It's made as a reference to the first two MI games as the technology was so limited that Stan's coat pattern stayed the same even if his arms were flailing around. Ironically, it was hard to do the same effect for the Escape and Tales games using 3D models.
Bit of an Easter egg: if you double click on Stan's office immediately after you exit the goodsoup crypt there's a fun little cutscene where Murray begs you to stick him atop one of the skeletons
Since Scarfulhu mentioned, that many people point to the crew's song when they explain, why exactly they love this game: I'm German and the translated version of my country doesn't have this song on it. It's missing, because the translation-and-dubbing-team was on a tight schedule, so they did cut that part out, because it would have included a lot of extra ryhming-translation for them and singing-recording with the VAs. So Guybrush and his crew are just standing there after Rottingham left, Guybrush tells them that they were no help at all and then it cuts away again, seeing the ship from outside. It was many years later that I found out about this song, so I needed to play it on English, just to get a grasp of what I missed. It was great! Then, while playing it on ScummVM, I had the idea of saving the game right at the song and then changing the language back to German again. And who would have thought... It played the 'German' version of the Song - with English dubbing still, but a lot of the lyrics where already translated. Some of them where quite whitty and funny, while others didn't quite work in rhyme and/or rythm. But it was like I found a treasure, some sort of archeological find of a team that needed to break up their camp before being able to finish their work. Another find, slightly more interesting to common Monkey Island 3 fans: there was a very early (English) demo of CoMI being released in 1997 on german gaming magazines (f.e. 'PC Player' ) that included a scene of Guybrush escaping the carneval of the damned on that bumper car, we see him in at the beginning. Initially this part was to be released on all versions of the game. There had been the apparent idea of Guybrush's escape from the carneval as a prolouge and gameplay tutorial of the game. In later releases of the demo they already had cut that part out. But it's interesting to see, what got into the game and what didn't. There were vast scheduling problems, because of a young and fresh team that had way to big of a vision for this game. Someone in the comments already mentioned the existing storyboard of a scene in which Elaine had a way bigger role in the finale, fighting of skeletons and actually helping Guybrush against LeChuck - and there were even more cuts. There was supposed to be a ROMANTIC ANIMATED DISNEYLIKE SONG featuring Guybrush and Elaine admitting their love for one another once more. The whole disneyfication of the series feels like an unintentional metajoke in it of itself, for it started as an elaborate homage on their themepark rides, then turned into a more unironic disney story and finally is now owned by Disney. Also: count the characters fingers! Do they have 5 or 4? (it varies) The art department was all over the place on this one...
@@liukang85 kennst du das, wenn du nen kurzen Kommentar unter ein Video schreiben willst, dazu passende Themen sich in deinem Kopf überschlagen und du auf einmal gefühlt nen Blog geschrieben hast? 😄
I think the song part is cool, but it should be skippable. After you played the game a couple of times and you just want to sort of speedrun through it, this part becomes a pain
1:46:10 "It really feels like LucasArts ran out of time or money here" Dude... that's because they did. xD The developers have been pretty open in interviews about running out of money near the end of production and making the decision to drop cutscenes and put more of their focus on the first half of the game (since more people would play that part). There are storyboards out there of the dropped cutscene going into Part 6, where Guybrush finds LeChuck trying to force Elaine into the rollercoaster, she spots Guybrush first and grabs a gun to cause a distraction but Guybrush falls into the cart and she shoots a switch so he doesn't go into the lava. There was a cut song too, a Guybrush/Elaine duet; I think the lyrics got released at some point, but it was never recorded.
@@paulsmith9192 These videos take time to make. I've got a new video coming out tomorrow about Star Wars: Dark Forces - but it'll be a bit of time before I get to Escape and Tales.
@@Scarfulhu I can't wait for your video on Escape from MI. I know you've made a couple comments in other MI videos kinda hinting at you not being a huge fan of Escape, but I'm hoping you at least find part of the game fun and entertaining. I may be in the minority but I absolutely love Escape from MI. Do I think it's the best in the series? Not at all. Do I think it's a great game? Absolutely. There's some parts I'm not crazy about (cough,cough.......Monkey Kombat) but the characters, the storyline, the music, and the humor......They're all trademark Monkey Island. It may look a little different and I feel some games don't necessarily NEED to be in 3D, and Monkey Island being one of them, but I still give them props for having the courage to try something different.
Wally's explanation of surviving the explosion "I was thrown clear, I was lucky I didn't have my seat belt" is a reference to Star Wars creator Geroge Lucas. In his youth in the 50's (which the movie American Grafitti is based on) he got into a car crash, luckily the seat belt didn't work properly and he was flown out of the car, surviving with bruised lugns requiring emergency medical treatment. If the seat belt didn't break he would have been killed in the crash.
@@JStryker47 Well, Lucas really got lucky there or we would not have Star Wars or Indiana Jones and who knows what movies wouldn't have been made if those weren't made.
@@JStryker47 It was the 50s m8. Safety in vehicles was very different. Must've been quite the car to have seatbelts. My dad was considered cool to have his car have seatbelts. He was also poor so I dunno maybe that factors into it a bit.
Apparently there's storyboards for a missing scene in the last chapter where Elaine saves Guybrush by setting the rollercoaster to loop. In the final game, it's only hinted at by LeChuck. No idea why it was cut though.
In some playthroughs I have seen a moment where LeChuck says Guybrush should have be boiled in lava and Elaine must have fiddled with the roller coaster controls.
It was cut due to time constraints which for the same reason the enging song Plank of Love was cut as well. Hope they'll record the song with Dominic Armato and Alexandra Boyd for the Remastered Edition.
The Ship Combat was meant to be used in The Secret of Monkey Island but they couldn't get it to work properly so it was abandoned. Probably a left over from this is Stan's panthlet "How to ARM yourself in Sea Combat" along with "Get a LEG up in Treasure Hunting" and "How to get AHEAD in Navigation", the latter which was used in the game to get the Navigator's Head.
Dude, that makes so much sense. I've read about the initial plans of having also action/survival elements in the first game (glad they didn't do it), but I never made the connection with Stans pamphlets.
