Results tagged “monkey island” from geero.net

What was so special about Monkey Island 2?

Well, if you haven't heard the news already, LucasArts are releasing a special edition remastered version of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. Originally released in 1991, it is regarded by many fans as the greatest of the Monkey Island games, and perhaps even one of the best video games ever made. But what was so special about this classic game? I've done a lot of thinking about this question as I've worked on my own Point & Click adventure game, and here are my thoughts.

Building on a Strong Foundation

In many ways, LeChuck's Revenge is the big-budget elder brother of the original Secret of Monkey Island (see my analysis of that here). Whether it's the artwork, the music, the scope of the story, the intrigue - LeChuck's Revenge takes everything that's great about the original and pushes it to another level, made possible by the extra resources and the advance of computer technology. Where SoMI was charming in its simplicity, MI2 is a true epic, reaching the dizzy heights of storytelling that show a development team on top of their game.

A Feast for the Senses

Initially I had intended to comment separately on the different aspects of the game: its stunningly beautiful background images, its intricately woven musical score, its razor-sharp script. But the truth is that you can't separate one from another - they all work together perfectly to create one of the most atmospheric experiences of my childhood. It's a feast for the senses, and it rocks!

Much of this was enabled by the technological advances going on. The increased resolution and colour depth, combined with the advent of scanners, meant that Peter Chan and Steve Purcell were able to hand-draw and colour their backgrounds before scanning them in, making them look absolutely gorgeous. Michael Land and Peter McConnell were able to use spare processor cycles to develop their cutting-edge iMUSE technology to power the music: it is this that makes the seamless musical transitions possible, synchronising the score with the action as it takes place.

As an example of how it all works together, take one of the scariest moments from the game: when you first enter the swamp on Scabb Island to visit the Voodoo Lady. Standing on the river bank, you just get the eerie chords of a hammond organ. As you step inside a make-shift boat fashioned from an old coffin, a simple drum beat is added in. Then as you sail your way deeper into the swamp, you begin to hear the haunting bass line. And so it continues to build as you enter the Voodoo Lady's house - combined with the background art it works to create what is perhaps one of the most atmospheric experiences gamers had ever known at the time.

Mystery and Intrigue

I believe it was one of the Monkey Island developers who said that people love questions more than they enjoy hearing the answers. LeChuck's Revenge pushed this philosophy to the extreme - it is full of mystery and intrigue that still has people discussing it today. It is full of clues as to a deeper truth regarding Guybrush's identity and family history, yet it never provides a clear answer. Done badly, this would just be frustrating, but Monkey Island somehow manages to pull it off in a way that leaves you clamouring for more.

The key to this is the sense of depth to the game. There is more to these characters and the world they inhabit than simply meets the eye - you get the distinct impression that these are real people with a real history. Somehow they exist beyond the brief window into their lives that we're given during the events of the game itself. I guess that this is why people find the conspiracy theory that suggests the whole game takes place in Guybrush's imagination so deeply unsatisfying.

The Special Edition

So what does all this mean for the new Special Edition, due out this summer? Fans all over the net seem to be rejoicing that the art style of the original backgrounds appear to have been kept, whilst being updated to be nice and shiny and high-res. There is some concern that updating the music to feature a full orchestral score will allow the magic of iMuse to continue to function - but personally I'm cautiously optimistic on this front. I long to hear some of those classic tunes in all their digital glory! And perhaps the addition of developer commentaries from the likes of Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer will finally offer some closure to that greatest of all mysteries: what IS the Secret of Monkey Island?

Roll on the summer!

Ever since I first read Jorrin Quest's article, Monkey Island: The Revelation, I've been fascinated by piecing together a coherent explanation of what's going on behind the scenes of Ron Gilbert's two great masterpieces: The Secret of Monkey Island, and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. The article presents a conspiracy theory that suggests that the whole world these games take place in is actually a themepark, and that Guybrush is really a lost little boy with an over-active imagination.

There are three main problems with this theory:

• There is strong counter evidence - which some dismiss as just being attempts to throw us off the scent - such as the fact that Elaine seems to continue to exist in some sense "outside" of Guybrush's fantasy. She suggests that LeChuck has put some kind of spell on Guybrush.
• It ignores many other clues about Guybrush's family history. At best, it can only be a partial explanation of the facts.
• Ultimately, many people find it deeply unsatisfying - it seems to take the essence out of this world that they have derived so much enjoyment from.

