The Curse of Monkey Island

"A good sequel to a so-so game"

While I adored the original Secret of Monkey Island and still believe it to be one of the better adventure games LucasArts ever made, Lechuck's Revenge left a bad taste in my mouth. A friend had it in junior high and I played it at his house, but when I went home that night I didn't have a driving desire to get my own copy and see what happened in the rest of the game. And I didn't, until I bought a three-pack of Monkey Island games in order to get the first and third ones.

Which brings me to Curse of Monkey Island, which manages to bring the humorous series back on track after the nearly catastrophic derailing that was Lechuck's Revenge. Glad to have you back, Mr. Threepwood, and let's just put that little episode behind us, shall we?

After escaping the carnival of the damned (what happened there is left pretty vague), Guybrush finds himself suddenly trapped in the hold of Lechuck's pirate ship, which is trying to invade the fort where Governor Marley is trying to fend him off. Guybrush inadvertently manages to sink the ship and blow Lechuck to kingdom come. After that he finally pops the question to Elaine, but the ring he gives her is cursed and she turns to gold, so it's up to Guybrush to find a way to fix things.

That means getting to the island where a diamond ring blessed with true love is hidden, though, and that means getting a ship, a crew, and a map to the island first. And then it means a slew of insult sword fighting with a bunch of other pirates ranging in degrees of fearsomeness. This was a nice return to Monkey Island's roots, and mastering insult sword fighting (especially against the master pirate who uses unconvential insults, like Carla did) is a bit easier because the correct retort always rhymes. Whether to make things easier on the young'ins and newcomers to the Moneky Island series or just a way of touching up the old gameplay, it's a nice idea that helps the player think more about the first game than the middling sequel that comes before Curse of Monkey Island.

While there are some strange puzzles in this game that will strain your imagination, some are nicely obvious (you'll know what to do with the ipecac flower when the time comes), and almost all are nicely amusing. And this game teaches us that even volcano gods can be lactose intolerant.

The game uses an interface similar to the one from Full Throttle. By clicking over a significant object, Guybrush can access a doubloon-shaped menu allowing him to look at it, talk to it, or manipulate it/pick it up. And there's of course the collection of seemingly useless and random items to be assembled, every one of which will see Guybrush through to a victorious ending.

Curse of Monkey Island is the first game in its series to have character voices throughout it, and it's a nicely-done addition to the game. And, mercifully, the guys with foreign accents manage to keep it under control amidst the humorous atmosphere of the game and not make tools of themselves with stupidly overplayed parts. Guybrush, Elaine and Lechuck's voices suit them all nicely, and the minor characters aren't so bad either.

If you like humor and adventure games, I can honestly say there's no way you can afford to pass this up. Even the public service announcement about not mixing alcohol and medicine manages to get a chuckle. Even the mini-games (ship-to-ship fighting and insult sword fighting), which I usually see as a boring chore to getting on with the rest of the game, are kind of fun. It more than makes up for the game before it, and sets up a nice finale (so far) to the series.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/10/04