Translating songs is difficult because it needs to fit a specific rhythm, and in this case they have to rhyme, and to top it all off, Guybrush solves the puzzle by using an unrhymable word. That is very challenging for a translator to do.
You missed the Star Wars reference when Guybrush looks through the stump: "It looks familiar somehow.... as I have seen it in a dream. Or maybe it's... oh I don't know." which is what Luke says to Artoo when they land on Dagobah to find Yoda.
Important message for anyone who decides to play on standard mode. DON'T EAT THE BISCUIT on Standard mode. While the Biscuit is required for game progression later on and it IS required for you to bite down on it in Mega Monkey mode. If you try to bite into the biscuit on standard mode, the biscuit will just disappear from your inventory and renders the game impossible to beat.
What do you need the biscuit for in standard mode? I know in mega monkey you need the biscuit for the dog to bite you later on, but I'm pretty sure in standard mode there are biscuits in his dog bowl
Not true, though it's reasonable to assume so You actually can give the dog one of the bones from its own bowl if you don't have the biscuit I did this on a recent stream of the game. It's easy to assume the game is soft locked since the spot you can click the dog treats is actually really small and pixel hunt-y
Excellent Video Scarfulhu, I remember when I first covered Curse of Monkey Island when you did Monkey Island II. But you just went more in-depth than I did, and I gotta respect that. Loved all the little details you pointed out, and That Spamton Joke around 1:15:07, got me laughing. Although I could see Stan and Spamton working together, truly terrifying. But I enjoyed this video and it was a nice treat to watch while working on my own projects. Keep the good work dude 👍
I'm glad you like Monkey 3. As it was my first, it's hard to argue against or really take in the argument that it's something different from the previous two games. For a long time it was my only Monkey Island experience.
Loved this video. I think Curse was a great game not on the level of Lechuck's Revenge but I loved the humour behind this and love the pirate song. I was sad it ended. I love the artwork on this, it confused me at first when I first played in 1997 but loved it. Great video Connor.
I will never not laugh at Wally being soooo pathetic that his first attempt to put his face in his hands to cry, he accidentally pokes himself in the eye with the fake hook he's wearing.
Dang, talk about good timing for this video to come out! I really love “Curse”, especially for its characters, setting, music, general atmosphere, lovely hand-drawn animation and character designs. As someone who loves animation, the art style of “Curse”, which I would infrequently see on video game forums of yesteryear, is what helped me discover the “Monkey Island” franchise and with it more adventure games. That being said, I’m also not a fan of how Elaine was portrayed in this game, especially since her character was original about subverting the video game standard “damsel in distress” trope, and in this game she is cursed or captured for about 90% of the game. Still, “Curse of Monkey Island” is a great game to me, and one of my all time favourite adventure games.
A very fair review of the game overall. I don't entirely agree with everything, but it's a great video that celebrates a lot about what people love about it. For me, I never saw the game's callbacks to the first game as a bad thing, and imo when they did retread old ground they actually improved upon it. Insult swordfighting for example I thought was better this time around because it has the dynamic music in the background and the ability to pick a creative wrong response that also rhymed. On the LeChuck dialog near the end, yeah it is a lot, and there were probably better ways of explaining the ending of MI2 beyond an exposition dump (or alternatively, as you alluded to, just not explaining it and just moving forward), but I guess this part will come down to subjective taste; I find all of it thoroughly entertaining, rather than dull, because Earl Boen just sells every line and there are some true gems in there. It's also hard for me to knock it when most of it is entirely optional and you're given an out from the conversation very early on. I agree pretty much 100% about how abrupt the ending is though, they really did run out of money towards the end of production. There was going to be a whole sequence with Elaine switching the tracks that was mentioned by LeChuck in the final game, but got cut, along with another musical number played over the end credits. I hope that if we do get a remaster some day that both those things are restored and maybe the whole end sequence in general could be expanded. Ultimately though, all the great moments throughout the game outweigh any niggles I may have towards the end, it's still my favourite in the series for that reason, along with having my favourite art style. I'm very happy that Return seems to be acknowledging this game's existence in particular, though it still remains a complete mystery how all the continuity is going to work while taking place at the end of MI2; I suspect it won't entirely take place there but will simply start there and then somehow get to a post-Tales timeline, but there are many different theories about how that will work, from timeskips to exploring the multiverse. As I write this, we're still waiting for any news at all regarding the release and still haven't seen Guybrush! How weird! Absolutely dying for a trailer and a date that we can all play this thing, the hype is truly real!
Back when I first played this game, I had an English teacher named Murray from Scottish origin. It was too much of an accurate coincidence to not remind him of it, constantly.
I love Curse so much actually. My family and I played all the Monkey Island games before this game came out so we knew what to expect. For a game with a fractured team and no cohesive vision as a whole, this game was fated to be horrible but it’s GREAT! This game is very different, but it still feels like a Monkey Island game. It’s fun, engaging, hilarious, mind bending and creative in the same ways it’s always been with more character and puzzle development.
When you take Murray's arm, you can try to give it back for a funny conversation. Also, one of the books on Mort's shelf is Zombies Ate My Neighbors, which is another Lucasarts game.
Excellent retrospective, I did play Curse first and it's my favorite, but the criticisms you've made are certainly fair. I especially agree that they did Elaine dirty. Looking forward to your video on Escape, I remember liking it as a kid and then getting rapidly bored of it when I tried to revisit it
Really enjoyed when you showed the musics of the pirate barbers, very interesting that these themes are variations. I love this soundtrack, it's a real emotional safe space for me 😂 Also, good video 👍 Thanks for making and sharing!
The art direction, characters and voice acting in this episode are simply fantastic. And visually it's still my favourite in the series by far. Wish I could teleport on Plunder Island.
Oh I get that the game feels different from MI 1 & 2. But that is fine, and a good thing in that is great to see new creative directors do new things with established characters like when a comic book series switches to a new artist and or new writers. Stan Lee is great but I love seeing what Todd McFarlane did with his version of Spiderman. And I love Irvin Kershner's or Gareth Edwards' take on their Star Wars films. So we loved the first two games A LOT! And we wanted to pay as much homage to them as possible. In the art I made sure to put in images, items, props or settings that were in the first two games so there was clear connective tissue to MI1& 2. But we also wanted to make it our own. We knew we couldn't copy Ron and the previous games, so we just decide to make our own distinct version of Monkey Island, but more importantly to make sure it was a really good game. We knew some older fans would be bummed with the radical change, but we figured if the game was great, fun, and true to the tone of the MI series they might forgive us.
