adventuregamesnow,TheSecretof
MonkeyIslandorMonkeyIsland 2 are
muchmorelikelytoappear,having
leftabiggerimpactwithplayers
overall.Ittookagestoappearon
digitalstorefronts,whileits
precursorswereremadeadecade
ago.Theseversionsallowyoutoplay
withupdatedgraphicsandvoiceover,
orwiththeclassic1990spixels.
TheCurseofMonkeyIslanddidn’t
needsuchado-over–whileI’dlove
tohaveitinHD,its2Dartstylestill
looksfresh.It’satestamenttothe
qualityoftheartthattherewereso
manythingstolookatandinteract
withthatitemsnecessarytosolve
puzzlesdon’t stand out. MI3 was the
first game in the series to feature
voices, immediately setting an
industry standard for great voice
acting in games. Many gaming
franchises have a sequel that
outstrips the original, but for many
fans of Monkey Island, the first game
will likely always be the best, making
my love for this game, which doesn’t
necessarily extend to the rest of the
series, a bit of an outlier.
I get it – both predecessors offer
more of the swashbuckling adventure
you expect of the pirate theme, here
you mostly deal with pirate
pensioners. Of course I love MI3 for
nostalgic reasons, too – from how it
was the first game I bought with my
own pocket money to how I was
convinced that it represented a
graphical pinnacle for PC gaming
because the game looked exactly the
way it did on the box.
LucasArts completely overhauled
its SCUMM engine for one last
hurrahtoproducethelookofMI3.InspIratIonal Quotes
More interesting than the impossible
question of why you fall in love with
a game is how that love turns into
something enduring. In my case it
was Monkey Island’s unmatched
quotability. I don’t mean “you fight
like a cow” or anything involving
three-headed monkeys.
Instead, I have a huge list of
completely unsusceptible quotes
everyone around me knows mustitwasthefirstgamei
bought with my own
pocket moneyhark backtosomething,butnoone
ever botherstoaskmeabout.My
favouritesareexclamationsof
surprise,“Aah!Deathagain!”comes
from MadameXimaattheGoodsoup
Hotel onBloodIsland–ithasbeen
my go-totoexpresssurprise.When
someoneasksmetodosomething,I
may askthemtobeatmeinthecaber
toss first.Thisisoneofthetasks
Guybrushhastocheathisway
throughtogainHaggisMcMuttonas
a memberofhiscrew.“IthinkI’m
gettingbetteratthis,”isn’tmuchofa
quote,butit’smechannellingmy
inner EffetteLafoot,thetemp
loweringGuybrushtothesmuggler’s
cave onSkullIsland.
Noneofthesequoteshave
meaningbeyondwhatI’veascribed
to them.Youcan’tputthemon
t-shirtsorposters,theydon’t
immediatelybringanimagetomind,
but they’rethebestwaytoalways
have somethingyoulovewithyou,
reinforcingthememoryofgood
times.Whileit’sfuntoexploremy
attachmenttoagamethatisn’tan
obviousfirstchoiceformanypeople,
in the endyouformattachmentover
the weirdestthingsandsometimes
love a game,justbecause.An example why LucasArts games
were the pinnacle to puns.eXtra liFe
nOWPlaYinG I UPDate (^) I MODsPOtliGHt (^) IGUiDe (^) I HOWtOI DiarY (^) I REINSTALL (^) I MUst PlaY