The Curse of Monkey Island

9.0
Excellent

Gameplay	9.0	"The ultimate in bang for your buck!"
Graphics	9.0
Sound	10
Value	10

By Sam Leitch

ADVERTISEMENT

If there has ever been one ultimate argument for pirates over ninjas, it’s the Monkey Island series. This franchise is probably the most well known of all adventure games and undoubtedly one of Lucas Arts’, nay, gaming’s finest moments!

So what makes the series so popular (apart from monkeys and pirates)? For most, it’s the humour. It’s completely off-beat and sharper than a cutlass. As you navigate the absurd plot (you start off the game stranded in a floating bumper car…), you’ll be treated to more punch lines than a sitcom, and plenty of pirate talk - and you’ll even challenge other characters to insult slinging matches.

Anyone that has played any of the Lucas Arts adventure games before knows just what to expect from Monkey Island 3. You’ll be presented with heaps and heaps of static screens with many interactive objects and people. Many objects can be used or picked up and put into your inventory for later use. Talking to people often gives you vital clues, and quite often you will be presented with a few questions to choose from, which will give you various results. This does result in having to talk to many characters multiple times, often hearing the same lines - but the voice acting and dialogue is so fantastically hilarious that you won’t mind in the slightest.

You will of course have to use many of the items throughout the game to solve a variety of puzzles. Unlike most adventure games though, they can all be solved after a heavy dose of pondering, and you won’t need to put up with as much trial and error as most other adventures. Usually in this type of game I know what I want to do, just not how the game wants me to do it. Thanks in part to the simplified interface, The Curse of Monkey Island is much more forgiving. If you really want to get the grey matter into gear though, there is a hard mode with slightly remixed (and tougher) puzzles.

Like all Lucas Arts Adventure games, this Monkey Island looks stunning. The usual ‘crooked’ cartoony style of the other games is still firmly in place, but the third game ups the ante considerably. Really the graphics are bordering on cartoon quality and the animation is top notch too. To say the graphical overhaul really gives the game character and life would be a huge understatement. Oh and the sound is fantastic too - Curse of Monkey Island is one of those rare few games that actually has aged very well indeed.

At the end of the day, if you are tired of action games and feel like soaking up an addictive atmosphere, solving a few puzzles and just all-round getting into the pirate theme, then The Curse of Monkey Island could be right up your alley and make a great change. Anyone that remembers the game from their childhood will be more than eager to pick up the re-release too!

NZGamer.com - The Curse of Monkey Island Facebook