Anthony's Film Review - Escape From Monkey Island (Video Game, 2000)

This game has humor and fun, but ends up being OK for one major reason...

One of the most memorable series of computer adventure games is the Monkey Island series from LucasArts. It's a mixture of pirate adventure and comedy, featuring a weak-looking yet brave wannabe pirate named Guybrush Threepwood, his love interest Elaine Marley, and the evil pirate LeChuck who takes various supernatural forms. The first game in 1990, The Secret of Monkey Island, was a successful hit among gamers. Same for the sequels in 1991, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, and in 1997, The Curse of Monkey Island. These three games are well received such that fans may consider them to be the definitive titles of the series. I know I had that same thought after I played them.

Because of the fairly high bar set, the fourth Monkey Island game ended up being somewhat of a letdown. It's a step below what I'd expect from a Monkey Island game, maybe two steps. My overall rating is borderline positive because of a mixture of good things about it and a few bad things about it, particularly one major gripe that I'll describe later. It makes me wonder if the Monkey Island series should've stopped after the third game, especially as that one ends on a nice note that could also serve as a finale for the series. But anyway, if the fans want more, then here we go with another game.

The story of Escape From Monkey Island begins with Guybrush and Elaine returning home from a trip abroad, only to find that their mansion on Melee Island is going to be demolished. As the Governor of Melee Island, Elaine has to stay behind, so she asks Guybrush to find her lawyers on Lucre Island to help settle this matter. You, as Guybrush, follow the story as you explore surroundings, look at items closely, pick up objects, use them where appropriate, talk to characters, and ultimately figure out solutions to one situational puzzle after another. Unlike past Monkey Island games on the PC, this one does not involve mouse control. It's entirely done with the PC's keyboard, or the game controller if playing a console version of the game.

This game isn't bad in terms of the variety of places to explore, characters to interact with, and situations to get out of. Guybrush encounters stuff like a blind prosthetic seller, a pirate rehabilitation school, a Guybrush Threepwood-themed restaurant, an Australian land developer, a diving contest that seems impossible to win, wrongful accusation of a bank robbery, and insult arm wrestling. Speaking of insults, Guybrush is on a quest to find something called the Ultimate Insult, which grants its wielder greater power over everyone else. On the way, Guybrush meets a few familiar characters from past adventures, including the voodoo lady and the wacky salesman Stan.

That should give you an idea of the good stuff about the game. Now, onto my biggest gripe about it.

Escape From Monkey Island has what is perhaps the worst game-within-a-game for an adventure game: Monkey Kombat. Obviously, it's a parody of the fighting game Mortal Kombat, which would be fine if it's done in a fun and silly way. Instead, Monkey Kombat involves a set of verbal monkey commands and a few weird rules about them. Winning involves being able to use the right command in response to the opponent's. However, in order to know which commands work against which, you have to play the game a couple of times and actually takes notes with a pen and paper. It's incredibly frustrating because memory alone will not help you here. In addition, the game randomly generates the command combinations that oppose each other. Basically, you take notes on Monkey Kombat each time you play Escape From Monkey Island from the beginning and get to the Monkey Kombat sequence. Once you do that, hang onto those notes until you finish the game. Yeah, you'll need them more than once.

For me, Monkey Kombat was so frustrating that I could care less about how the last part of the game ended. It was ultimately a disappointing climax and ending. I was left wondering if, after everything I did, it was all worth it. When I look back on my playthrough of the game, I could summarize it like this. My level of enjoyment was good early on, and it continued for quite a while. But starting from Monkey Kombat, it went downhill for the rest of the way. If I were to average it out, my overall rating for this game would be a 6 out of 10.

So it's an OK game. It has its moments, enough for me to say it's a marginally fun game, but I do think the developers tried too hard to make this game creative. All they needed to do was focus on writing a memorable story and making sure the gamer's experience is fun without being cumbersome. Instead, they had to get overly fancy with introducing a spoof of an element from another game genre. So if you want to skip and ignore this entry of the Monkey Island series, go ahead. If you still want to play it for completeness sake, that's fine, too. Just get a pen and paper ready when you start playing Monkey Kombat.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Escape From Monkey Island, visit the Internet Movie Database and Moby Games.