Why did nobody tell me that Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge was one of the funniest pieces of videogame medium ever to be crafted? Well? What’s your big excuse?! Don’t tell me it’s because you lost your monocle either.
In truth, I guess I always knew it was a bit funny, seeing as it always came up in gaming forums and such as a good time. Yet I never got to play it, or any other entries in the series, and dang it, I’m now totally kicking myself. The writing is top-notch, with some of the best dialogue choices ever to be selected. Seriously, Tara and I spent minutes trying to decide if we wanted to Guybrush to say “I’ll BE back!” or “I’ll be BACK!” These things matter, people. And while the voice acting is new for the special Xbox Live remake and done with great personality, the writing remains the same text that was typed up way back in, uh, December 1991. It takes coconuts to do some of the things LucasArts did here, but without ’em, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge would be a less special game; the fact that you can basically make Guybrush beg and plead for a shopkeeper’s item despite never getting it is beyond the call of duty, but oh so wonderful.
The game’s funny, but somewhere in the middle of Act II, the one where you have to find four map pieces for Big Whoop, I had to trade in laughing a few times for Googling walkthroughs. Some of these puzzles are just plain obtuse, and I have to imagine it was a real struggle eons ago when your best solution was to just click everything and then click everything on everything. More in-game clues would’ve been appreciated, and I’m not talking about the brand new hint addition, which I’m not using in order to unlock an Achievement come the credits. Speaking of those delicious pingers, here’s a couple Achievements I’ve unlocked too that I find to be pretty great:
Old School (5G): Switched to classic mode at least once
Five Minutes Later… (10G): Allowed Guybrush to die.
Call 9-1-1 (10G): Called the LucasArts helpdesk when walking through the jungle on Dinky Island.
All right, so we’re on the home stretch now actually. The final island, which is a mess of jungle paths. Just finally ended my little talk with Herman. Now I gotta take down LeChuck…again?
Grinding Down 
This was my first Monkey Island game, and you’re right, it was TOUGH back in the day. I had a friend who was playing at the same time so we would exchange strategies on stuff. At one point in the game you’re supposed to click on a portion of this oceanic map and Guybrush dives down to find some treasure, but I didn’t know where to find the treasure so I systematically tried every single point on the map! And of course, I didn’t find it, since finding the clue actually triggers the treasure to be findable. lol
Great ending to the game though.
Oh yeah, puzzle solutions that are tied to specific clicks or clues! Once I got the coordinates, I began clicking on the ocean map, but with no luck. Then, after I had charterd another ship, clicking the right place on the map worked.
Can’t wait to see how it all ends! (Or doesn’t, seeing as, I guess, there’s more titles after this one.)
None of the games are tied that closely together. But Curse of Monkey Island is my favorite, and yeah, dude below is right: Escape blows.
I love the Monkey Island games with such a passion that I can’t even explain. I even have one of the limited edition Guybrush voodoo dolls that were being sold for a while. There aren’t enough nice things I could say about these games (even the terrible Escape from Monkey Island is only “terrible” when compared to the first 3 games).
So, maybe I should try the original Monkey Island next, but stay away from the fourth title? Please don’t use that voodoo doll on me either.
Yeah, you should definitely try out the original one. That’s actually the order I played them in (MI2 then MI1) back when I had an Amiga.
But yeah, Escape from Monkey Island was pretty not good compared to the others. It’s still funny, but it’s all 3D and just…not right. Though TellTale (while also making 3D Monkey Island) seemed to have gotten it right with the new ones that they released not too long ago.
And I think the voodoo doll would only work on Guybrush, so you should be safe. We could test this out if you’d like.