Which Monkey Island game was the best?

[dscross]

I'm feeling nostalgic. So, for all you old-school adventure gamers out there, I wanted to see which you thought was the best Monkey Island game and why? Honestly, I like them all...so order them in terms of preference if you like. I'll kick us off.

Monkey Island 2: Lechuck's Revenge - What a game! So many happy memories as a child. Puzzles just the right difficulty to keep you going. Captivating story. Funny lines. Unexpected ending. I actually would have been quite happy if it ended here just because it sparked my imagination so much afterwards.

The Secret of Monkey Island - I loved Monkey 1. Everything about it. It's the first game I played which I laughed out loud at (I was only about 12 when I first played it). Adventure, pirating, reasonable puzzles and comedy - winning combo.

Tales From Monkey Island - I played this for nostalgic reasons really. I don't play many new games, unless they are connected to an old school franchise. But it's really really good. Honestly, I didn't expect it to be that good - but it really is. The story is great - better than 3 and 4 I thought. Not quite as funny as some of the previous ones, but the story more than makes up for it.

Curse Of Monkey Island - I didn't like the departure from Monkey Island 2 after the awesome ending. Nevertheless - funny as hell, well animated, good story (although the carnival of the damned was an odd idea, truth be told). The insult sword fighting on the sea, rhyming, was epic. Another one I played over and over.

Escape From Monkey Island - I didn't think it was as bad as everyone else thought - but it did have a lot to live up to after 1,2 and 3 I guess. It wasn't really as funny and Monkey Kombat, though a funny idea, drove me mad. Took way too long. I liked the game though - especially the puzzles.

Opinions guys?...and lots of 'em.

 

[porous_shield]

I liked Curse of Monkey Island the best because of the art and the personality of the voiced characters and especially the rhyming sword combat. Monkey Island 1 is a close second and a game I have a lot of nostalgia about. The newer games I'm not particularly fond of.

 

[Bad Jim]

Curse was my favourite, followed closely by Lechucks Revenge. Both were extremely funny. I thought Secret was pretty good but not quite as good as my top two. Escape and Tales were funny but I hated the interfaces. What's wrong with point and click guys?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Curse of Monkey Island was my first time in the series and I emotionally bonded with the hand-drawn graphics and the voice-acting. Playing Secret and Revenge, I missed all of that, though still enjoyed the staple humor and the story quirks. I'm not partial to either, though I think Revenge has aged better. Is it just me, or they were a little scary as well? I remember having this eerie feeling about them. That's something I liked, and playing Curse again, recognized that it never carried over.

Escape was fun but clunky and made me miss the 2D graphics. Never played Tales.

 

[dscross]

Is it just me, or they were a little scary as well? I remember having this eerie feeling about them. That's something I liked, and playing Curse again, recognized that it never carried over.

Ha, it's not just you. To children, I guess the idea of a zombie/ghost/demon pirate hunting you down is a pretty scary thought. The Monkey 2 ending really freaked me the first time I completed it. It got me thinking a lot.

 

[AD-Stu]

Yeah, Le Chuck in Monkey 2 scared the hell out of me as a kid too - especially that last sequence before the end.

I rate 1 and 2 pretty closely as my favourites. 2 probably had a bit greater depth, but 1 had the sword fighting. Both were comedy gold.

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

I just can`t rate them. They are all great. The only one that really sticks out is MI4. I know i played and finished it but somehow there`s no memory of it besides the bad looking 3d art design. Guess it wasn`t the time since TellTale did a way better job later. I`m still glad and thankfull for Tales of Monkey Island (and Sam&Max btw).

 

[Festus Moonbear]

Secret has a special place in my heart because it's the first one and was also the first adventure game I ever played, and I had just never seen anything like it. I think it probably has the best jokes as well.

Revenge just knocked me out because of the size of it (all those disks for the Amiga), but some of the puzzles were annoying and involved a lot of backtracking between islands just to add playing time, and the ending wasn't great and couldn't make it's mind up what it wanted to be. I think my favourite moment in Revenge was going up the elevator and finding myself in the back alley on Melee Island - God, I wanted to get past that barrier and just go back there again!

