Donkey Island - Won!

Written by Michael

It feels that every game I play for this blog, there’s one gameplay post where I’m mad at the game for stupid design choices.  This is that post for this game.  Fortunately, it’s also the last post.

Last time we met, I had received a second scroll from the magician as a reward for bringing him the second of four ingredients for a spell.  

Mekka-Lekka-Hi, Mekka-Hiney-Ho

Looking at this scroll, I’m told it has power over magical trees.  I won’t bother using it in the cottage, because I know it will be the same situation as before -- I’ll waste the spell and have to restore, because I’ll be dead-ended.  So, I need a magical tree.  This one is probably obvious, the tree that’s colored differently than all the others.  I’ll head there, save the game, and then read the spell aloud.

This is about as stupid-looking as the fake nose glasses work by the Zak McKracken aliens.

The tree gains a face that looks like it’s made from a couple of bicycle eyes, a candy ear, a handle like the one from the big tree for a nose, and what I’ll find out is sausages as a frown.

I have the right to remain silent, but I choose to give up that right in order to keep writing this post.

This is the second post in a row where I’ll remind you that I have NOT been dropping acid before writing this. 

I try to talk to the tree, to no avail.  I try to take parts of the face, and the only feature I can interact with is the sausages, which Gajbraš tries to hop up to get, but fails.  Guess I’ll need a ladder.  I’m not sure what I’ll need them for, but hey, not nailed down.

Which in this game doesn’t mean anything, because of pixel hunts.

So, at this point, I’m lost.  We still have two more items to get him, death of the sea, and glitter of the ocean.  I suspect it’s going to be in that order, since we already got the first two items in the order he said them.  Death of the sea?  I start revisiting every location, to see what I’ve missed.

Curiously, when I visit the cape, and I try to pick up at the water, I’m told that “I can’t reach down there.”  A hint for the future, no doubt.

Revisiting the big tree, I notice that I missed a (somewhat obvious) vine hanging from the right side of the tree.  I grab that.

So, part of me is thinking that I’ll be needing to go fishing right now.  Or at least try to dredge the water.  I play with my inventory, thinking if I add the anchor to the vine, it will be part of a makeshift fishing pole, just, say, minus the pole.

But with this game, it depends on what you click first.

See, I clicked the hand icon on the anchor, intending to use it on the vine.  Gajbraš tries to eat the anchor.  “It’s very good.  It has such a unique taste.  But it won’t go down my throat.  Too bad.”

Huh.

If I use the vine on the anchor, it works the way intended.  So I take it down to the cape, and try to use it on the water.  Gajbraš pulls it from inside his jacket, waves it a little, and then exclaims that “I have no idea what to do with it...”

I think I’m on the right path.  So I look at the fishing gear at one point, and I’m told, “It’s a primitive fishing rod (without bait).”  So, I need bait.  Maybe we’re hunting carnivorous fish, like a piranha?  Sausage might work.

I still haven’t found any ladders, but nothing shocks me in this game anymore.  I try to jump again, and he repeats that he needs to jump higher.  I try clicking on other parts of the tree, and by a miracle, make it.  On the sixth jump.  The game made me try the same thing over and over for 6 tries.

I restored and tried again; same result.  You have to jump 6 times in a row.

This is no ordinary game world.

I make the same mistake again and try to use the sausage on the fishing gear. Gajbraš devours the bait.  So, I restore my game, redo a few steps, and this time use the fishing gear on the sausage.

Now looking at the gear, Gajbraš says “I could hunt sperm whales with this.”  I try to do just that.  I try the coast, and he says. “Use this... here?”  “I’m not strong enough by myself.”

A funny thing happens when I try at the beach.  Instead of trying to fish, it shows as the icon that I can click somewhere on the screen.  Maybe this is the right location.  I click the gear on the water, and he says the same thing about not being strong enough.  So, maybe I need a tie-down?  I click the gear on the palm tree, and he secures the line to the tree.

He says it’s going to be a while.  I wait a little, and then save the game and decide to leave the screen, thinking the designers were in a Sierra mood (leave the screen, come back, it will be done), but instead, just me trying to leave triggered the event.

