Monkey Island (series)
From MIwiki
The Monkey Island series is a series of four adventure games published by LucasArts. Players play as protagonist Guybrush Threepwood during all games, revolving around his love Elaine Marley and the evil pirate LeChuck, an undead pirate who terrorises the Tri-Island area.
The first two games, The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge were created by Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. By the third and fourth games, Curse of Monkey Island and Escape from Monkey Island Ron Gilbert had left LucasArts to create his own company, so the games were made by a different developing team.
Monkey Island is noteably different from other adventure games, especially those from Sierra because the main character can not die. Although there are some jokes within the game, such as if you leave Guybrush underwater for more than 10 minutes, Guybrush can die and you must re-load from a previous save point. These events though happen sparingly. Ron Gilbert claimed that deaths in an adventure game were down to "bad design of puzzles"[1].
Contents |
Secret of Monkey Island
It was originally thought up by Rob Gilbert who claims to have got inspiration from the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' Disneyland ride and also the book 'On Stranger Tides' [2].
You play as Guybrush, who has just washed up on the beaches of Melee Island with an urge to become a pirate. After speaking to the pirate leaders at the Scumm Bar he finds out that to become a pirate he must prove himself in the arts of thievery, sword fighting and treasure hunting". However, he soon learns that undead pirate LeChuck has captured the governor of Melee Island, Elaine Marley and Guybrush sets out on a journey to Monkey Island, a mysterious Island in the Tri-Island area to try to recue her and beat LeChuck.
It uses the "SCUMM Engine" where the player uses verbs at the bottom of the screen to control Guybrush's actions and the mouse the move him.
It was well received by fans of the series, scoring highly[3].
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
See Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge for more information.
This was named as one of the most anticipated game sequels [4] after the success of the first game and also tops lists of best adventure games.
This time you play as Guybrush Threepwood who we find dangling from a rope talking to Elaine. He tells his story of how he got into this position, by telling his story (which you play through). In his search for the treasure Big Whoop meets an old henchman of LeChuck, Largo LaGrande who manages to revive LeChuck. Guybrush then must stop LeChuck once more, who is now in Zombie form.
Once again, there are inspirations from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride at Disneyland, such as Guybrush in jail having to bribe the jail dog with a bone.
Once again the game uses the SCUMM engine.
It was also well recieved by fans of the series, scoring high in reviews[5].
Curse of Monkey Island
See Curse of Monkey Island for more information.
This was the first Monkey Island game developed without original creator Ron Gilbert. Instead, this game was made by Jonathan Ackley and Larry Ahern. Ron Gilbert always claimed that Monkey Island was to be a trilogy but without his involvement his own versions of events were not included.
Guybrush, after being tricked by Zombie pirate LeChuck is found floating out at sea on a bumper cart, longing for Elaine when he floats in between a ship battle between Elaine and LeChuck who is then captured and, after making his way out of the ship, then proposed to Elaine with a cursed diamond ring which turns her into gold. You must then travel around islands trying to break the curse and beat LeChuck once more.
Graphically, the game was vibrant with colours and hand-drawn , something the game was praised for, along with the rest of the game itself[6].
It was the first Monkey Island game to include voice acting, which was provided by Dominic Armato for Guybrush and Alexandra Boyd provided the voice acting for Elaine.
Once again the Scumm engine was used but this time it was upgraded to a 'verb coin' which allowed a clearer interface, with the inventory and actions being visible on click, rather than on the bottom of the screen.
Escape from Monkey Island
See Escape from Monkey Island from more information.
This is the fourth, and, up to date, final game from the Monkey Island series. Made once again by LucasArts this time the game was 3D.
Guybrush, after coming off his honeymoon with Elaine, finds that her mansion is being repossessed, and that Elaine has been declared dead. Ozzie Mandrill, a land developer is going throughout the Caribbean buying properties and trying to rid the lands of pirates with The Ultimate Insult, a weapon used to dissolve the ego's of pirates. Guybrush must find try to stop all this, and try to get Elaine declared governor again.