Curse is still my favourite-looking game of all time, and the voice acting, although weird at first, really added humour and depth to the characters. The puzzles were a little easier than the first two, but better balanced I thought. Most of all, Curse has the most incredible locations, music and overall atmosphere. The Flying Welshman/Skull Island sequence is probably my favourite moment in Monkey Island. Curse also gave us the best side character in the series in my opinion, Murray the Demonic Talking Skull.

Escape looked awful and is my go-to example of why not everything has to be in 3D. But it was nice to be back on Melee and revisit some old locations, and I thought some of the puzzles were smart, especially the Mysts of Time bit. Some good characters as well. I didn't like the atmosphere and tone at all, though, with the tourists and Starbuccaneers, etc. Incredibly annoying final battle. I quite liked the stupid twists about Herman and the Real Secret, even though they couldn't possibly be canon, just because they were so well done and presented. Overall a mixed bag.

I loved Tales, and not just for desperate nostalgia reasons. The puzzles weren't too strong, but the characters and acting were good and the story excellent, probably the best story of all the games. Didn't look very good - again, 3D is not for Monkey Island - but once I got used to the visual style it was fine. Overall I was pleased and I hope Telltale will do more some day.

So all in all I would pick Curse as my favourite. I hear some people saying that as 1 & 2 have had their 3D special editions, it's time for Curse to have one too. For the love of God, why? It's perfect already.

 

[PanYue]

Curse of Monkey Island, without a freaking doubt. The first 3 were all great, but none can hold a candle to Curse's amazing art and writing. Loved the characters, locations and the random dialogue. It was also hard as nails. But I loved that.


I agree with Festus Moonbear; Escape was awful graphically. It was probably the easiest one though, I didn't really need a Walkthrough for that one, unlike the others where a few bits would snag me.

 

[Tallim]

I'm going to throw my hat into the 'Curse' ring. It was awesome and had so many memorable parts and jokes. Loved all the time I spent with that game. Especially good given that Monkey island 2 was a very tough act to follow.

 

[teebeeohh]

i just now noticed that i never learned the full titles, for me it was always monkey island 1-4
and 2 because zombies

 

[Schmeiser]

The third part, that was the first monkey island i played and my god was i amazed. My friend and I calling each other every 5 minutes when someone found something new or some way to pass through the story. I didn't very much like the newest parts they were kinda boring.

 

[Jandau]

The first two are the best and roughly equal, though for slightly different reasons - the first one was fresher and had more spirit and originality, the second one was bigger, with more content and better visual style. After that, it's been a downward spiral - the 3rd game was still quite good and the updated visuals were awesome. After that it all went to shit.

 

[dr_what]

I really enjoyed LeChuck's Revenge, so much so that I bough the updated version on psn a while back. The visuals, the story and of course, the skeleton dance make it my favourite by far !

 

[Sunrider]

I actually played them in the correct order (because I'm old =( ), and I still think The Curse of Monkey Island, the third one, is the best. With that said, the first two are absolutely brilliant, and anyone who hasn't already played them should buy the HD remakes and do so as soon as possible.
I also think the third game becomes better after playing the first two, because of references to the first two, if that makes sense.

 

[maconlon439]

I realize that I might take some flak for these choices, but here we go.

Best.. Curse of Monkey Island

This game implemented a change of style for the entire series, which might have turned some fans away, but I loved. The early Monkey Island games had a bunch of generic characters in it. However in Curse, almost all characters gained charming little eccentricities, and Guybrush got into the most outrageous situations. It also introduced Murray. How cool must a character be to have originally been planned to appear once, but reaction to him in the demo was so positive that they littered him throughout the series. Most memorable character in all of video gaming. You heard me. Even I get tired of GLADOS after awhile. I never get tired of Murray's appearances. In the end, a game that contains a tomb still full of dead bodies repurposed as an insurance company and a pirate ship crewed entirely by monkeys and one human who has been taking orders from the voices in his head, cannot be criticized.

2nd.. Secret of Monkey Island

This was just a charming little game. I did complain about generic characters before but that was the only thing I found wrong with it. Even Generic characters are acceptable if they do their jobs as game elements well.

