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Not as Much Fun as "Curse of Monkey Island"

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Actually, the GameSpot review by Ron Dulin (you can find it in the Editorial Reivews section of this web page) really hits the nail on the head. If you liked the previous Monkey Island adventures, you'll probably enjoy this one as well, although there were a few irritating design flaws &/or problems.

First of all, Guybrush is particularly difficult to navigate when he is very small; it's hard to tell which direction he's pointing until you move him forward and see where he goes. I found the keyboard interface clunky, and really missed the clever mouse control used in "Curse." I had the game lock up on me early on, and I stupidly hadn't saved yet, forcing me to start all over again from the beginning. The Monkey Kombat sequence is cute, but the rather amusing payoff sequence doesn't quite make up for some serious irritation with the process of learning and engaging in Monkey Kombat itself. My last complaint revolves around the character of Herman Toothrot, and I have to use a bit of a spoiler to explain the problem, so be warned. You have to throw a series of objects at Herman's head to get him to divulge information, and eventually, to get him to hand over a crucial item for the completion of the game. The programmers seem to have used some sort of toggle switch device to great disadvantage here. Of course, any "Monkey Island" player in the spirit of the game will start hurling anything in their inventory at Herman's head, often several times over once they've realized that this could lead to information; something I think the programmers forgot to take into account. Throwing an object at Herman once might get him to divulge information, but throw the same object at him again and you're back to square one and he clams up. This is the only case (although an important one) where you can go backwards in terms of a character's knowledge within the game. LucasArts is usually much more diligent about such issues, and I was both irritated and disappointed. If this problem doesn't make sense to you, don't worry about it (you're probably more clever about gaming than I am).

Criticisms aside, I did enjoy the usual Monkey Island features we've all come to expect from the series; cornball humor, amusing situations, pop culture references, anachronism, and comfort in the knowledge that LucasArts has designed a game where you are not going to be randomly killed off after hours and hours of time invested. Guybrush and Elaine are great characters, with far more personality than some star-crossed lovers in a current sci-fi movie that George Lucas might be familiar with. I liked the ending of "Escape" much better than "Curse" (I thought the amusement park sequence dragged on too long), and I hope that more Monkey Island adventures will soon follow.

a GREAT game! .. but hard to sell :(

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I absolutely loved this game!
The characters, the music, the art, the dialog .. it's all just done so amazingly well.
The worst part about it for me was when it ended .. I just wanted it to keep going.
I really, really hope they make another one.

Unfortunately a game like this is not easy to sell to the general gaming public. It's hard to advertise to people what is so great about it and because of that I would imagine that it's difficult to sell many copies.
I can only guess about the outrageous number of hours and the extreme amount of effort that must have gone into making this game.
I don't know how many copies have sold, but I don't think it's nearly enough to make up for the amount of work that went into it.

If you can manage to do so, I recommend playing all the other monkey island games first (in order) to really immerse yourself in the Monkey Island world.
Monkey Island 1 and 2 are pretty old so don't expect to be impressed with graphics or sound but they're both still great fun.
Monkey Island 3 (The Curse of Monkey Island) is a more recent release that is comparable to this game in quality .. even without the 3D graphics .. it too is a great game!

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