I can’t believe I just found your channel! So many wasted years and a wasted youth waiting for content like yours when you were here all along - please don’t ever stop
If you’re talking about hardtack, the maggots were just there because maggots gonna maggot (bonus protein). Hardtack was nothing but flour and water baked to the point of immeasurably dry, which allowed them to be stored for all intents and purposes indefinitely.
45:20 Yeah overcomplicated is an understatement mate. When I played this as a kid with my dad, we were stuck in this stupid chicken shop for MONTHS clicking on and interacting with everything (we didn’t have the internet or any guides). Eventually by fluke we figured it out, but you could have put me in a think tank for years and I doubt I’d have ever figured out needing to inhale the helium balloon to progress the puzzle. 😵💫
SO HAPPY TO SEE ANOTHER VIDEO FROM YOU!! you may not be a big youtuber, but your work is as qualitative as they come. very proud of you; since the very beginning you've shown passion for your craft. CHEERS!
You can beat Rottingham in ship combat using the earlier cannons. It's just harder that way. That way, (in mega monkey,)you can learn his insults that you can use on the other pirates in sword fights.
Here's a tidbit: the very first version of CoMI shipped with a tiny bit of dialog that was removed from later discs. Basically, when you choose "drink" for the large bottle of champagne in LeChuck's overturned ship, Guybrush says "Nah, champagne makes me all giggly"
I actually really like the sword fighting in this game. It being mixed with the pirate battles makes for a better sense of pacing. You have to do them after each battle to progress up to the final battle to win the map. That way, you'll naturally gain all the insults you'd need for the actual puzzle of using the combacks with new set ups. It makes it so the ship battles make or break the section, but I like it just find as a sort of intermission chapter.
Originally the player was supposed to encounter El Pollo Diablo but the idea was scrapped. The idea that Guybrush is mistaken for this buff monster everyone is afraid is pretty funny, but it's disappointing that the Voodoo Lady builds up the chicken so much just for the player to never actually meet him.
Didn't finish the video, and I really don't have much to say, I'm just writing a comment to help with the algorithm ever so slightly, you deserve more attention, my man, keep up the great work.
The banjo duel in this game like in the movie Deliverance from 1972 the track in game sounds like the one from there (there are clips of it on youtube), I know that because it was my fathers favorite movie before he passed away.
This doesn't really need a remaster. Maybe better resolution would be great, but otherwise, no. Cartoony artstyle doesn't get old the same way as the pixel art of previous games. And no, pixel art isn't ugly as default. But personally... this game is one of few that don't need 'updating'.
You remember how there was discourse to windwaker because of the art work being too different but as time went on, it sort of grew on them? Yes this is the same thing, both curse and return had and are suffering the same discourse
I love the 1 hour version of the Barbery coast music that someone made. Also, i think this is both the first and only game that i know that use the Windows clock. The belltower in Puerto pollo plays a short version of the Monkey Island theme and chimes the time every hour, and chimes once every halfhour which is a neat feature.
As someone who played the games in order as they came out and recently revisited them, I wasn’t a huge fan of Lechucks revenge’s ending. Including the whole boss battle leading up to it. Also Guybrush’s character through out the game. I still really enjoyed it as a whole though. Curse of Monkey island was such a welcome change and had everything I loved about the first game and more. All the puzzles made sense, the wordplay was great. fantastic art style and writing, plus the iconic voice of Guybrush that really bought the character to life. the throwbacks to the first game are great and aren't objective flaws. but overall this was a fantastic video and you could tell that you genuinely loved the game. i can see how as someone who liked the ending of the second game how this one wouldn't sit right with you :)
I recently lived in Bermuda, it reminded me so much of Plunder island and Puerto Pollo. This iteration also has the best music of the series in my opinion.
This was my first ever Monkey Island game. And since there isn't a "3" in the title, I didn't even know there were other MI games before this one :D I played this game so many times that I still remember the lines :D When I learned there are 2 more games before this, I wanted to play them ASAP but ı couldn't find them of course then I discovered the magical thing called internet and downloaded them from somewhere and played them.
I came up with the name Rottingham. It was a river-pirate town located in a swamp in my D&D campaign. It's where the river pirates would sell their ill gotten goods and party. I mentioned it to Larry and Jonathan and they loved the name and used it. I heard Threepwood was also a D&D location. but as Dave Grossman about that.
I can't remember if I've already commented or not, but I'll say it again if I need to. I LOVE this video. Your whole Monkey Island series has been great, and I'm psyched to see the rest, but I love this one so much, I've lost track of how many times I've watched it. An amazing, funny, informative look at a great game with never a dull moment throughout it. Keep up the awesome work, dude!
There's a lot of things I really like in Curse but LeChuck being my fave character of the series, I just don't like the way he is in the game. He's the stupidest in this game in the whole series (Escape does bring him back up a *little* but he's not the main villain there, and I actually like what they do in Tales where he's just manipulating everyone). I'd say from CMI onwards, the world just feels lighter and sillier. There's obviously totally off the wall stuff in SMI and MI2, but the pirates are generally played pretty straight. It's not wrong that they changed the tone, a lot of people clearly like it, it's just not as much my cup of tea. I would give the game that if you're really into the Caribbean setting, this is the game that leans the heaviest into it, especially with the music, which is just great all the way through.
Yeah from what I can tell Tales is where they brought LeChuck back to form as a more menacing, clever villain, even having a fake out villain to hide the fact that leChuck's the big bad
I’ve been watching you since your first few videos, I’m honestly floored how you’ve made a near two hour long video and NEVER miss a beat with your comedy and analysis, awesome work!
Bit of a late comment, but seeing that you'd posted this video and having had enjoyed your previous Monkey Island videos basically forced me to play through The Curse of Monkey Island for the first time just so I could watch your review/walkthrough of it. Really enjoyed it. The game and the video. Cheers!
it's weird that there's a puzzle to get the rope from the hanged doll in "mega monkey" in the "final showdown". but the developers just left the rope from the normal version on the screen to pick up. so you can get two ropes.