In response to the feedback that I received from my last video - The TRUE Secret of Monkey Island - I have put together a sequel which attempts to do justice to ALL the facts. Behold: The OTHER Secret of Monkey Island (direct YouTube link here).

One of the key writers on Ron Gilbert's Monkey Island games was Tim Schafer, who alongside Dave Grossman wrote a substantial portion of the dialogue for the games. Whilst it's not generally believed that he knows the full details of Ron's master plan, he must have been given a certain amount of information in order to be able to do his job. It provides a fascinating perspective on the world of Monkey Island to examine one of Schafer's own games: Psychonauts.

In Psychonauts, the player meets various disturbed individuals. The hero, Raz, is able to "enter" their subconscious minds, and each level of the game is then a physical manifestation of the various neuroses and traumas of those characters. Take, for example, the asylum warden haunted by his poor performance at war strategy games despite his descent from the line of Napoleon. His mind then takes the form of one giant strategy game that must be won in order to free him from the tyranny of his failure.

Although it's generally accepted that Psychonauts was inspired by a scrapped scene from Schafer's Full Throttle game, it's not impossible that there could also have been some cross pollination from Ron's games. At the very least, it provides a fascinating lens through which to view the world of Monkey Island.

Could it in fact be a representation of Guybrush's mental baggage? Might he be haunted by some past trauma that took place whist visiting a themepark?

LeChuck then truly does represent his mean older brother, Chuckie, with his "evil eyes" at the end of the second game indicating some kind of temporary triumph of this inner demon over Guybrush's sanity.

Could the Voodoo Lady's guiding presence represent some kind of psychiatrist helping Guybrush search out the suppressed secrets of his past and destroy his mental cobwebs?

Guybrush's Traumatic Past

In a notorious interview on IRC, Ron Gilbert made the following comment about Guybrush's relationship to LeChuck:

<Ron-G> In one sense, yes they are brothers, in another way, they are not. If you get what I mean.

Superficially, the evidence within the game backs up LeChuck's claim: how else would Guybrush be able to use his own father's bone to make the Voodoo doll that defeats LeChuck? Except that we only know he calls this man "Dad" - we have no proof that he is a blood relation of Guybrush. It's interesting that Guybrush always chooses his Dad's bone - is it possible that had he chosen his Mom's bone, the doll would not have worked?

I believe so: Guybrush and LeChuck are step brothers. When you purchase the (otherwise useless) feather pen from the antique shop on Booty Island, Guybrush exclaims that it is "just like the feather pen from Mom and Dad's wedding". In other words: his parents married within his lifetime. We know that LeChuck is "Dad"'s son, meaning that Guybrush's mother must have married LeChuck's father.

What's more, when hanging above the acid pit in his dungeon, LeChuck claims that Guybrush was an orphan, meaning he must have been adopted by his Mom at some point before she (re-?)married.

In my view, frequently overlooked is the fact that Guybrush's parents now appear to be dead. They turn into skeletons during his dream, and it's their skeletons that you find in the Lost and Found at the end. Guybrush lives with the belief that they abandoned him, a claim that they strenuously deny. I'm now far into the realm of speculation, but given their warnings at the end about the presence of "murderers and white slavers" at themeparks, could it be possible that they were in fact MURDERED? Their sudden disappearance might appear to Guybrush as though they had abandoned him. It is, after all, curious that they should be found in a "Lost Parents" area - more naturally they are for "Lost Children".

Such a traumatic event taking place whilst visiting a themepark would inevitably leave it's mark on a young boy growing up. Who could blame Guybrush for having to do battle with the demons of his past in the arena of the Big Whoop amusement park?

But Who Is Elaine?

I'll be honest that for me the big unresolved question is the identity of Elaine. Also in the IRC interview, Ron Gilbert says this about her:

<Ron-G> Elain never really liked GB and thought of him as more of a little brother.

Could she be some relation of Guybrush? Before you throw your arms up in the air in disgust at this idea, given her romantic involvement to Guybrush, just remember that Ron Gilbert was heavily influenced by the Star Wars movies - and who could forget that unfortunate kiss between Luke and Leia?

