“I’ve sailed the seas from Trinidad to Tortuga and I’ve never seen anything like it! The engagement ring I gave Elaine has a terrible pirate curse on it. LeChuck is behind it, I’m sure. I should have known that nothing good could come out of that evil zombie’s treasures. And if that’s not bad enough, the clairvoyant I met in the mangrove swamp told me that if I am to break the curse and save Elaine, I will have to die!”
—Excerpted from The Memoirs of Guybrush Threepwood: The Monkey Island Years
Was there ever a game that you had played as a child that you absolutely loved? The kind of game that would always make you laugh and would always stay interesting? The Curse of Monkey Island™ is one of those games for me. From the front cover, the first thought that can come to mind is that CMI is a pretty serious game. Angry faces? Dark coloring? FLAMES?! Turn the box over and you get a completely different tone. Piracy has never looked so good and I did learn a valuable trade in lighthouse and VCR repair. There is an underlying tone of impending death that is blanketed by the game’s light-hearted banter.
Monkey Island 101
The Curse of Monkey Island™ is the third game in the Monkey Island™ series. Released in 1997, this game makes the end of a decade-long era. CMI was the last game to use the SCUMM™ (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) engine before switching to a more 3D-based engine. I believe CMI to be the pinnacle of SCUMM™. The artwork is amazing and the animation smooth. The music is masterfully done and the voice work top-notch. Let’s also not forget the incredible high-resolution (640×480)! CMI is a game that has aged very well – even if the executable file hasn’t.
That’s the Second Biggest LP I’ve Ever Seen!
This Let’s Play will be a “full” playthrough. Mega-Monkey is essentially “Normal” mode. I will not be using the verb coin on every little thing because, quite frankly, 30-plus hours may or may not be a lie. I will be showing most – if not all – of the easter eggs in the game. This game has hundreds of unique and obscure references to LucasArts™ games, books, music and movies. At the end of every update, I’ll include a little “trivia” section at the end of my post. This game is like a snack. Eat it all at once and you have an empty experience. Space out your time and you get a rich experience (30-plus hours, perhaps?).
The Crew
Our love interest. We barely see her for the whole game.
Our antagonist. We barely see him for the whole game.
The helpful Voodoo Lady. We barely see her for the whole game.
Who’s this guy?
Our handsome protagonist neatly sums up the secondary characters of this game.
ScarsonWiki 