Monkey Island series
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Monkey Island is the collective name given to a series of four graphical point-and-click adventure games produced and published by LucasArts, originally known as LucasFilm Games through the development of the first two games in the series. The games follow the misadventures of the hapless Guybrush Threepwood as he struggles to become the most notorious pirate in the Caribbean, defeat the plans of the evil undead pirate LeChuck and win the heart of governor Elaine Marley. Each game's plot usually involves the mysterious Monkey Island and its impenetrable secrets.
Ron Gilbert, the creator of the series, only worked on the first two games before leaving LucasArts. The rights to Monkey Island remained with LucasArts, and the third and fourth games were created without Gilbert's input.
During TV Network G4's coverage of the 2006 E3 Convention, a LucasArts executive was asked about the return of popular franchises, such as Monkey Island, and responded that the company was focusing on new franchises instead, and that if they developed them, may return to the classic franchises next decade.
Overview
The Monkey Island series is known for its humor and "player-friendly" qualities. The player cannot permanently place the game in an unwinnable state or cause Guybrush to die, aside from one situation in the first game that was extremely unlikely to happen unintentionally, as it required the player to be stymied by a fairly easy puzzle for over ten minutes. Furthermore, a software bug in MI2 could cause a player to be "locked out". This "player friendly" approach was unusual at the time of the first game's release in 1990; prominent adventure-game rivals were Sierra On-Line and Infocom, both of whom were known for games with sudden and frequent character deaths or "lock-outs". LucasArts itself used such closed plot paths for its drama games like (1989) but preferred the open format for other humor-oriented adventure games such as Sam & Max Hit the Road (1993) and Day of the Tentacle (1993).Much of the soundtracks of the games is composed by Michael Land, and it is filled with dub and reggae-inspired music; Elaine Marley's name is also a possible reference to Bob Marley.
Setting
Each of the games takes place on in the Caribbean. The time period in which they take place is around the Golden Age of Piracy but deliberately vague (although in the third game, the date of a coin reads 1687): although the islands teem with pirates, dressed in outfits that seem to come from movies and comic books rather than history, and there are many deliberate anachronisms and references to modern-day popular culture.
The main setting of the Monkey Island games is the "Tri-Island Area", a fictional archipelago in the Caribbean. Since the first game in the series, SMI, each game has visited the titular island of Monkey Island while introducing its own set of islands to explore. MI2 features four new islands, CMI introduces three, and EMI, which revisits some of the older islands, features three new islands as well.
The main islands of the Tri-Island Area are Mêlée Island, Booty Island, and Plunder Island, which are all ruled by Governor Elaine Marley in place of her long lost grandfather, Horatio Torquemada Marley. Elaine moves from island to island at her convenience, though she considers her governors mansion on Mêlée Island, the capital island of the area, as home.
Other islands in the region are considered under the umbrella of Tri-Island Area as well, even though Elaine does not rule them. These include the pirate islands Scabb Island and Phatt Island, the urbanised Lucre Island and Jambalaya Island, the minor islands of Hook Island, Dinky Island, Skull Island and Knuttin Atoll, and the volcanic islands of Blood Island and Monkey Island itself. Additional islands seen in maps of the area but never visited include Blunderbuss[[Citing sources citation needed]], Spittle, and Pinchpenny, the latter two appearing in the main sea map from EMI.
The Drink
Grog is mentioned multiple times as a pirate's choice of drink. The Monkey Island version of grog is acidic enough to dissolve a pewter mug and solid metal bars, and is also sold in bottles through Coca-Cola-style vending machines. According to the Important-Looking Pirates in the first game, grog contains one or more of the following:- kerosene
- propylene glycol
- sulphuric acid
- artificial sweeteners
- red dye no2
- rum
- acetone
- battery acid
- scumm
- axle grease
- and/or pepperoni.
Inspiration
Although Ron Gilbert stated publicly that the game was inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean Disneyland ride, in his blog he admitted that his true inspiration was Tim Powers' book On Stranger Tides.Characters
Many "supporting" characters have recurring roles in the games, including:
- Stan, a disreputable salesman.
- The Voodoo Lady, who advises Guybrush in supernatural matters.
- Herman Toothrot, an old hermit who has a surprising secret.
- Largo LaGrande, LeChuck's short, mean, and bra-wearing henchman, who mugged Guybrush in MI2.
- Wally B. Feed, a myopic, height-challenged cartographer.