Doo doo doo doo doo.

The palm tree had a successful outing today, and caught itself a shark.

This is the only character in the game to get a close-up.

Looking at the shark, I get a close-up view, but when I click the eye icon all over it, I get generic “don’t look “ messages, like “Nothing worth talking about.”  I click the other icons on it, and eventually I grab a tooth from the mouth.  Looking at the tooth, I’m told it’s the 20th from the bottom left, and there’s some decay.

Guess this probably isn’t the glitter of the ocean.  Could be the death in the sea, though.

I head off to the magician to see if this is what he needs, but as usual I can’t hand him the item.  But, when I click the hand icon on it to try, the game tells me, “This tooth has caused many a death in the sea...” which confirms my plan.  I talk to the magician, and find an option telling him I have another ingredient.  He’s pleased, and gives me a scroll wrapped in a green ribbon this time.

Looking at the scroll, I see it contains a fish spell.  It doesn’t provide any other detail than that.

So, I save the game and use the scroll, to see what it does.

There’s something fishy about this plot.  But we’re almost to the Fin of the game.

It changes me briefly into a fish, and then Gajbraš turns back to normal.  He says he felt like a fish on dry land, and it feels like gills have been added to his lungs.  “I guess I’ll be able to breathe underwater.”

Well, I’ve used two of the three water scenes so far, so I’m pretty sure that the cape is our choice for this.  But how to do this isn’t very obvious.

Given our experience with the boat, my first guess is to walk into the ocean.  My next guess is to “use” the ocean.  No, these don’t work.

After a lot of random clicks and what not, I find out the solution.  Remember that obvious round stone at the end of the cape, that I couldn’t interact with earlier in the game at all?  Not even to look at?  If you pick it up, Gajbraš uses it as a weight to make him go down to the bottom of the ocean floor.

With this spell, I can hold my breath for a lot more than 10 minutes now.

There’s no sign of Ariel down here, but there’s just one screen of the ocean floor for us to explore.  In the lower left, inside the silhouette of a clam, is a pearl, which I expect is the glitter of the ocean.  There’s also a treasure chest of sorts a few yards away.  I grab both.

To exit the underwater scene, I try walking in all directions, but Gajbraš just spits out some air bubbles when I hit a boundary.  No, the solution is to use the “pick up” icon on the stone in my inventory, causing him to drop it on the ocean floor.

I hope I didn’t miss anything.  With the stone at the bottom of the sea, how would I get back down?  Suppose it would be another dead-end if I missed one of the items.

I can’t do anything with the chest right now, but I know what to do with the pearl.  Down a yellow brick road, off to see the wizard.

Ungrateful jackass.  Quite literally, mind you.

I give him the last ingredient, and he says he has the last ingredient for his spell, so he has no further need for us.  “So I’ll give you a reward, and say goodbye forever.”

The reward is yet another spell, this one wrapped in a white ribbon.  It is labeled L.S.G., as in Spell of Last Saving Grace.  In order words, something for when all hope is lost.

I save and try using it, but Gajbraš tells me not all is lost yet, so we go on.

Again, I’m not sure what to do next.  I suspect I need to find a way through that blocked opening in the temple, but no further clues seemed obvious to me.  So again, I revisit everything.

Dunlop tells me nothing new than he previously told me, about it falling to ruins because of the volcano, but he doesn’t know any more.

No other scenes on the mainland offer me much help, so I head back to the little island.  I don’t recall if I ever tried to talk to the skeleton of Captain Kid, did I?  Anything’s worth a try.

Hey, another fetch quest!

After listening to him wallow in self-pity about how he used to be a mighty pirate, we learn from the conversation tree that the way into the temple requires two crystals.  He has one, and the other is rumored to be on the sea floor.

(Wanna bet it’s in the treasure chest?)

The one he has is useless to him, so he gladly passes a red crystal over, and then passes out again.  

So I need to concentrate on opening the treasure chest, which is impervious to knives.  So I try to use it on everyone and everything.  I happened upon the solution by accident.