It never clicked for me until just now, but cool how the Part 1 jingle (11:00) combines the normal tune with LeChuck's theme! Also was I the only one expecting a Father Ted reference when Madame Xima's abundance of death cards was brought up? :)
Thanks for looking at this and giving it a fair review, I see too many people either bash this game relentlessly or see it as something flawless. I must admit am one of the few people who played the first two games first who ended up liking this game a lot more afterwards, hard to say why, and it remains my favorite Monkey Island game (though Tales is a close second). Curious to see what you say about Escape when you get there, I get why it has its reputation but I’ve always been surprised by its quality.
23:13 Okay okay okay, SURELY I'm not the only one who caught the William Hartnell reference here. 36:44 Never before has Jimmy Wayhey Blow The Man Down set to Guybrush sinking in quicksand been something I knew I needed in my life. But now it is! Thankyou Connor. 1:33:52 D... does this one count or is this more pre-emptive like Van Halen connection?
I've really loved watching your point and click / monkey island videos! With so many games I want to play I don't have the time to play them all. Your videos do a perfect job capturing the charm of a playthrough while being super informative!
Thank you for uploading this video! I was feeling to play the game again, but watching you play and comment on it was a much better way to go back to it. 👏🏻👏🏻
This might be controversial, i'm not super involved with the fandom so i don't know what the general consensus of this game usually is, but honestly THIS is my favorite Monkey Island game!
Thank you for making this video, I really enjoyed watching this. I'd probably never play "Curse", but at least now I know that it's amazing. Probably watching it as a 2 hour video with your comments is the definitive way for everyone who has no patience to play through the puzzles. Please do more videos like this for other point&clicks. Maybe Bladerunner game or Benua Sokal's Paradise?
Absolutely love, love, love this game! It was the first one I played so, like you suggested, that's why I hold it in a higher esteem. I think this game has the perfect balance between straight forward and abstract puzzles, without any that feel finicky. This was a fantastic video! Definitely going to check out your others
Nice review, but I'm not quite sure I entirely understand your point about the attempts to explain MI2's weird ending being a flaw. On the one hand, I will say that the ending of MI3 does feel a little rushed, and it should have worried more about its own ending then that of the previous game, but I'm not sure ignoring the previous ending would have been right either. As it stands: MI2 presented at least two possibilities: A: that Guybrush is just an imaginative kid at an amusement park, or B: Lechuck put a curse on Guybrush. Obviously, MI3 chose option B, but if they didn't acknowledge the second game at all, wouldn't that seem like a slap in the face to all the fans of MI2? Option B was a valid option, presented in the ending of MI2, so all MI3 is really doing is acknowledging that it made a choice and isn't just ignoring what came before. Even if you do consider MI3 to be a bit of a soft reboot, it pays its respects to both games that came before, even if it does follow the first game a little more closely. Compare that to Tales, which very pointedly refused to even acknowledge the existence of Escape from Monkey Island, even when it had moments it could easily have done so.
I love how stan's coat is just like a mask on the pattern background, so when he moves his arms around the pattern just stays in place.
same :)
Ret o
Reminds me of that old cartoon network show, Chowder
It's made as a reference to the first two MI games as the technology was so limited that Stan's coat pattern stayed the same even if his arms were flailing around. Ironically, it was hard to do the same effect for the Escape and Tales games using 3D models.
"I died. Give me a lot of money." Priceless.
I'll be waiting for that Grim Fandango video!
your profile picture loosk very goofy!
same bro... same. totaly underrated game
I was just wondering if this was a good video and then I saw your comment, thanks Maus
Bit of an Easter egg: if you double click on Stan's office immediately after you exit the goodsoup crypt there's a fun little cutscene where Murray begs you to stick him atop one of the skeletons
Since Scarfulhu mentioned, that many people point to the crew's song when they explain, why exactly they love this game: I'm German and the translated version of my country doesn't have this song on it. It's missing, because the translation-and-dubbing-team was on a tight schedule, so they did cut that part out, because it would have included a lot of extra ryhming-translation for them and singing-recording with the VAs. So Guybrush and his crew are just standing there after Rottingham left, Guybrush tells them that they were no help at all and then it cuts away again, seeing the ship from outside. It was many years later that I found out about this song, so I needed to play it on English, just to get a grasp of what I missed. It was great! Then, while playing it on ScummVM, I had the idea of saving the game right at the song and then changing the language back to German again. And who would have thought... It played the 'German' version of the Song - with English dubbing still, but a lot of the lyrics where already translated. Some of them where quite whitty and funny, while others didn't quite work in rhyme and/or rythm. But it was like I found a treasure, some sort of archeological find of a team that needed to break up their camp before being able to finish their work.
Another find, slightly more interesting to common Monkey Island 3 fans: there was a very early (English) demo of CoMI being released in 1997 on german gaming magazines (f.e. 'PC Player' ) that included a scene of Guybrush escaping the carneval of the damned on that bumper car, we see him in at the beginning. Initially this part was to be released on all versions of the game. There had been the apparent idea of Guybrush's escape from the carneval as a prolouge and gameplay tutorial of the game. In later releases of the demo they already had cut that part out.
But it's interesting to see, what got into the game and what didn't. There were vast scheduling problems, because of a young and fresh team that had way to big of a vision for this game. Someone in the comments already mentioned the existing storyboard of a scene in which Elaine had a way bigger role in the finale, fighting of skeletons and actually helping Guybrush against LeChuck - and there were even more cuts. There was supposed to be a ROMANTIC ANIMATED DISNEYLIKE SONG featuring Guybrush and Elaine admitting their love for one another once more.
The whole disneyfication of the series feels like an unintentional metajoke in it of itself, for it started as an elaborate homage on their themepark rides, then turned into a more unironic disney story and finally is now owned by Disney.
Also: count the characters fingers! Do they have 5 or 4? (it varies) The art department was all over the place on this one...
nice... da hat jemand gut aufgepasst 😁
@@liukang85 kennst du das, wenn du nen kurzen Kommentar unter ein Video schreiben willst, dazu passende Themen sich in deinem Kopf überschlagen und du auf einmal gefühlt nen Blog geschrieben hast? 😄
Krass! Is there any more info online about that ancient demo? I couldn't find any.
I think the song part is cool, but it should be skippable. After you played the game a couple of times and you just want to sort of speedrun through it, this part becomes a pain
I tried this version and the coconut game made it unplayable
1:46:10 "It really feels like LucasArts ran out of time or money here"
Dude... that's because they did. xD The developers have been pretty open in interviews about running out of money near the end of production and making the decision to drop cutscenes and put more of their focus on the first half of the game (since more people would play that part). There are storyboards out there of the dropped cutscene going into Part 6, where Guybrush finds LeChuck trying to force Elaine into the rollercoaster, she spots Guybrush first and grabs a gun to cause a distraction but Guybrush falls into the cart and she shoots a switch so he doesn't go into the lava. There was a cut song too, a Guybrush/Elaine duet; I think the lyrics got released at some point, but it was never recorded.
Damn! That would have been great.
@@Scarfulhu Scouse yorkshire?
@Scarfulhu I bet ur excited for return to monkey Island. Why no videos.are u going to review escape and tales from monkey Island?
@@paulsmith9192 These videos take time to make. I've got a new video coming out tomorrow about Star Wars: Dark Forces - but it'll be a bit of time before I get to Escape and Tales.
@@Scarfulhu I can't wait for your video on Escape from MI. I know you've made a couple comments in other MI videos kinda hinting at you not being a huge fan of Escape, but I'm hoping you at least find part of the game fun and entertaining. I may be in the minority but I absolutely love Escape from MI. Do I think it's the best in the series? Not at all.
Do I think it's a great game? Absolutely.
There's some parts I'm not crazy about (cough,cough.......Monkey Kombat) but the characters, the storyline, the music, and the humor......They're all trademark Monkey Island. It may look a little different and I feel some games don't necessarily NEED to be in 3D, and Monkey Island being one of them, but I still give them props for having the courage to try something different.
Wally's explanation of surviving the explosion "I was thrown clear, I was lucky I didn't have my seat belt" is a reference to Star Wars creator Geroge Lucas. In his youth in the 50's (which the movie American Grafitti is based on) he got into a car crash, luckily the seat belt didn't work properly and he was flown out of the car, surviving with bruised lugns requiring emergency medical treatment. If the seat belt didn't break he would have been killed in the crash.
I doubt that. Ask any cop and they'll likely tell you that they've never unbuckled a dead auto accident victim.
@@JStryker47 Well, Lucas really got lucky there or we would not have Star Wars or Indiana Jones and who knows what movies wouldn't have been made if those weren't made.
@@JStryker47
It was the 50s m8. Safety in vehicles was very different. Must've been quite the car to have seatbelts. My dad was considered cool to have his car have seatbelts. He was also poor so I dunno maybe that factors into it a bit.
If only..
Apparently there's storyboards for a missing scene in the last chapter where Elaine saves Guybrush by setting the rollercoaster to loop. In the final game, it's only hinted at by LeChuck. No idea why it was cut though.
knowing the struggles that the studio was starting to go through at the time, maybe it was cut due to budget issues.
In some playthroughs I have seen a moment where LeChuck says Guybrush should have be boiled in lava and Elaine must have fiddled with the roller coaster controls.
It was cut due to time constraints which for the same reason the enging song Plank of Love was cut as well. Hope they'll record the song with Dominic Armato and Alexandra Boyd for the Remastered Edition.
@@mevb MI3 remaster? Is there plans for that, or are you simply saying IF there was a remaster at some point?
Probably budget or time problems, extremely common in games :’(
Stan sells life insurence in a game where people cant die... Brilliant
3 is my absolute favorite. Always loved the art style, animations and the humor.
Thanks! I am so glad you liked it!🙂
@@billtiller1754 Dang, didn’t expect a comment from the man himself! Hope you do more work on video games!
The Ship Combat was meant to be used in The Secret of Monkey Island but they couldn't get it to work properly so it was abandoned. Probably a left over from this is Stan's panthlet "How to ARM yourself in Sea Combat" along with "Get a LEG up in Treasure Hunting" and "How to get AHEAD in Navigation", the latter which was used in the game to get the Navigator's Head.
Larry and Jonathan wanted you do as many pirate things as possible- fire a cannon, walk the plank, and ship combat.
Dude, that makes so much sense. I've read about the initial plans of having also action/survival elements in the first game (glad they didn't do it), but I never made the connection with Stans pamphlets.
Played this game on spanish, and they removed the pirate song from that version, such a shame. Great game.
That's a crime! I can see how it might have been tricky for localisation but that song is iconic.
@@Scarfulhu yeah its really a shame. The song is also cut from the german version. I assume its missing in every other non-english version as well :/
@@Tychondryus Even the German version?! When so many Monkey Island fans are from Germany? That's criminal!
Translating songs is difficult because it needs to fit a specific rhythm, and in this case they have to rhyme, and to top it all off, Guybrush solves the puzzle by using an unrhymable word. That is very challenging for a translator to do.
@@Blokewood3 Near impossible even, don't think you can do the orange joke in a lot of other languages.
You missed the Star Wars reference when Guybrush looks through the stump: "It looks familiar somehow.... as I have seen it in a dream. Or maybe it's... oh I don't know." which is what Luke says to Artoo when they land on Dagobah to find Yoda.
46:24 had me burst out laughing. What an unexpected reference.
AVGN lol
31:45 I'll have "Things you can say both in bed, and when you're quoting a Scarfulhu review", Alex.
Important message for anyone who decides to play on standard mode.
DON'T EAT THE BISCUIT on Standard mode.
While the Biscuit is required for game progression later on and it IS required for you to bite down on it in Mega Monkey mode. If you try to bite into the biscuit on standard mode, the biscuit will just disappear from your inventory and renders the game impossible to beat.