- Carla, the swordmistress of Mêlée Island.
- Otis, the flower-fancying pirate and friend of Carla, who invariably gets locked up.
- Murray, a talking skull with delusions of grandeur.
- A tribe of cannibals who eventually convert to vegetarianism.
- Meathook, a wax painter who used to be a pirate and has two hooks in place of where his hands would be.
The games
The Secret of Monkey Island
The game starts off with the main character Guybrush Threepwood stating "I want to be a pirate!", and he is soon off to prove himself to the old pirate captains. During the perilous pirate trials, he meets the beautiful governor Elaine Marley, with whom he falls in love, unaware that the ghost pirate LeChuck has kept his love for Elaine beyond the grave. When Elaine is kidnapped, Guybrush procures crew and ship to track LeChuck down, defeat him and rescue his love.
Islands visited:
- Mêlée and Hook Island: Mêlée's main settlement is surrounded by thick jungle and holds the infamous SCUMM Bar, a seedy dive where pirates drown their fear of LeChuck. Hook Island is a small rock off the north coast of Mêlée, the two islands connected by a track cable.
- Monkey Island: The cannibal infested island that makes the home for LeChuck's stronghold.
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
As Guybrush, with a treasure chest in hand, and Elaine hang on to ropes in a void, he tells her the story of the game. He has decided to find the greatest of all treasures, the Big Whoop, but unwittingly he has helped revive LeChuck, now in zombie form, and Guybrush is eventually captured by his archnemesis. With help from Wally, he escapes and finds the treasure only to be stuck on the rope with the treasure, the situation from the beginning of the game. As Guybrush concludes his story, his rope breaks and he finds himself facing LeChuck, and the two of them engage in voodoo magic. The ending is very surrealistic and suggests a number of interpretations.
Islands visited:
- Scabb Island, The starting island of the game, however there is no treasure, so Guybrush decides to look elsewhere.
- Phatt Island: An island, visited in order to piece together a map to Big Whoop.
- Booty Island: A part of Elaine's governorship, visited in order to find another piece of the map to Big Whoop.
- Dinky Island: The island where Guybrush finds the treasure chest.
The Curse of Monkey Island
When Guybrush unwittingly turns Elaine into a gold statue with a cursed diamond engagement ring, he tracks her down from the greedy pirates who kidnapped her, before searching for a new diamond ring to lift the curse. LeChuck appears in a fire demon form, and is on the heels of Guybrush until a stand off in LeChuck's amusement park ride, the Rollercoaster of Doom.
Islands visited:
- Plunder IslandPlunder Island was erroneously referred to as Puerto Pollo in EMI; Puerto Pollo is the main settlement on Plunder Island.: An island home to a pirate retirement community under Elaine's gubernatorial powers. Guybrush must find a way off Plunder, in order to lift the curse.
- Blood Island: A run-down resort island and the resting place of a big, uncursed diamond ring.
- Skull Island: Located off the coast of Blood Island, it is the destination of a hideout for pirate smugglers who have made the uncursed diamond their own.
- Monkey Island: Guybrush and Elaine are both captured and taken to LeChuck's island, now utilized as an amusement park.
Escape from Monkey Island
When Guybrush Threepwood and Elaine Marley return from their honeymoon, Elaine has been declared officially dead, her mansion is under destruction order, and her position as governor is up for election. When Guybrush investigates further, he unearths a conspiracy by LeChuck and evil real estate developer Ozzie Mandrill to use the voodoo talisman the "Ultimate Insult" to make all pirates docile, in order to turn the Caribbean into a center of tourism.
Islands visited:
- Mêlée and Hook Island: EMI revisits the first two islands of the game, though certain things have changed.
- Lucre Island: Guybrush travels to Lucre to have the Marley family lawyers put an end to the destruction to order, but he is framed for bankrobbery by Pegnose Pete.
- Jambalaya Island and Knuttin Atoll: Jambalaya is the place to find the "Ultimate Insult", but the island has already been taken over by consumer franchises and the pirates are sent to Knuttin Atoll for re-socializing.
- Monkey Island: Guybrush is taken hostage by LeChuck, and he must figure out how to escape from Monkey Island.