I went to the top of the big tree, and was trying to bang it against the branch of the tree up there.  This is after I tried using it on the nest (because why not at this point?).  I clicked probably a pixel or two left of what the game considered the branch, and instead I dropped it onto the ground.  I take the elevator down, and a crushed chest is awaiting me, with a blue crystal in the remnants.

So, saving the game again, I head to the temple.  I used the pile of wood, which survived the ocean depths, to cross the lava stream, and then entered the nostril of the downward donkey.

(Say, is that a yoga position?)

These are just really large boogers, right?

Inside, I try to put either of the two crystals into one of the two conveniently placed holes, and it doesn’t work.  I notice a little scratching at the top of the screen, and read a work out inscription that seems to imply I need to shove the crystals into those holes.  So why didn’t it work?

Because I was standing too far away.  I had to maneuver Gajbraš directly in front of the holes for this to work.

So, the red crystal in the left closes the entrance I came through, and the blue one on the right opens the other doorway.  Once I put the crystals in, they cannot be removed.  

I later discovered that if I just put the blue crystal in the right-hand hole, the other door opens, but the next step doesn’t work.  It requires both crystals.

So... exit, stage left!

I like the Kyrandia one better.

I walk up onto a flat platform between what is likely two ears of a donkey, and as I reach the end, I’m, told something starts happening.  Then, a voice tells me that I did everything correctly, and as a reward, can make a wish.

Gajbraš falters for a second, but then makes a wish: “I want wings, I want to fly home.”

He sprouts wings and starts to fly, high in the clouds.  Until the wings disappeared, and he was freefalling into the crater of the volcano.

Do you believe in miracles?

I land on a small ledge above some lava.  There’s a thin, weak section of volcano wall behind me, but otherwise, nowhere to go, nothing to do.

Now I need the L.S.G. scroll.

I read the scroll, and while I remain trapped on the perch, I receive a handful of items.  

• a giant paper box, bound with a stiff ribbon and a written note;

• a sharp pin;

• a massive steel hammer with the words “MC HAMMER” on it;

• and a voodoo doll.

I use the hammer on the thin section of wall, and break through to the other side.

He’s not at all concerned about his broken TV?

I land in the room we saw LeGek in during the opening credits.  I try to look and use at everything, and nothing works, until I try the door, and then someone comes in.  That someone is LeGek.

We learn he has it out for us because we killed his brother Chuck.  He prepares to make his revenge, and calls out for his zombie servant, Jeronýmo.  LeGek is distracted, trying to find his sidekick, so I try everything in my inventory.

In shades of Monkey Island 2, the first thing I try is using the pin on the voodoo doll, but that only ends up hurting myself.  Oops.

Throwing the hammer?  No.

Gajbraš throws the knife and misses by probably a whole football field.

When I’ve exhausted all the options, Gajbraš muses that he needs to be diplomatic.

Most pirates skip the diplomacy class in their University schedules.

So, I talk with him, choosing all the polite, diplomatic responses.  As an offer of good faith, I give him the gift box, which I was unable to use on him earlier.  He opens it up, and finds many useful rewards:  A new wooden leg made by Adidas, a complete set of all pirate maps, a new Jolly Roger flag with built in radar, an inflatable love doll, a deck of cards that can autoshuffle, a bottomless keg of grog (with, sadly, the bottom missing), and... a steel ball with a burning cigar.

Wait, what?!?

This is what happens when you share your toys.

They play catch with it, and eventually it goes out to the volcano.  And gives the volcano an upset stomach.  Donkey Island is flooded out by lava, and it seems to be the end.  Or is it?

 

Captain LeGek is saved by Jeronýmo.

Gajbraš then surfaces with a floppy disk he found in the water, with a new computer game by Pterodon Software.

Sadly, he then drowns.

So, next time with this game, I’ll do some scoring.  And because I like a little fun, there’s a particular pop-culture reference in this post that I suspect is largely American, but the first person to say something about it in the comments before I do the scoring will get some bonus points.  Just because.  It’s something I’m proud of referencing.

Session Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes