Mar 18, 2019
Not A Curse For This Swashbuckling Game Series!
An honest review of The Curse of Monkey Island
Those of you who subscribe to my YouTube channel already know I’m a huge fan of the old school point and click adventure game. In fact, my whole channel is based around it.
Anything by Lucas Arts; and in particular Ron Gilbert helped shape my childhood and made me fall in love with gaming.
The Monkey Island series is probably my all time favourite series of games (closely followed by Kingdom Hearts and Mass Effect).
So naturally, when it came to playing the third instalment in the series; The Curse of Monkey Island for the first time, I was a little sceptical.
After all, it was the first Monkey Island game that Gilbert didn’t play a part in and could be seen as the game in the Monkey Island series which took a different direction.
Would it have lost the charm and witty humour that made the self proclaimed Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate the vastly popular and beloved character that he was? I was about to take the plunge to find out.
A Hand-Drawn Approach
The game begins with Guybrush recounting the events of the two previous games whilst writing in his diary, floating in a bumper car on the open sea.
The first thing to strike me was the different art style chosen for this game (see the screenshot above).
Gone are the days of the pixel-art animation I fell in love with playing The Secret Of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge.
It had been replaced with a 2D hand-drawn style more typical of an animated TV show.
It took maybe 10–15 minutes for me to get used to but actually, I found myself enjoying this different art style a lot.
In fact, it’s aged incredibly well. Hand drawn art never goes out of fashion so in some ways, it could pass as a relatively new release if you can look past the rough edges and lower resolution.
Perhaps this is one reason why Lucas Arts haven’t bothered to release a remastered version of this game like they did with the first two. How do you remaster a game which almost looks like a remaster already?
In much the same way as the remastered versions of the first two games did, the animation and in particular, the lighting and shading of the backgrounds add real atmosphere and feeling to the different environments we play in.
Something the Monkey Island games have always done incredibly well, is to make the player of the game feel like they’re actually in the places the game is set. The Curse of Monkey Island sticks also does this perfectly.
A Fun Soundtrack
Nothing brings back the nostalgia of the Monkey Island series for me like the main “introductions” theme which plays over the start of the games.
This third incarnation is slightly more upbeat and has a real Caribbean vibe to it, complete with steel pans.
As a whole, the soundtrack for the game was very enjoyable. I’ve find soundtracks in video games play a large part in the atmosphere the gamer finds themselves deeply immersed in and this one certainly lives up to that task.
At times, it’s light and humorous but it also becomes darker and more sinister when LeChuck does something significant (yes he’s still alive and back in another new form)!
Gripping Story Line
One of my favourite things about The Curse of Monkey Island is its story line. Having only previously played the first, second and fourth instalments, I wondered what they could possibly have thought up for the plot for this game.
As I said earlier, the game starts off with Guybrush recalling the events of the previous two games and what has happened since we finished Monkey Island 2 and found ourselves under LeChuck’s voodoo spell.
Guybrush is attempting to track down the love of his life; Elaine Marley and happens to sail right into to her and LeChuck having an epic naval battle. Guybrush is picked up by LeChuck’s crew and locked in the brig.
Whilst escaping, Guybrush discovers a diamond ring amongst LeChuck’s treasure and, like only Guybrush can, decides he’d like to use it to propose to Elaine.
The ring has a voodoo curse on it and turns Elaine into a solid gold statue. Guybrush goes to ask the voodoo lady for help but a group of pirates steal the gold Elaine statue whilst he’s gone (again, typical Guybrush).
The main goal of the game is to find a ring that can remove the curse and also track down the Elaine statue whilst fighting our way through all manner of puzzles and problems such as duelling banjos, fighting a man-eating snake and repeatedly falling off of a cliff-top lift.
Overall Thoughts & Feelings
To summarise my overall thoughts and feelings about The Curse of Monkey Island, I’ll refer back to the start of this review. I went into this playthrough with low expectations and slight trepidation.
Within the first 10 minutes, that was all gone. What I found was a new chapter in the Monkey Island series which took me right back to my childhood when I first discovered this wonderful set of games.
It’s quite possible that The Curse of Monkey Island has now become my second favourite game in the Monkey Island series.
Whilst I feared that I may have been about to play the weak link in the series, I ended up discovering a thrillingly enjoyable point and click adventure game that I’d sadly missed out on during my younger days.
Still, it’s never too late to unearth a gem like this is it?
For me, this game is rated as an 8/10. I’d love to see it remastered one day and would be one of the first to get a copy.
All in all, The Curse of Monkey Island certainly isn’t a curse for this series.
If you’d like to see my full playthrough of this game over on my YouTube channel, you can access the playlist right here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKoQcABlBCdY10VT6bcVME_vYYaA0jD-G
