clockwork, like I had to uphold a
tradition, but because inevitably, one
day I’d think “this feels like a good
time to play Monkey Island”.
Island Getaway
Perhaps playing isn’t the right word
anymore. After this long it’s more like
visiting a bunch of friends, like Willy
Blondbeard in his chicken restaurant
or Dinghy the dog. Monkey Island has
always been a series of characters
that don’t exist to fulfil any grand
narrative function. Rather, they’re
there to be manipulated by me, so I
can get whatever item or piece of
information I’m after at that time.
The outline of MI3 is simple – in
order to lift a curse from his beloved
Elaine Marley, Guybrush
Threepwood, self-proclaimed mighty
pirate, has to give her a ring
symbolising true love.
He roughly knows where it is, but
he needs a crew and a ship, and he
hasn’t really worked out the whole
attaining the ring part, either.
Characters that are essentially
useless props still have detailed, fun
stories to tell, even when they’re just
built around one character attribute.
Every pirate you meet, whether it’s
on Plunder Island, a retirement
community for pirates, or out on
Blood Island, the pirate family resort,
each has a great yarn of a past
adventure to offer, and each of them
has grown on me as a result.
Since I’m unable to play the game
the way it was intended to be played
by now, knowing the solution to
every puzzle by heart, this
attachment to each character is likely
a large part of what makes Monkey
Island so evergreen for me. It’s one of
my great regrets that I don’t
remember how I’ve solved thesepuzzles in the pre-internet age, if I
bought a guide and what happened
to it. The solutions to puzzles in any
Monkey Island are so arbitrary that I
can’t imagine having solved most of
them as a pre-teen without help. It’s
also worth noting that The Curse of
Monkey Island isn’t really an
evergreenbyconventionalstandards.Monkeylove
In 1998, PC Gamer put it in 33rd
place on its list of the 50 best
computer games ever released, but if
you look at any best-of list for“Hair from the dog that bit
you” – superb hangover joke.Now Guybrush taking humiliation
in stride is really inspirational.sTorIedlInessomefamousquotesyoumightactuallyrecognise
“i’m in the
middle of some
calibrations.”- Garrus Vakarian,
Mass Effect
“nothing is true,
everything is
permitted.”- Ezio Auditore,
Assassin’s Creed II
“spaaaaaace!”
- Space Core,
Portal 2
A dream came true for this
little guy. And he’s voiced
by Nolan North.
“get over here!”
- Mr Scorpion,
Mortal Kombat
The most famous quote of
the series, pronunciation
is key for this one.
Oldgames,newperspectives
reinstall
“Ask me about Grim Fandango”
immediately had me interested.