3rd.. Tales of Monkey Island

Pros: For the first time in the series, I actually was excited watching a sword fight. I realize now that insult sword fighting was just a gimmick to work sword fights in the rules of adventure gaming. I liked that there are a number of characters who have some real character development.

Cons: I simply got bored in some parts. They also had shoddy execution for bringing Guybrush back to life in the end.

4th.. Escape from Monkey Island

This game had some major flaws, but none of them were deal breakers in my opinion.

Worst.. Lechucks Revenge

You heard me. I'm not saying the game is on the whole bad. I don't consider any Monkey Island game bad. What it is is so-so. I think anybody who says Escape is bad is exaggerating its flaws but I at least acknowledge that Escape has flaws. REVENGE HAS FLAWS. It is not the masterpiece of classic adventure gaming people say it is.

Here is a play by play of my thought process encountering revenges flaws.

Oh dear god. A "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck?" sequence. That stopped being funny when I was five.

Mad Marty. Acting like a person having a disability is funny. Jeez.

Phatt Island is a fascist dictatorship? It doesn't feel like one. I feel like I'm in some underdeveloped urban area.

Booty Island just seems like a more colorful underdeveloped urban area. Only on Scabb Island do I get any sense of appropriate atmosphere. Melee Island and Monkey Island had atmosphere up the wazoo.

Okay infiltrating the fascist dictators house should be a little harder then opening the front door and saying to the guard inside, "Hey look! A THREE HEADED MONKEY!"

Oh dear god. They are making me wear a dress. Let me tell you game. Forcing the main character to cross dress through contrived circumstances has never been a good idea in any medium.

Excuse me, Elaine is taking me seriously despite the fact that I am wearing a dress? Shouldn't you be making fun of me in any way?

Okay, a room full of dynamite just shot me miles across the sea and I'm perfectly fine? What am I Wile E. Coyote?

And the dynamite happened to shoot me exactly where I was trying to get to. Bad game design disguised as a convenient joke.

Lechuck is my brother. Okay this is taking the "We Own Star Wars." joke to a painful to watch level.

Dead Parents. Okay, look game. When you introduce the main characters previously unknown parents to the games plot. It is supposed to be for a helpful bit of personal character development. I'm fairly certain you added Guybrush's parent here just for the heck of it.

And Finally the ending. This is one of the biggest problems that many people were divided on. One of the things that made me lose some respect for Yahtzee. I think he claimed that people's problems with the ending is that it eliminated the possibility of sequels. He likened it to the ending of Romeo and Juliet in that respect. Yahtzee I say no. That is not my problem with the ending. Romeo and Juliet's ending might have been sad, but it was as easy to understand as Shakespeare usually is. Two lovers commit suicide as a result of messed up circumstances. Do people remember the episode of South Park where the Princess of Canada is kidnapped by the Monster of Tooth Decay? In the episode when one of the kids is confronted with the fact that really is the plot of the episode, he calls out "WHAT?!!!" Well that "WHAT?!!!" perfectly sums up my reaction to the ending of Lechucks Revenge.

 

[dscross]

Worst.. Lechucks Revenge

You heard me. I'm not saying the game is on the whole bad. I don't consider any Monkey Island game bad. What it is is so-so. I think anybody who says Escape is bad is exaggerating its flaws but I at least acknowledge that Escape has flaws. REVENGE HAS FLAWS. It is not the masterpiece of classic adventure gaming people say it is.

Ah what? While I agree with your other choices, MI2 is my fav. This is madness! Madness I say! There are more incongruences in MI3 than 2 with the carnival of the damned and all that. How can you dislike monkey2. It's was just so...good.

And while I respect your opinion...I must insist that the ending was quite clever, and even quite dark. It gave an edge to an already great game. And the number of places you could go was awesome...and the puzzles were HARD. And come on man, it was funny.

 

[maconlon439]

Um, I didn't say I disliked it. I just like Escape slightly more.

 

[maconlon439]

Ah, as a minority opinion holder, It's fun to find someone who agrees with me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4FWzeNWHUs

 

[SKaREO]

The best one is the first one. The second one is not bad either. I had no interest in the others after the first two.