Common themes
The games in the series share several minigames, puzzles, in-jokes, and references. In each game there is a minigame based on learning and repetition of a sequence in order to become more proficient: insult swordfighting in the first game (the term rapier wit gets a new meaning here), a number-based "password" in the second, rhyming insult sword-fighting in the third, and insult arm wrestling and "Monkey Kombat" in the fourth. The first and fourth games also both feature a puzzle which involves following another character through several locations, a trick also used in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Some other minigames include a spitting competition, naval cannon battles and platform diving.Pop-cultural references
The Monkey Island series is full of spoofs, in-jokes, humorous references, and Easter eggs: so many, in fact, that entire web sites are dedicated to their detection and listing.Running gags include lines such as "Look behind you, a three-headed monkey!", the introduction "I'm Guybrush Threepwood, a mighty pirate", and "Hi, I'm selling these fine leather jackets" (a reference to the adventure game) and the astounding fact that Guybrush can hold his breath for 10 minutes.
Many attempts have been made to draw parallels between the series and the movie . This would be very appropriate since Ron Gilbert openly admits that sections of Monkey Island 2 borrowed extensively from the original Disneyland ride, such as the famous "dog holding the keys to the jail-cell".
Each game in the series features cameo appearances by Steve Purcell's characters Sam & Max (who were featured in their own LucasArts adventure game, Sam & Max Hit the Road). The pair appear as voodoo idols in the first game, as costumes in a costume shop on Booty Island in the second, as toys in LeChuck's demonic carnival and as light-formations at the theatre (in Mega-Monkey mode) in the third and as one of the possible aliases for Pegnose Pete in the World of Prosthesis puzzle in the fourth scene from EMI.
The secret
None of the games actually outright reveal the "Secret of Monkey Island". LeChuck himself, when asked in the second and third games, refuses to answer the question; Guybrush can eventually prod LeChuck to confess that he does not know what The Secret is. There are many theories popular among players, and at least one case can be made from each game in the series.A theory is that the bizarre revelation at the end of MI2 is the true Secret of Monkey Island. The fact that it was debunked in CMI is merely a retcon by the new development team after the departure of Ron Gilbert. But flashes of supernatural power from little Chucky's eyes, and the "meanwhile" of Elaine still waiting for Guybrush in the final scene of MI2 seem to indicate that MI2 is not giving out the definite truth and a sequel was intended by Gilbert. Members of the CMI team (many of who also were part of the MI2 team) has later revealed that they did in fact know what the original secret was, and that it simply was a child's fantasy, although Gilbert has contradicted this in various interviews, saying that he has never told anyone what the true secret of Monkey Island is and was planning to reveal it in a third game [link]. A large article about the subject can be found [here].
Gilbert stated in a 2004 interview that when the game was originally conceived it was "too big", so they split it into three parts, adding that he "knows what the third [part] is" and "how the story's supposed to end," indicating that he knows what the secret is.Idle Thumbs, [Ron Gilbert Speaks: Part 2]
In an attempt to resolve the issue over the secret the team behind Escape named the cut-scene revealing the Giant Monkey Robot "The Real Secret of Monkey Island". This however seemed to confuse the matter even more.
In his recent Gamespot interview, Gilbert claims the true secret has yet to be told, and wishes to reveal it in a fifth and final Monkey Island game.[External Link]
Footnotes
See also
External links
- [MobyGames' entry for the Monkey Island Series]
- [ScummVM] - A multi-platform open-source SCUMM interpreter allowing the first three MI games to be played on all modern platforms
- [The Monkey Island SCUMM Bar] - A popular fan-site. Although it has since been closed, all content is still available for viewing.
- [Grumpy Gamer] - The personal blog of Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert
- [LucasArts Soundtracks] - Soundtracks to all four Monkey Island games, converted to mp3 format and free for download.
- [Quick and Easy] or how to run LucasArts adventure games in windows XP, 2000 and NT with no problem at all
- [World of Monkey Island] Fan site with Hints.
- [The Legend of Monkey Island] Another fan site with lots of info.
| Games : | The Secret of Monkey Island | | The Curse of Monkey Island | Escape from Monkey Island |
| Characters: |
Main : Guybrush Threepwood | LeChuck | Elaine Marley Secondary : Wally B. Feed | Ozzie Mandrill | Stan | Herman Toothrot | Voodoo Lady Minor : List of Minor Characters in Monkey Island |
| Islands : | Blood | Booty | Dinky | Jambalaya | Lucre | Mêlée | Monkey | Phatt | Plunder | Scabb | Skull |
| Various : | SCUMM | GrimE | Insult swordfighting | Monkey Island things |
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