Puzzles and Solvability
The first thing to say is that I made it through Monkey Island without assistance, which suggests the game is perfectly solvable. That’s not to say it’s not without challenge though, as nine and a half hours of play time implies. I was stuck quite a few times, with at least two of those occasions taking the majority of a session to get past. The good news is that logical deduction was used to solve pretty much every puzzle in the game, but I should point out that the simplicity of the interface caused me to solve a few without knowing what I was doing. I found the file in the carrot cake and the key in the cereal box while attempting to do something completely different, and while it’s true I might have deduced their whereabouts unassisted given more time, I may have been in trouble had the game used a text parser system. The puzzle that caused me the most trouble overall was retrieving the key from the wall in LeChuck’s cabin, but once again the solution was actually pretty logical (it was my own preconceptions of the magnet’s use that gave me the trouble). Other solutions were so simple that they seemed unlikely, such as picking the idol up while trapped underwater, but that’s hardly a criticism if it’s only the occasional puzzle. In the end I’d say the puzzles in The Secret of Monkey Island are moderately challenging while remaining logical and fun, which is exactly what all adventure games should strive for. Probably my only real gripe is that collecting insults to defeat the Sword Master got old after a while, but it’s easy to forgive that when the idea was so unique and clever to begin with.
Rating: 8
Interface and Inventory
The interface in The Secret of Monkey Island is almost identical to the one found in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The only differences are in the layout, with Monkey Island having three vertical rows of actions followed by a vertical inventory, and Indy having four vertical rows of actions and a more horizontal inventory beneath it. As with other LucasArts games, there were actions in the list that I didn’t need (I never used Turn On or Turn Off), but I imagine trying to use them in certain spots may have resulted in some funny dialogue. The verb-based interface also played a role in one of the game’s funniest moments, where I could only see what was occurring in the next room by watching which verbs and items were selected by Guybrush. Movement is handled more than adequately, with Guybrush generally going exactly where I wanted him to whenever I clicked on the screen. There were two reasons why Indy got a 7 for this category and not higher. The first was because the inventory became a bit unruly at times, and I’m afraid that issue is a little bit exacerbated in Monkey Island due to an increase in collectible items. I was pretty happy when I was able to rid myself of a few unneeded knick-knacks while making the soup onboard the Sea Monkey, as that meant I didn’t have to scroll through so much to find what I needed. The second reason why Indy only got a 7 was because the many action scenes in that game were clunky to say the least. Monkey Island overcame this problem in the most genius of ways, making combat settled through selectable insults rather than through any sort of movement or mouse clicks. There has been no better interface so far, so…
Rating: 9
Story and Setting
When summarised, the story and setting of Monkey Island are simplistic and cliché. It’s a typical zero to hero tale, where a young man strives to become a respected pirate, having to pass a number of trials before confronting an evil villain in an attempt to get the girl. However, playing the game reveals that this overview fails to pick up on a couple of important things. There’s little doubt that Ron Gilbert and co. purposely took on all the standard pirate adventure tropes just so they could make fun of them. The whole first section of the game leads to Guybrush pulling together a crew to man his ship to sail to Monkey Island, but said crew ends up helping in no way whatsoever. The Legendary Lost Treasure of Melee Island ends up being nothing more than a tourist hoax. Even at the climax of the game, where our hero is determined to save the damsel in distress, it turns out the damsel requires no saving at all and is perfectly capable of looking after herself. On top of this, there can be no decent explanation for certain items that are found or events that occur, so the creators clearly figured the most entertaining thing to do was to take the piss out of the situation rather than try to make up something that no partially intelligent person would ever believe. The rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle (for which there can be no explanation) is a good example; the crew getting through the catacombs unassisted and then claiming ignorance is another. Despite this messing about, I never once felt cheated while playing. I was just having too much fun! In the end Monkey Island is more about the characters, which are all fantastic, than the storyline. There are an incredible amount of classic NPCs and villains. Who could ever forget The Fetuccini Brothers, the voodoo lady, the vegetarian cannibals, and Stan the salesman, not to mention LeChuck and Elaine.