What do you need the biscuit for in standard mode? I know in mega monkey you need the biscuit for the dog to bite you later on, but I'm pretty sure in standard mode there are biscuits in his dog bowl
also, it's soggy, ew
Not true, though it's reasonable to assume so
You actually can give the dog one of the bones from its own bowl if you don't have the biscuit
I did this on a recent stream of the game. It's easy to assume the game is soft locked since the spot you can click the dog treats is actually really small and pixel hunt-y
I'm pretty sure you can also just go pick up another biscuit after eating the first one
In regular mode, you're supposed to use the dog treats from the bowl. If you saved the biscuit, you can use that, but you don't need to.
Excellent Video Scarfulhu, I remember when I first covered Curse of Monkey Island when you did Monkey Island II.
But you just went more in-depth than I did, and I gotta respect that. Loved all the little details you pointed out, and
That Spamton Joke around 1:15:07, got me laughing.
Although I could see Stan and Spamton working together, truly terrifying.
But I enjoyed this video and it was a nice treat to watch while working on my own projects. Keep the good work dude 👍
I am so glad that that sprite was a tease all this time. I feel better mixing Spamton's theme and Stan's together now. XD
I'm glad you like Monkey 3. As it was my first, it's hard to argue against or really take in the argument that it's something different from the previous two games. For a long time it was my only Monkey Island experience.
Loved this video. I think Curse was a great game not on the level of Lechuck's Revenge but I loved the humour behind this and love the pirate song. I was sad it ended. I love the artwork on this, it confused me at first when I first played in 1997 but loved it.
Great video Connor.
It was the first monkey island i've ever played so it always has a special place in my heart.
@@TheBatrahian I can respect that. I played the first 2 before this and still love the 3 games.
I will never not laugh at Wally being soooo pathetic that his first attempt to put his face in his hands to cry, he accidentally pokes himself in the eye with the fake hook he's wearing.
Dang, talk about good timing for this video to come out!
I really love “Curse”, especially for its characters, setting, music, general atmosphere, lovely hand-drawn animation and character designs. As someone who loves animation, the art style of “Curse”, which I would infrequently see on video game forums of yesteryear, is what helped me discover the “Monkey Island” franchise and with it more adventure games.
That being said, I’m also not a fan of how Elaine was portrayed in this game, especially since her character was original about subverting the video game standard “damsel in distress” trope, and in this game she is cursed or captured for about 90% of the game.
Still, “Curse of Monkey Island” is a great game to me, and one of my all time favourite adventure games.
A very fair review of the game overall. I don't entirely agree with everything, but it's a great video that celebrates a lot about what people love about it. For me, I never saw the game's callbacks to the first game as a bad thing, and imo when they did retread old ground they actually improved upon it. Insult swordfighting for example I thought was better this time around because it has the dynamic music in the background and the ability to pick a creative wrong response that also rhymed. On the LeChuck dialog near the end, yeah it is a lot, and there were probably better ways of explaining the ending of MI2 beyond an exposition dump (or alternatively, as you alluded to, just not explaining it and just moving forward), but I guess this part will come down to subjective taste; I find all of it thoroughly entertaining, rather than dull, because Earl Boen just sells every line and there are some true gems in there. It's also hard for me to knock it when most of it is entirely optional and you're given an out from the conversation very early on. I agree pretty much 100% about how abrupt the ending is though, they really did run out of money towards the end of production. There was going to be a whole sequence with Elaine switching the tracks that was mentioned by LeChuck in the final game, but got cut, along with another musical number played over the end credits. I hope that if we do get a remaster some day that both those things are restored and maybe the whole end sequence in general could be expanded. Ultimately though, all the great moments throughout the game outweigh any niggles I may have towards the end, it's still my favourite in the series for that reason, along with having my favourite art style. I'm very happy that Return seems to be acknowledging this game's existence in particular, though it still remains a complete mystery how all the continuity is going to work while taking place at the end of MI2; I suspect it won't entirely take place there but will simply start there and then somehow get to a post-Tales timeline, but there are many different theories about how that will work, from timeskips to exploring the multiverse. As I write this, we're still waiting for any news at all regarding the release and still haven't seen Guybrush! How weird! Absolutely dying for a trailer and a date that we can all play this thing, the hype is truly real!
Fancy seeing you here old chap. ;)
Well said!
glad i’m not the only one who themed their entire animal crossing island around monkey island…….
Not even a minute in and shocked to find out a new monkey island is in development. Seriously this is the first I've heard of it.
Back when I first played this game, I had an English teacher named Murray from Scottish origin. It was too much of an accurate coincidence to not remind him of it, constantly.
I love Curse so much actually. My family and I played all the Monkey Island games before this game came out so we knew what to expect. For a game with a fractured team and no cohesive vision as a whole, this game was fated to be horrible but it’s GREAT! This game is very different, but it still feels like a Monkey Island game. It’s fun, engaging, hilarious, mind bending and creative in the same ways it’s always been with more character and puzzle development.
When you take Murray's arm, you can try to give it back for a funny conversation. Also, one of the books on Mort's shelf is Zombies Ate My Neighbors, which is another Lucasarts game.
Excellent retrospective, I did play Curse first and it's my favorite, but the criticisms you've made are certainly fair. I especially agree that they did Elaine dirty. Looking forward to your video on Escape, I remember liking it as a kid and then getting rapidly bored of it when I tried to revisit it
Really enjoyed when you showed the musics of the pirate barbers, very interesting that these themes are variations.
I love this soundtrack, it's a real emotional safe space for me 😂
Also, good video 👍
Thanks for making and sharing!
The art direction, characters and voice acting in this episode are simply fantastic. And visually it's still my favourite in the series by far. Wish I could teleport on Plunder Island.
Oh I get that the game feels different from MI 1 & 2. But that is fine, and a good thing in that is great to see new creative directors do new things with established characters like when a comic book series switches to a new artist and or new writers. Stan Lee is great but I love seeing what Todd McFarlane did with his version of Spiderman. And I love Irvin Kershner's or Gareth Edwards' take on their Star Wars films. So we loved the first two games A LOT! And we wanted to pay as much homage to them as possible. In the art I made sure to put in images, items, props or settings that were in the first two games so there was clear connective tissue to MI1& 2. But we also wanted to make it our own. We knew we couldn't copy Ron and the previous games, so we just decide to make our own distinct version of Monkey Island, but more importantly to make sure it was a really good game. We knew some older fans would be bummed with the radical change, but we figured if the game was great, fun, and true to the tone of the MI series they might forgive us.
