I Was a Teenage Adventure Gamer
Monkey Island
In 1990, Lucas Arts released The Secret of Monkey Island. Over
the past ten years, the company has released two more games, and a fourth
in the series is expected to be released this fall. The game has had a
few major changes in the graphics system, and the third game has full
music and sound. But how has the game changed since 1990? This week, we’ll
be exploring that topic a little bit more in depth.
In The Secret of Monkey Island, Guybrush Threepwood was obsessed
with becoming a pirate. That’s all he talked about in the game. “I’m
Guybrush Threepwood and I want to be a pirate!”
And he met up with three important-looking pirates who gave him three
tasks. He had to master the art of the sword, the art of thievery, and
treasure hunting. And to do this, he had to find a sword, a map, and,
of course, a shovel. And to get all of these items, he has to barter for
them. So our intrepid hero is wandering around Melee Island and trying
to find all of these items. To master the sword, he has to master the
art of trading insults. This is one of the more amusing points of the
game. Trading insults was so hilarious. And if you won enough battles,
you could face the legendary sword master of Melee Island.
With LucasArts, there are no surprises–there are bound to be ads in
their games for other games they make. For example, in The Secret of
Monkey Island, you meet up with a pirate who has a button that says
“Ask me about Loom.” And when you ask this pirate about
Loom, he goes into a big spiel about one of LucasArts’ new games.
After a lengthy explanation from the pirate about what Loom is
all about, you realize that LucasArts did some pretty sneaky things in
their products. Not only do they make references to some of their games,
but in future games, there is a cameo appearance by Max from Sam and
Max Hit the Road.
Monkey Island 2 places you again in the role of Guybrush Threepwood.
This time, he is going after the legendary treasure of Big Whoop. After
Guybrush’s last encounters, does he really want to go after another treasure?
The last time he went after treasure, he ended up getting into a tangle
with the zombie pirate LeChuck. And as usual, the zombie pirate LeChuck
is up to his old dastardly tricks. Things remain pretty much the same
for this game as in The Secret of Monkey Island.
Now, in the third installment, The Curse of Monkey Island, Elaine
Marley, Guybrush Threepwood’s girlfriend, is turned into a gold statue.
Guybrush needs to go about getting a ship and saving Elaine. And finally,
in this game, there is full sound and music. The graphics are really cool.
In the first two games, when sword-fighting, you had to imagine the two
pirates arguing, and in this game, you can actually here the sarcasm fly
back and forth between the two dueling pirates. As usual, you can expect
a lot of sarcasm in this game.
Now, all we need to do is wait for Escape from Monkey Island to
hit shelves sometime this fall.