Rating: 7
Sound and Graphics
Let’s start with the music. The music in The Secret of Monkey Island is second to none in my opinion! It had been a decade since I’d played any of the series prior to this playthrough, and yet I could still hum the main theme at a second’s notice. It’s ridiculously enjoyable and memorable, as is pretty much all of the music throughout the game. Sound effects are used sparingly, but I can’t say I noticed their absence while playing. The main gripe I have with the audio is the same one I have for most games of this era. Far too much time is spent in complete silence! This was made even more obvious in this game when characters onscreen are chatting away or highly animated, yet silence reigns supreme. I imagine the voice version of the game would pretty much remove this gripe, but I can only rate what I played. Moving onto the visuals, I’d already been in awe of the use of colours in LucasArts’ previous game, Loom. The Secret of Monkey Island does just as nice a job, only this time I finally got to experience a LucasArts game in VGA. I absolutely adore the look of this game! The Melee Island scenes in particular, which are all set at night, are gorgeous, with the contrast of dark blues and bright yellows creating much eye candy. Oh and don’t get me started on the lava filled underground catacombs of Monkey Island! The animation is first rate for the time, with each of the game’s main characters having distinctive ways of standing, walking and even talking. Take Stan for example, with his jaw wagging open and closed, and his arms flying all over the place in exaggerated emphasis. The close-ups are stunning, even if the “animation” in them is restricted to a few changes of expression. If it wasn’t for the underuse of sound and the fact that LeChuck’s colour scheme blends into the background, I’d give it a 9.
Rating: 8
Environment and Atmosphere
Once again I have very few negative things to say for this category! The environments of Monkey Island perfectly encapsulate the game’s pirate theme, with a few unlikely surprises thrown in for good measure (such as the travelling circus in the middle of nowhere and the cannibal’s village being located as far from humanity as possible). Both Melee and Monkey Island have distinctive locations that are beautifully crafted (it’s worth noting that one island is perpetually night time while the other is permanently day). I particularly love the use of overhead maps to give the player a true sense of where they are and what locations are available to them on each island. These maps are a work of art as much as they are perfectly functional, and they remove the need to convince the player that there’s a much bigger world outside the game area (because there isn’t). As for the game’s atmosphere, well I mentioned during one of my earlier posts just how similar the tone of Monkey Island is to Pirates of the Caribbean. Fun and silliness pervade both series (well, for most of both series), leaving a consistent smile on the viewer’s face, and yet both of them manage to keep the drama and excitement at a satisfying level too. A pirate comedy wouldn’t normally rank high on my list of genres (subjectively I’d prefer something a bit less silly), but Monkey Island offers something for everyone in a very complete package.
Rating: 8
Dialogue and Acting
The Secret of Monkey Island is downright hilarious! Sure, I’ve laughed quite a bit during certain Leisure Suit Larry scenes, and just as much while playing Space Quest games, but never as hard and consistently as I did during Monkey Island. The dialogue is pure genius, and makes the most of some really great set-ups. If you want to know how great the comedy writing is, just go and watch a few minutes of Stan’s boat sales pitches. It’s like a stand-up comedy act with audience participation! Probably the part that had me in stitches the most though was the nutritional discussions that the cannibals were having in their village. “But think of your arteries!” Oh, and having to book a time slot to loot the Governor’s mansion would be a close second. The game’s dialogue isn’t limited to what other characters say though, and this is where things become particularly groundbreaking. Indiana Jones had already brought branching dialogues into the mix, but the system was clunky and repetitive. Not so here! What you find in Monkey Island is pretty much what you would expect today in any decent third person adventure game! There are stacks of awesome dialogue options available throughout every conversation, and combining this with the fact you can’t die or dead-end yourself while playing, means the player can take a huge amount of enjoyment out of saying whatever they want. The things you want to ask always seem to be available, but it’s the things you would never have thought to say that bring the most joy. The only thing stopping a perfect score here is the fact that there isn’t any voice acting. It’s therefore pretty likely I would give full marks to the CD version.
Rating: 9
Seems a touch high too me... if only because I know there are better games yet to come and it seems like such a huge difference between this and Hero's Quest (and with QFG2 to come later).