I can’t believe I just found your channel! So many wasted years and a wasted youth waiting for content like yours when you were here all along - please don’t ever stop
FYI mate, biscuits in those time, aboard ships were full of maggots to keep the biscuit fresh. It's 100% historically accurate
interesting, but also horrifying
If you’re talking about hardtack, the maggots were just there because maggots gonna maggot (bonus protein). Hardtack was nothing but flour and water baked to the point of immeasurably dry, which allowed them to be stored for all intents and purposes indefinitely.
45:20 Yeah overcomplicated is an understatement mate. When I played this as a kid with my dad, we were stuck in this stupid chicken shop for MONTHS clicking on and interacting with everything (we didn’t have the internet or any guides). Eventually by fluke we figured it out, but you could have put me in a think tank for years and I doubt I’d have ever figured out needing to inhale the helium balloon to progress the puzzle. 😵💫
SO HAPPY TO SEE ANOTHER VIDEO FROM YOU!!
you may not be a big youtuber, but your work is as qualitative as they come. very proud of you; since the very beginning you've shown passion for your craft.
CHEERS!
You can beat Rottingham in ship combat using the earlier cannons. It's just harder that way.
That way, (in mega monkey,)you can learn his insults that you can use on the other pirates in sword fights.
Here's a tidbit: the very first version of CoMI shipped with a tiny bit of dialog that was removed from later discs. Basically, when you choose "drink" for the large bottle of champagne in LeChuck's overturned ship, Guybrush says "Nah, champagne makes me all giggly"
I actually really like the sword fighting in this game. It being mixed with the pirate battles makes for a better sense of pacing. You have to do them after each battle to progress up to the final battle to win the map. That way, you'll naturally gain all the insults you'd need for the actual puzzle of using the combacks with new set ups. It makes it so the ship battles make or break the section, but I like it just find as a sort of intermission chapter.
Originally the player was supposed to encounter El Pollo Diablo but the idea was scrapped. The idea that Guybrush is mistaken for this buff monster everyone is afraid is pretty funny, but it's disappointing that the Voodoo Lady builds up the chicken so much just for the player to never actually meet him.
Didn't finish the video, and I really don't have much to say, I'm just writing a comment to help with the algorithm ever so slightly, you deserve more attention, my man, keep up the great work.
Curse will always be my favorite if only because it was my first and because it shaped my sense of humor so deeply
Wally has the voice of the narrator of Battle block teathre, nice! It's cool that the voice actor is in this game 🙂
The banjo duel in this game like in the movie Deliverance from 1972 the track in game sounds like the one from there (there are clips of it on youtube), I know that because it was my fathers favorite movie before he passed away.
This doesn't really need a remaster. Maybe better resolution would be great, but otherwise, no. Cartoony artstyle doesn't get old the same way as the pixel art of previous games.
And no, pixel art isn't ugly as default. But personally... this game is one of few that don't need 'updating'.
Agreed.
Always happy to see posts from you Scarfulhu! Thank you for continuing to make content at your own pace. 💖
God, I love all the little edits and memes you put in the video!
This was the first Monkey Island game I played and as such it's the one that holds the most nostalgic feelings with me.
It was the second for me. First played monkey island, but never got a copy of the second game and I honestly cannot say which one is my favorite.
You remember how there was discourse to windwaker because of the art work being too different but as time went on, it sort of grew on them? Yes this is the same thing, both curse and return had and are suffering the same discourse
I love the 1 hour version of the Barbery coast music that someone made.
Also, i think this is both the first and only game that i know that use the Windows clock.
The belltower in Puerto pollo plays a short version of the Monkey Island theme and chimes the time every hour, and chimes once every halfhour which is a neat feature.
As someone who played the games in order as they came out and recently revisited them, I wasn’t a huge fan of Lechucks revenge’s ending. Including the whole boss battle leading up to it. Also Guybrush’s character through out the game. I still really enjoyed it as a whole though. Curse of Monkey island was such a welcome change and had everything I loved about the first game and more. All the puzzles made sense, the wordplay was great. fantastic art style and writing, plus the iconic voice of Guybrush that really bought the character to life. the throwbacks to the first game are great and aren't objective flaws. but overall this was a fantastic video and you could tell that you genuinely loved the game. i can see how as someone who liked the ending of the second game how this one wouldn't sit right with you :)
It’s good to see more long videos focused on classic pc games. Keep it up.
The dead Manny on the table died waiting for your video on Grim Fandango
Oh my goodness, the Zelda CD-I reference!!!
In the ship combat section, you can press Ctrl+W to automatically "Win" and go straight to the swordfight.
I wore out my original disc playing it on my CD player for decades
I recently lived in Bermuda, it reminded me so much of Plunder island and Puerto Pollo. This iteration also has the best music of the series in my opinion.
Came for guybrush and the curse, stayed for the cutie that narrates the video
In the banjo duel, you can just hit 1-5 on the keyboard as shortcuts to the 5 strings. #1 is the top string and #5 is the bottom.
This was my first ever Monkey Island game. And since there isn't a "3" in the title, I didn't even know there were other MI games before this one :D I played this game so many times that I still remember the lines :D When I learned there are 2 more games before this, I wanted to play them ASAP but ı couldn't find them of course then I discovered the magical thing called internet and downloaded them from somewhere and played them.
1:11:36 Decades later and I just got you pickup the pepper at a mill = pepper mill.
1:34:55 understatement of the century lol
I came up with the name Rottingham. It was a river-pirate town located in a swamp in my D&D campaign. It's where the river pirates would sell their ill gotten goods and party. I mentioned it to Larry and Jonathan and they loved the name and used it. I heard Threepwood was also a D&D location. but as Dave Grossman about that.
Oh, hi Bill! This is a lovely bit of insight. Thank you! 😄
I can't remember if I've already commented or not, but I'll say it again if I need to. I LOVE this video. Your whole Monkey Island series has been great, and I'm psyched to see the rest, but I love this one so much, I've lost track of how many times I've watched it. An amazing, funny, informative look at a great game with never a dull moment throughout it. Keep up the awesome work, dude!
