Guybrush bounces off a rock like a superball, collides into another rock, and slides into the ocean…only to walk back onto the beach. I would fail purposely just to laugh hysterically over and over watching Guybrush bounce.

It’s the third in the trilogy, but it might be better than the second one. It even had a happy ending that tied everything up, yet had a hint of open endedness just in case. The trilogy was complete, fantastic, and worked out great.

HOWEVER, we know what happens with Lucas properties. Things go great, end nicely, but the money train feels the need to start a-rollin’, as was the case in the fourth game in the series, Escape of Monkey Island. By 2000, the point and click adventure game was almost dead - at a minimum, in an iron lung. Luckily, LucasArts had a 3D action platform, used for Grim Fandango. Unfortunately, 3D was not kind to our beloved characters (Elaine even gets a strange, stiff, almost Anime hairstyle). Everything felt stiff: the music, the graphics, even the humor! Not only that, the classic Insult Sword Fighting was replaced by Monkey Kombat, a beyond complex Rock, Paper, Scissors game. Overall, the fourth game isn’t awful – not by any stretch; it’s just a little disappointing and doesn’t feel right, which is truly sad.

When looking at Lucas franchisiside, people look at the Star Warses and the Indiana Joneses of the world, but there’s a pirate still hanging off a branch who’s feeling a similar pain. Even knowing that, all four games are worth your time and will undoubtedly sword-fight, insult, and steal their way into your hearts.

Overall Rating: CMI: 10, EMI: 7 out of 10