- You're as repulsive as a monkey in a negligée!
- I look that much like your fiancée?

Genre: Point ‘n Click Adventure

Created by: Lucasarts

Published by: Lucasarts

I’ll get straight to the point. You are Guybrush Threepwood, a "fearsome and ferocious" pirate. But actually, you’re kinda pathetic.The Lord (I’m referring now to God, you worthless atheists!) however has blessed you with a brain, something that most pirates lack. When the game starts, you hear the awfully loud "buzz" of the THX Sound System, but instead of THX you see CMI. This is one example of the briliant humor of CMI. Then you see a logo of Lucasarts, which flies away from the screen, like a treasure map. You’re now looking at Monkey Island. The camera then turns to the right, where you will see our hero in a bumper car, floating on the ocean, writing in his diary. He calls it "Captains Log", to keep his born "macho" nature. He looks like he’s hungry, and he wishes in the diary for some food. And while he’s writing, everything he wishes for floats right by him. But because he is deeply occupied with writing, he doesn’t notice it. This is yet another great example of briliant humor. And now I’m going to stop about the intro, because otherwise i’ll say too much. Buy the game if you want to know what happens next.(Lucasarts is paying me big time for this!) A little later in the game Elaine, the woman you love, is turned into a gold statue by you arch nemesis, the zombie-pirate LeChuck. The adventure can begin! Save Elaine and stop LeChuck in this great and hilarious adventure! (tching, tching,$$$$$!)

The most powerful weapon of this game is its humor. I’ve already gave you two examples, I’ll give you few more. The makers of the game sometimes try to set you up: Warning! I’m now giving the solution of a puzzle. Skip if you really want to be suprised..... Ok, here it goes. On the ship of LeChuck in the begin of the game, you’ll wind up in LeChucks secret treasure hold. How do you get out of there? On the ceiling you see a "gaping hole to surface", as so the game says. Every normal person will try to find a way to get up there, but nooo! You’ll have to cut the glass of the porthole with the diamond ring that lies there somewhere, I believe it is under the bag of wooden nickels. Another example of the humor: There is a " high-sees-combat" part in the game, where you first shoot your opponent down. When you win, you’ll get on the deck of the enemy’s ship. To get his treasure, you must insult him. When he finds another insult that rhimes on yours, he get the turn. When he makes an insult and you can’t "answer" him, you lose one step. Once you lose three steps, you’ve lost. When you win three times, you win and get the treasure. With that, you can buy new cannons for your ship, so you can eventually battle Captain Rottingham, which has something you need to continue the game. I’ll give you one insult and it’s responce, just to give you a picture:

The foe says: You’re as repulsive as a monkey in a negligée!

And you say: I look that much like your fiancée?

The humor even gets past the game, into the menu: There is an option that says:"Enable 3D acelleration". Me and most 3D card owners were probably very delighted, and I clicked on the option. But when I clicked on it, the following message appeared:"We were only kidding". When you click again, they say:"You can click as many times as you want, nothing is going to happen!" At that time I thought: The SOB’s....

The music is also great, it brings you in the mood at the right time. The voices are well-chosen, it was like these persons were born to play these characters! The graphics are classic Lucasarts-drawn surroundings. No 3D crap, just pure high quality and highly decorated sets. Guybrush is well-controlable, and he does his actions by an à la Full Throttle interface. In the game I truely felt one with Guybrush.

EP sez:

The Curse of Monkey Island is a high quality, first class adventure created by the geniuses of Lucasarts. They have strenghtened their dominance in the world of adventure, showing that they are still the boss. The humor, music and characters are only a few up-points of the game, a game that is by my opinion, the most perfect and hilarious adventure game ever.

(c) 1998 Erwin's Pages
Erwin "Reaper" Husin

Score

Gameplay: 9,5

Graphics: 9

Sound & Music: 9,5

Addictiviness: 9

Overall: 93%

Links

> Lucasarts