ReplyDeleteDoes it really warrant a 9 for interface and inventory? I've never been the biggest fan of it. The actions and inventory take up a large amount of screen space, and I always found it awkward to use. Particularly during time-sensitive puzzles, like the grog tankards for the jailbreak.
It shall be interesting to see if any of the rest of the years games score anywhere near as highly (Perhaps not likely, but maybe next year).
I too think the text-based inventory was a bit of a pain. The verb commands however... a few weeks ago I introduced my 9 yo to the Special Edition. He had trouble making sense of the icon-based interface, where you use the mouse wheel to select different actions. At one point, I pressed the key to switch back to the classic VGA look, just to show him how things actually looked back then. I expected him to gasp in horror at the pixellated graphics, but instead he looked at the verb commands and went "Ooohh this is so much better! Can we use these with the good pictures?" So much for streamlined interfaces....
DeleteThe score is well deserved. The game was groundbreaking, and still makes appearances in lists of best games. It's the first adventure game to be constantly highly entertaining without almost any design issues distracting from the enjoyment. It's very influential, maybe too much: sometimes I think that so many later adventure games try so hard to mimic its strong points that the whole genre has stopped evolving.
DeleteRegarding the interface, there are actually several improvements over Last Crusade: Lack of a separate "What is" verb, no double-clicking to confirm commands, and the right-click shortcuts. The keyboard shortcuts for the verbs are also very handy - less moving the cursor around.
Monkey Island has definitely earned its score and fame (although I prefer the second game in the series). I am just wondering whether the score would have been much different for the EGA-version.
DeleteAs for adventure game evolution stopping after this, I'd say that's a bit of an exaggeration. Certainly many adventure games imitated the tone and style of MI (Simon the Sorcerer is a good example), but we'll also see in few years more and more games adopting a darker tone (Gabriel Knight is a good example) - something we've still seen rarely.
I didn't mean story or themes. I mean gameplay, which has remained almost exactly the same for decades, with some more experimental games few and far between.
DeleteYou're right Laukku. I'd forgotten about the double clicking to confirm commands. Was it Loom that removed the What Is verb? I'll have to read through my own posts!
DeleteLoom had a completely different interface with no verbs at all, so that doesn't really count.
DeleteJust ignore me. My brain's not working today.
DeleteYay!! A very enjoyable series of posts on one of my favorite games of all time. It was great to relive all those classic moments through your words, Trickster. Congrats!
ReplyDeleteWe could certainly rate the most hilarious joke. Did you ever find the rubber tree? That was one of the biggest laughs I had, especially after suffering through a few Sierra titles. And then the myriad of little things like hovering the mouse one too many times on the rat belonging to the "men of low moral fiber" at the beginning, or innocently ringing the bell when the store owner was out. Or every time the designers winked at the audience (I consider the underwater idol "puzzle" to be one of those instances) like when Guybrush tried to push the rubber chicken on someone, fully aware -like us- of its absurdity.
And I don't know if it's been mentioned elsewhere, but the "Elaine!" dialogue option in the church at the end of MI is a reference to the famous final scene from The Graduate.
While many of the adventures I have played over the years since the Lucasarts heyday were very good and even excellent, none has managed to catch lightning in a bottle just the way MI did. That said, I feel compelled again to recommend The Book of Unwritten Tales to my fellow monkeyheads. Not only is it fairly recent, but it does a great job in the same areas where MI excelled: whimsy, characters, humor, puzzles; and for a change it doesn't feel forced. While it doesn't quite manage to take the crown, it is a particularly good stab at this subgenre.
It would actually take quite a long time for Monkey Island to get a voiced version. It wasn't until the recent Special Edition release. None of the CD-ROM versions (I even owned the Sega CD edition!) had any voiced dialog.
ReplyDeleteI'd actually press you on this - voice is only good as the voice actors. On some games, I'm primarily reading text - on others, it'd feel almost sacrilegious (Gabriel Knight almost takes this peg, but for that accursed narrator.) If you, like me, read text faster than a human could talk legibly, voice acting only tends to win out in humor (Murray from MI3) or mood setting (not an adventure, but Ron Perlman's little speech from Fallout is still the first example that comes to mind.)