Guybrush does make a passing reference to having a sister in Wally's house - although he could just be blagging in order to cover up his having owned a dolls' house (he also says he has a lot of hairy cousins when you read a particular library book!)

In truth, we shall probably never know. But perhaps all this brings us one step closer to finally answering that great mystery: what IS the Secret of Monkey Island?

If you found this interesting, please watch my other video: Monkey Island meets the Old Testament.

What is the Secret of Monkey Island? Created by Ron Gilbert and his team in 1990, in my opinion the greatest video game of all time, the Secret of Monkey Island, teased us with the notion of a great mystery, but never actually reveals what it is. As explained in this interview, Ron Gilbert planned to make a trilogy of games, and it was the third that was to explain the secret to us. But he left LucasArts before ever getting to make it.

For years various theories have circulated on the Internet, and by far the most popular view is explained by an article by Jorrin Quest. I've put together the following video to explain (Warning - contains BIG spoilers to MI1+2):

I hope you enjoy it!

What made this classic gaming franchise so enduring?

Nineteen years ago, in 1990, Lucasfilm Games released the first instalment in what would become one their most beloved series of games ever: The Secret of Monkey Island. Almost two decades later, LucasArts will today be releasing a "reimagined" Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, with modern graphics and full voice recordings. However successful this new venture turns out to be, what's clear is that fans are still as much in love with the swashbuckling tales of Guybrush Threepwood and his arch-nemesis LeChuck as they were all those years ago.

So what made the Monkey Island games so special? Monkey Island holds a very dear place in my heart as one of the first of their games that I really got hooked on. I played it all through with a friend who was lucky enough to own a PC back in those days, and I can remember countless evenings together, scratching our heads and wondering what on earth to do next, followed by those glorious "ah ha!" moments when it all suddenly made sense. Though I've previously waxed lyrical about how Day of the Tentacle is my favourite LucasArts adventure game, there's a certain charm to the original Monkey Island games that's hard to beat. I could cite the beautiful artwork, the hilarious script, the ingenious puzzles, the loveable cast of pirates and cannibals and Voodoo priestesses, or LeChuck's incredible display of facial hair. But for me, the thing that really brings me back time and time again is the simple yet poignant story of a boy who dreams of being a pirate. As Dave Grossman, one of the writers on the series put it:

"Something that I always thought was true about the Monkey series was that, while moment-by-moment it's quite silly and there's lots of slapstick, verbal humor, and ironic pointing out of social dysfunctions, the broad strokes of the story there are actually quite serious.
The first one is about this young man who's come to this island to realize his life's dream, and in the quest of doing that, he falls in love and he finds out, "This is more important to me than my life's dream."
It's actually quite a serious story, despite being a pretty silly experience overall."

Look! A Three-Headed Monkey!

One of the brilliant things about the first two Monkey Island games (the only ones considered "true canon" by the die-hard Ron Gilbert fans) is the air of mystery that pervades the whole thing. The background art works together in perfect harmony with the music to create this incredible atmosphere, such that you can almost feel the hot winds of hell in your face when you first behold the Ghost Pirate LeChuck standing on the deck of his Ghost Ship. There are profound and hidden things beneath the surface of this seemingly charming tale, which still get people talking about them decades later.

I for one will never forget the first moment I laid eyes on Monkey Island itself. Its sunny shores stand in stark contrast to the physical darkness of the first two acts, and yet there's a palpable aura of mystery about the place. The player is given a distant overhead view of the island, which gives you this fantastic sense of exploring this vast unknown territory. The judicious use of humour in the form of the castaway Herman Toothrot keeps the initial part of the island section from being an entirely isolating experience for Guybrush, and yet that feeling of remoteness is all part of the wonder of the place. For a young boy playing these incredible games when they were brand new, it was all so magical!

Personally, I'm really hoping that the release of the Special Edition today will be a roaring success, and that it will introduce a whole new generation of gamers to the wonder of Monkey Island. And that's not just because what's good for adventure gaming is good for me! Go out and buy it today!

For those of you wondering what on earth I keep going on about when I mention Monkey Island, I found an excellent video today squishing the plot into (an admittedly very fast paced) five minutes: here.

Now if only TellTale would hurry up and release The Tales of Monkey Island...