Escape from Monkey Island

"Add Humor, Subtract Action and It Equals To A Quality Game"

Cartoon characters have always been cool. Pirates are mostly cool. Guybrush Threepwood (Yep that’s his real name!) is a cartoon character and a pirate. Guybrush Threepwood is the main character of Escape From Monkey Island. So what do we get out of all of this? Escape From Monkey Island is a very cool game.

Escape From Monkey Island is the fourth edition in the adventure series, Monkey Island. This is the first one on Playstation 2, since the others can be found for the PC. In the game, you are Guybrush Threepwood, a pirate who has just come back on a three month honeymoon with his wife, and governess, Elaine. Returning home, and expecting a big welcome, they find that city council has pronounced them dead and are ready to demolish your mansion. That’s where the adventure begins which eventually leads you going to different islands, going to jail, and facing your arch-nemesis LeChuck.

Escape From Monkey Island is a unique adventure, in which there is pretty much no action, and there is no way you can die or lose (Kind of contradictory since you are a pirate and all). Don’t worry though, since the fun is not in the action, but in the interaction with other characters in the game. Each character has a distinct personality with a voice to match. The little fighting there is in the game, is in form of Insult Sword Fighting, in where the winner is the one with the best insults and comebacks. In any case, this game is by far, the funniest game for the PS2 right now.

As Guybrush, you walk around and interact with anything from people to a bridge to bait. There’s a separate button for examining, picking up, and using. Guybrush always adds a few remarks of his own, which are always hilarious. Such as if you try to press the pick up button on the moon, he says, “Pick up the moon? Are you NUTS!?” If you try to put a giant hand you find in a house in your inventory, he proceeds with, “There’s a few hands I’d like in my pants and that’s not one of them.” See how this game is pretty much one big comedy?

Like all games there are many downsides. For one thing there’s no action. Next, the puzzles can be extremely hard and very frustrating, but this leads to more interaction which is always fun. Lastly, loading is a killer since it just messes with the story feeling to it. Anyway its still a fun game, which brings us to the most important part of the review, the ratings.

GRAPHICS – 7.5
The people are pretty well done since they are made out to be cartoon-like. There are small things like the sky which are cheaply done. Its not the best feature of the game, but it’s actually pretty good, which should give you an idea how good this game is.

SOUND - 10
The background music is very similar to Final Fantasy 7’s. It’s like elevator music, which you really don’t notice, but that’s the way it ought to be. The big thing here is the voices of the characters. I mean Disney couldn’t get better people to do these characters for a big cartoon movie.

GAME CONTROLS - 8
Controls are really simple. The only thing that’s a problem is that sometimes it gets confusing and you mix up the buttons, or maybe that’s just me. Nothing revolutionary here, nothing bad either.

INNOVATION – 9
Yes this is a completely unique game, totally different from any other game for Playstation. I’m not sure how they pulled it off, but this game is actually fun without any action. This game puts interaction and humor over violence and gore, which is refreshing.

LENGTH – 9
The puzzles can be painfully hard, which makes it really long to figure it out. Even if you had a walkthrough, which you’ll probably need for this game, it’s still an incredibly long game. So no problem with length.

REPLAY VALUE - 5
Not exactly sure what you can do after you’re done with the game, but its not much, unless you want to play the game again.

STORY – 8.5
The storyline is great, in where one thing leads to another. Its a wonder how Guybrush gets himself into so much trouble, but then again that’s half the story, so I’ll keep my mouth shut.

FUN FACTOR - 9
Yes Insult Arm Wrestling, is by far the most fun thing ever. Ok maybe not, but it’s up there. I mean who wouldn’t like to win in arm wrestling, not by strength, but by insults? Trust me on this, this game is loads of fun to play.

Escape From Monkey Island is a great game, but I would rent it before buying it, just to see if you’d like it. Don’t worry if you like laughing and don’t mind a lack of blood in an adventure game, then this game is definitely worth the fifty bucks.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/01, Updated 07/13/01