ReplyDeleteYou say you want voice acting? Well you just wait til the owl in KQ5...
We could save some time here. "You say you want ? Well you just wait till in KQ5..."
DeleteBah, silly Blogger editor strips out "less than" & "greater than" symbols? Anyway, there were a couple of placeholders there, you get the idea... :-P
DeleteVoice acting is definitely an under-appreciated art. Good VA can make a game extra-special, whilst poor acting can be detrimental (thankfully in games you can turn it off!). A bigger problem with it is the increased cost of using professionals, causing a reduction in the amount of dialogue or descriptions (more commonly an issue with RPGs).
DeleteI will defend King's Quest 5 a little though, as I think it was the first game I ever experienced voice-acting with, and the combo of VGA graphics, music, voices, mouse-interface, etc. was amazing. Things have come a rather long way since then, and now using professional actors is the norm.
Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F64wDQJLWMQ
Well perhaps I'm looking at voice acting through rose tinted glasses (oh the irony!), since I haven't played a game that has it since I started this blog (so coming up on three years now).
DeleteI think the reason I missed it in Monkey Island, and in Loom for that matter, was because the technology in the games had come so far that it felt like it should be there. It was the logical next step, and one that would be taken soon enough.
Or, y'know...
Deletehttp://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0952/
Voice acting can certainly make or break a game. Has anyone played Game of Thrones? The VA was so atrocious I couldn't play it. OK, the writing was dreadful, along with the game interface, but it was the voice acting that really made me shudder and give up on it earlier than I probably would have otherwise. It's not often I return a game because I don't like it, but that one certainly didn't get kept for long.
DeleteDay of the Tentacle has some excellent voice acting. And that tops my personal Best Adventure Game list =)
DeleteWhile good voice acting can make a game better, bad acting can make a game hilarious.
Deletehttp://www.audioatrocities.com/
Isn't Trickster going to play the floppy version of King's Quest V? I think he should play the CD version, because it's historically important (it's the first fully voiced adventure game). Furthermore, the acting alone takes the game from "mediocre" to "so bad it's good" territory. Who can ever forget the pOIsonous snake?
DeleteI'd not actually argue too fervently against SOME of the voice acting falling into that territory, Laukku.. but the owl. Oh, Cedrick. He's the stuff that nightmares are made of. There's mediocre. There's so bad it's good. Then it goes past that to just wanting to stab your eyes out with a pitchfork? That's about Cedrick. (Also, in more recent times, the original voice actor of Al Emmo. It was exactly what it was supposed to be, but it was still so bad that it was beyond cringeworthy.)
Delete"Hello Kenny. I'm Dr. Sbaitso. I am here to help you. Please say whatever is in your mind freely. Our conversation will be kept in strict confidence. Memory contents will be wiped out after you leave. So, tell me about your problems."
DeleteOh yes, and I'm quoting from memory. Should give you a hint of how much time I spent with that wonderful little thing.
Speaking of Cedric, even Graham finds him annoying:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMDbLtx4Rr8
@Charles - And that's not really a bad thing for a young teen to do with the first speech synthesizing pseudo-AI made economically available to the masses, back then.
DeleteAnyway, the 1st line of speech from the this program upon start-up was (if I recall correctly): "Dr. Sbaitso - By Creative Labs. Please enter your name." XD
As a note, a number of games are moving away from voice acting, due to the rather high cost, and limits you are restricted with: You can't let the player enter a name, have to use a nick name, or a last name, for example. Each additional path adds extra cost, as you have to voice act each one, etc. Whereas text is damn near free.
DeleteI should say, Wasteland II and Pillars Of Eternity (Aka Project Eternity) are among them.
DeleteAka bring back the days of writing Butt as your name to make people say hilarious things. (Note: I've never actually done this, though I'm told it is super common. I typically go for names I like: Dante, Descartes, Diana, Silver, etc. I'm sure you can tell a lot about me by the names I pick, come to think of it.)
