Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - Where's the Cheese?

Written by The Trickster

My first Monkey Island 2 session covered my initial exploration of Woodtick. By the time I’d finished I really only had one lead, which was to go and purchase some wood polish for the peg-legged pirate…ahem…performance artist. I naturally started the second session by heading back to Woody the woodsmith to do exactly that. After exchanging the single piece of eight for the polish, I made my way back to the one-legged man and tried to give it to him. He wouldn’t wake up, but the game suggested that he actually wanted me to polish the leg for him. I used the polish on the peg leg, and the man woke up and gave me another piece of eight for my trouble. I’d kind of hoped that something more substantial might happen, and suddenly realised that I really didn’t have any other solid leads. I still had the wood polish though, so perhaps there was something else I could do with that? I couldn’t think of anything, so I decided the time was right to step outside Woodtick. There had to be more to this island than a few rickety businesses. As I crossed back over the bridge and walked to the right of screen, I confirmed that there was.

The great pirate Guybrush Threepwood, made to polish peg legs for a single coin. Oh the shame!

Scabb Island in all its glory. There's something exciting about seeing all the possible destinations on a lovely map like this.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - The Largo Embargo

Written by The Trickster

I often find that having high expectations of a game leads to hindered enjoyment. What I find tends to happen is that I come up with what in my mind would be the ultimate experience, and when the game differs from that (which it inevitably does), I feel let down. That hasn’t been the case at all with Monkey Island 2 so far for the simple reason that it's pretty much impossible not to be entertained. Sure, I’m still playing through Part I of the game, but there has already been so much hilarious fun that I've literally had to drag myself away from it to write this post. Now that I’ve managed to do that, you'll have to excuse me if I cut to the chase so I can get back to playing it as soon as possible.

LucasArts were by now stealing a lot of techniques from cinema, and this opening "climax" is a perfect example.

Game 70: Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (1991) - Introduction

Written by The Trickster

I'm excited. Are you excited?

If you’d asked me five years ago whether I’d end up writing guest posts for The Adventure Gamer, I would have told you that you were completely mad. But here I am, eighteen months after handing over the blog to the community, taking a break from a very different project to play through what many consider to be the finest adventure game of them all. I don’t really have a view on whether that label is justified just yet, as it has been about fifteen years since I last played Monkey Island 2. I remember very little of it to be honest, and am not even certain whether I’ve played through it more than once. After a lengthy break from adventure games (with the exception of the game that arguably started the whole genre), I sure am excited to get into it, but first let’s take a brief look at how it all came about.

The Year Ahead - 1992

By Ilmari

Something really special is cooking up on the Adventure Game -blog, and we might have more time than usual to wait before the surprise is ready. In addition, the first ever gaming year with the new regime is about to end, with only few games to cover in 1991. So, it's good time to get your CAPs rolling and to decide what games to add to the gaming year 1992.

It wasn't all fun and games in 1992,
it was also bad movies sprouting good TV series later

Maupiti Island - Final Rating

By Ilmari

I think I have not yet faced any game, not regular nor a Missed Classic, that I would have so ambivalent feelings for. The game had many things I really liked, but also important elements that were so incompetently done. I am not sure which way the scales will tip, so let’s just begin scoring.

Puzzles and Solvability

I am still of the opinion that in a Deadline-style game solving the mystery should be counted as one puzzle, and it is doubly so in a game like Maupiti Island, in which you have to answer some questions about central plot events. In the main, this part of the game felt rather satisfying. Most of the plot pieces fit in rather well and finding out the relevant information was mostly a fair process. The only exception was the need to crack the code of the secret messages in the piano - the use of the chess book was just on the limits of a fair game and one name (The Wind) could only be learned from these messages. Still, I liked the puzzle with the piano itself so much that I am willing to ignore this one fault.

Like a piece of good puzzle, I might add