With Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge – Special Edition appearing on the horizon, MyGaming thought it was high time to take a look back at the humble beginnings of this classic adventure gaming series.
The Secret of Monkey Island
We first met our hapless hero Guybrush Threepwood in 1990 when he debuted on the PC (MS-DOS), Atari ST and Macintosh platforms in EGA graphics. The project was lead by Ron Gilbert, who also designed the game along with Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman.
During development, the protagonist had not been named, and the artists simply labelled his personal art sprites as ‘Guy’ with the extension ‘.brush’. The name stuck and the rest is history. Over the years the game received various updates, bringing it colourful VGA graphics, enhanced audio, and an improved UI. This has culminated in 2009’s enhanced special edition which features full HD visuals, a re-mastered score and voice acting.
The Secret of Monkey Island begins with our barely post-adolescent hero arriving on Mêlée Island and declaring “I want to be a pirate!” Guybrush soon learns that he must prove himself to three old pirate leaders through three devilishly complicated trials in order to earn piratey status.
One of the trials involves defeating the Sword Master of Mêlée Island through insult sword fighting – a feature that became a hallmark for the title, and a source of numerous recurring jokes throughout the Monkey Island series and other LucasArts games.
Along the way, Guybrush meets the love of his life, Governor Elaine Marley. Unfortunately for Elaine and Guybrush, the notoriously despicable ghost pirate LeChuck is still harbouring feelings for Elaine from his days among the living. While Guybrush is completing his trials, Elaine is kidnapped by LeChuck and whisked away to a subterranean lair beneath the elusive Monkey Island.
Guybrush quickly assembles a pretty worthless pirate crew and makes his way to Monkey Island through the use of some voodoo magic. Guybrush has to contend with the local cannibals, who eventually help him to produce a ghost destroying voodoo root elixir. Meanwhile, LeChuck had headed back to Mêlée Island to marry Elaine.
After a spectacular showdown involving a fight in which Guybrush is entirely on the receiving end of LeChuck’s phantom fist, LeChuck is defeated thanks to a handily located bottle of root beer. Elaine and Guybrush share a romantic moment together watching a ghostly fireworks display, and Guybrush imparts some priceless words of wisdom…
The game was very well received by gamers and critics alike. Unlike most adventure games of the time, The Secret of Monkey Island doesn’t have any moments of character death or game progress lock-out and this was welcomed as a great step toward making adventure games more accessible.
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge
Following LeChuck’s defeat on Mêlée Island little is known of what transpired between Guybrush and Elaine. Released in 1992, as Monkey Island 2 begins it does become apparent that Guybrush has had time to grow what is generally considered by most to be a very weak beard, and buy a nice pirate coat.
Arriving on Scabb Island, Guybrush is out to find the legendary treasure of Big Whoop. He soon learns that one of LeChuck’s henchmen – Largo – has placed an embargo on the island, but soon defeats him with some help from the Voodoo Lady. Unfortunately, Guybrush reveals to Largo that he has possession of LeChuck’s beard, which Largo promptly snatches and uses to resurrect LeChuck.
The Voodoo Lady reveals that the only hope of stopping the now zombie pirate LeChuck is to find Big Whoop. Guybrush embarks on a lengthy quest to discover the treasure, and attempts to win back Elaine’s love in the process.
With the impending release of Monkey Island 2 Special Edition, it is probably best not to reveal much more information about the plot. Suffice to say that the climax of the game is full of the usual reality twisting voodoo tomfoolery we’ve come to expect from the Monkey Island series.
The Curse of Monkey Island
After a lengthy hiatus the series returned in 1997 with a new graphical style. Series progenitor Tim Schafer had since parted ways with LucasArts but a veteran crew with experience on games such as Full Throttle were at the helm.
With the confounding conclusion to Monkey Island 2 in mind, gamers are welcomed by the equally confounding sight of Guybrush adrift at sea on a bumper car. Guybrush is penning a journal in which he is recalling the events succeeding the conclusion of Monkey Island 2. Guybrush soon drifts into the midst of a raging land and sea battle lead by Elaine and LeChuck.
Guybrush swiftly defeats LeChuck with a bit of characteristic luck, sinking LeChuck’s ship in the process. On his way out of the scuttled vessel Guybrush snags a large diamond ring. Reunited with Elaine, Guybrush takes the opportunity to propose with his newly acquired ring. Of course, the ring is cursed and Elaine is turned into a golden statue.
Being a golden statue of a beautiful woman in pirate territory, Elaine is immediately ‘stolen.’ Consulting the ever-present Voodoo Lady, Guybrush learns that he must acquire a certain un-cursed diamond ring in order return Elaine to her human form. Thus begins another rip-roaring pirate adventure which sees Guybrush recruiting crew members, traversing around the Caribbean and engaging in some particularly vicious insult sword fighting.
Just as Guybrush is able to lift Elaine’s curse, LeChuck seizes the pair and traps them in the Big Whoop amusement park on Monkey Island. Riding the Rollercoaster of Death and pursued by LeChuck, Guybrush uses his wits to create an explosive avalanche, burying LeChuck under a ton of amusing rubble. Guybrush and Elaine then sail off into the sunset, a ‘Just Married’ banner draped over the aft of the ship.
Thus ends a wonderful trilogy of classic LucasArts adventure games. A fourth instalment in the series was released in 2000, Escape from Monkey Island, but this was rather poorly received by gamers and critics alike and as an ugly blemish on the Monkey Island landscape, it is probably best forgotten about.
Recently a fifth instalment in the series, Tales of Monkey Island, was completed by episodic development company Telltale games, which has roots in the original Monkey Island games through lead designer Dave Grossman. The Tales of Monkey Island episodes were generally well received, returning the series to its former glory.
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