On the other hand, you can convey a lot of tone with good voice acting that is hard to tell from text: Sarcasm, jokes, tone, etc. However, most games limit themselves to writing out dialog exactly, meaning you can't even put in stuff like "She said dryly" or "He said, sarcastically."
I saw a rather clever one that I enjoyed rather more than I should have, when someone entered their name in a pokemon game as 'I Say'. Suddenly everyone was Foghorn Leghorn, and I couldn't avoid hearing that voice whenever the name came up.
DeleteHilarious without being crude at all
Guybrush Threepwood has a few levels in the Dashing Swordsman (http://oots.wikia.com/wiki/Dashing_Swordsman) Prestige Class. XD
ReplyDeleteHa, figured my late, only-guessed-because-it-wasn't-picked-yet number would be too low.
ReplyDeleteWell deserved score for a great game. Can't really argue with any of the specific scores, but the total almost feels too low. But it's probably not.
Hey, have any of you seen this? A flash video that summarizes Monkey Island 1 in several minutes: http://www.majusarts.de/film/monkey/ENG/monkey_eng.html
ReplyDeleteThere was also a fan-made comic adaptation done with the visual style of Curse of Monkey Island. Unfortunately it's unfinished: http://www.worldofmi.com/features/comics/vink/
That flash summary is fairly well done, but they skipped a few steps, and downright got the trading of the idol for the monkeyhead key wrong. Also, Herman has pants!
DeleteAnd I still think the score is too low for what this game deserves :p
ReplyDeleteAnyway, congratulations on finishing it. Now it's time to start looking forward to MI2 :D.
Regarding the game, I will take the Hugo Trilogy. I was fascinated by the first one :p
It shall be done! Can you send me an email to theadventuregamer@gmail.com? I thought I had your email address, but can't find it.
DeleteCheers.
Congrats Tricky on finishing the second best game ever... how long until you get to play the sequel? :)
ReplyDeleteCAP Distribution Updated
ReplyDeleteCompanion Leaderboard Updated
ReplyDeleteAlso, the following trades have been made as requested in the comments:
ReplyDelete5 CAPs from Lars-Erik to Zenic Reverie
5 CAPs from Lars-Erik to Charles
5 CAPs from Canageek to Zenic Reverie
5 CAPs from Canageek to Laukku
I think I've completed all my admin!!!
Hurray! Beer time!
DeleteYeah, maybe not. 8:50 AM is a tad early to crack one open.
DeleteI'll have one with lunch. :)
Any time's beer time... when you're with Kill Kenny! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilkenny_(beer))
DeleteI once owned a cat named after that beer (Dad got to name him....)
DeleteHey Trick, I think you may have missed 10 CAPs for me for playing along. Unless I don't get them for playing on the X-Box.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the ever transferred the 10 CAPs from me to Canageek during Les Manley either?...
Deletehttp://advgamer.blogspot.fi/2014/03/game-41-les-manley-1-final-rating.html?showComment=1395041217634#c2793956604868007495
I'll sort both of these out now. If I ever miss any companions, do speak up!
DeleteO-R Y-O-U W-I-L-L B-E S-H-O-V-E-L-L-I-N-G S-H-I-T S-H-O-R-T-L-Y. What the hell was that?
DeleteWell you only did it once. And much too slowly
DeleteI noticed that one of your dialogue options when talking to the dog is "Worf." If you say that, do you and the dog talk about Star Trek?
ReplyDeleteI just saw this awesome video essay.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThe Secret of Monkey Island is 30 years old this month, so there is related content popping up on the Internet as celebration.
ReplyDeleteThe Making of Monkey Island (30th Anniversary Documentary)
Video Game History Foundation begins new preservation project starting with Monkey Island cut content - a livstream on 30. 10. will include "never-before-seen content, including deleted scenes and unused art".
https://mixnmojo.com/news/Ron-Gilbert-reveals-plans-for-MI3
DeleteThe livestream has been made public along with a webpage offering much the same content and some more:
Deletehttps://gamehistory.org/monkeyisland/
The Best Apps and Games For Android ·https://apkmiz.com/island-king-mod-apk-latest-version-download/
ReplyDelete