The game was over-seen by Sean Clark and Michael Stemmle and the 3D graphics have been criticised by some fans. The engine used to create the game was not the Scumm engine but instead the LUA engine, an upgrade of the Grime Engine used to make grim Fandango. Instead of mouse control players now control Guybrush with the keyboard.
Other criticisms came from the game including plot retcons and the less piratey feel of the games.
Reviews of the game have been less generous than the other games yet overall it has recieved positive reviews[7].
Monkey Island 5
Although there is no title announced, with LucasArts cancelling many of their adventure games in production and with no games being presently made, there have been many rumours about a future game .[8]. however, such rumours appear to have little evidence. The largest rumour came from LucasArts themselves at E3 in 2006 where Jim Ward, executive of LucasArts claimed they would go back to their classic series in the next decade[9].
Movie
Nothing was known of this planned movie until Dominic Armato spoke about the LucasArts plan to do a Monkey Island movie, only after it had already been cancelled[10]. however, the first real piece of evidence was when artwork was released on the internet after a discovery made on the portfolio ofTony Stacchi. Not long after did Steve Purcell release some concept art for the movie to Worldofmi[11]. A few days after these events which had shown strong evidence of a planned movie did an anonymous source reveal that the movie script was actually written by Ted Elliot, who later went on to write the Pirates of the Caribbean movies[12].
Play
Although no Monkey Island movie was ever released, a play based on The Secret of Monkey Island was performed at Hammond High School in Columbia on the 21st and 29th of May 2005. After he recieved permission off LucasArts, Chris Heady wrote, directed and produced the play, and starred as undead pirate LeChuck. More information about the play is here
Music
The music in the Monkey Island games has been deemed excellent by fans, and it was Michael Land who composed music from all four games which can be listened to at various fan sites around the internet[13].
Characters
Although there are many characters in the Monkey Island games, many are minor characters. Main characters are:
In-jokes and trivia
Throughout the games there have been many running gags and in-jokes between the games.
- The three-headed monkey appears in Secret of Monkey Island, as a puppet in Curse of Monkey Island and then again in Escape from Monkey Island, where it usually comes up for Guybrush to try to distract someone, such as with the cannibals in Secret of Monkey Island.
- Insult Swordfighting appears in both the first and the third game, and briefly in the fourth. It is a type of swordfighting where pirates must insult each other, and to defend, must come back with an appropriate response.
- Sam and Max, another LucasArts game, make constant appearances appearing in the second game as costumes, in the third game as shadows (though this is only in the Mega-Monkey mode) and can also be found in a puzzle in the fourth game involving finding out the name of Pegnose Pete
- Star Wars is mentioned numerous times, and appears to be where many game ideas came from such as in Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge where Guybrush and LeChuck are announced as brothers, a parody of the Star Wars "I am your father" scene.
- Grim Fandango is also mentioned in the third game, where there is a badge saying "Ask me about Grim Fandango" and a Curse of Monkey Island-style Manny is seen dead on a chair. A similar thing also happened in The Secret of Monkey Island with a badge about Loom. Grim Fandango main character Manuel Calavera can also be found in the Pegnose puzzle.
References
- ↑ [1]Grumpy Gamer-Ron Gilbert's blog
- ↑ [2]Grumpy Gamer
- ↑ [3]Gamefaq reviews
- ↑ [4]Amiga Magazine Rack Site
- ↑ [5]GameFaqs Site
- ↑ [6]Gamespot CMI review
- ↑ [7]Metacritic review site
- ↑ [8]Rumor Reporter
- ↑ [9]E3 Video Conference
- ↑ [10]Dominic Armato on LucasForums
- ↑ [11]Steve Purcell at WorldofMi
- ↑ [12]Anonymous movie announcement
- ↑ [13]Scumm Bar Music Page