With your vid, its always a dive in my past. Thanks for everything
Don't know how I found this but I love it and am here to stay.
For the ending, I did hear that the developers did actually run out of either time or storage space on the CD so they cut the ending really short
There's a lot of things I really like in Curse but LeChuck being my fave character of the series, I just don't like the way he is in the game. He's the stupidest in this game in the whole series (Escape does bring him back up a *little* but he's not the main villain there, and I actually like what they do in Tales where he's just manipulating everyone). I'd say from CMI onwards, the world just feels lighter and sillier. There's obviously totally off the wall stuff in SMI and MI2, but the pirates are generally played pretty straight. It's not wrong that they changed the tone, a lot of people clearly like it, it's just not as much my cup of tea.
I would give the game that if you're really into the Caribbean setting, this is the game that leans the heaviest into it, especially with the music, which is just great all the way through.
Yeah from what I can tell Tales is where they brought LeChuck back to form as a more menacing, clever villain, even having a fake out villain to hide the fact that leChuck's the big bad
I’ve been watching you since your first few videos, I’m honestly floored how you’ve made a near two hour long video and NEVER miss a beat with your comedy and analysis, awesome work!
The curse has finally been lifted!
Bit of a late comment, but seeing that you'd posted this video and having had enjoyed your previous Monkey Island videos basically forced me to play through The Curse of Monkey Island for the first time just so I could watch your review/walkthrough of it. Really enjoyed it. The game and the video. Cheers!
Commenting for algorithm bump. Man I’m excited for this video!
This is the first Monkey Island game I played and for me, it’s one of my favorite games of all time. I absolutely adore it.
it's weird that there's a puzzle to get the rope from the hanged doll in "mega monkey" in the "final showdown". but the developers just left the rope from the normal version on the screen to pick up. so you can get two ropes.
It never clicked for me until just now, but cool how the Part 1 jingle (11:00) combines the normal tune with LeChuck's theme!
Also was I the only one expecting a Father Ted reference when Madame Xima's abundance of death cards was brought up? :)
Micheal Land absolutely nailed the score on this one❤
Thanks for looking at this and giving it a fair review, I see too many people either bash this game relentlessly or see it as something flawless. I must admit am one of the few people who played the first two games first who ended up liking this game a lot more afterwards, hard to say why, and it remains my favorite Monkey Island game (though Tales is a close second).
Curious to see what you say about Escape when you get there, I get why it has its reputation but I’ve always been surprised by its quality.
It's awesome watching this series and I look forward to the next instalment. Especially with the new game on the horizon :D
I hope Murray stays with us the whole time in the new game 🤣 I love him
A silly little detail I don't think you pointed out, but I always loved. Look at the clock in Puerto Pollo, it tells you the real time.
IIRC, it chimes on the quarter hour, too.
Still think this is the best adventure game of all time, as well as comfiest.
23:13 Okay okay okay, SURELY I'm not the only one who caught the William Hartnell reference here.
36:44 Never before has Jimmy Wayhey Blow The Man Down set to Guybrush sinking in quicksand been something I knew I needed in my life. But now it is! Thankyou Connor.
1:33:52 D... does this one count or is this more pre-emptive like Van Halen connection?
My favorite game of all time
Very excited to hear what you have to say about MI4!
I was not very keen on the artstyle at first, but it seriously grew on me.
I've really loved watching your point and click / monkey island videos! With so many games I want to play I don't have the time to play them all. Your videos do a perfect job capturing the charm of a playthrough while being super informative!
Thank you for uploading this video! I was feeling to play the game again, but watching you play and comment on it was a much better way to go back to it. 👏🏻👏🏻
Really enjoyed this, as always! Thanks for sharing it with us, and putting all that nice shine on it! Your hard work paid off. :)
14:46 wow, its even a Muray candle holder. gotta love when memorabilia sticks to an in-game joke.
Blood island is probably my favorite part in any Monkey Island game. It has the melancholy of Revenge with the warmth of Melee
This game is pure joy its so saddening that the time passes so fast
That was beautiful. everything on point. great job man
This might be controversial, i'm not super involved with the fandom so i don't know what the general consensus of this game usually is, but honestly THIS is my favorite Monkey Island game!
same here
This LeChuck voice is suddenly giving me AoSTH Robotnik vibes. I keep expecting him to give himself a promotion.
Thank you for making this video, I really enjoyed watching this. I'd probably never play "Curse", but at least now I know that it's amazing. Probably watching it as a 2 hour video with your comments is the definitive way for everyone who has no patience to play through the puzzles. Please do more videos like this for other point&clicks. Maybe Bladerunner game or Benua Sokal's Paradise?
I had the theme of this game as my ringtone for many many years. I do love it, but could never play it again.
The maggoty biscuits are a reference to On Stranger Tides
Absolutely love, love, love this game! It was the first one I played so, like you suggested, that's why I hold it in a higher esteem. I think this game has the perfect balance between straight forward and abstract puzzles, without any that feel finicky. This was a fantastic video! Definitely going to check out your others
Nice review, but I'm not quite sure I entirely understand your point about the attempts to explain MI2's weird ending being a flaw. On the one hand, I will say that the ending of MI3 does feel a little rushed, and it should have worried more about its own ending then that of the previous game, but I'm not sure ignoring the previous ending would have been right either. As it stands: MI2 presented at least two possibilities: A: that Guybrush is just an imaginative kid at an amusement park, or B: Lechuck put a curse on Guybrush. Obviously, MI3 chose option B, but if they didn't acknowledge the second game at all, wouldn't that seem like a slap in the face to all the fans of MI2? Option B was a valid option, presented in the ending of MI2, so all MI3 is really doing is acknowledging that it made a choice and isn't just ignoring what came before. Even if you do consider MI3 to be a bit of a soft reboot, it pays its respects to both games that came before, even if it does follow the first game a little more closely. Compare that to Tales, which very pointedly refused to even acknowledge the existence of Escape from Monkey Island, even when it had moments it could easily have done so.
absolutely fantastic video scarfy! so nice to watch one of your videos again! :)
The French dub of the game was excellent, like Guybrush had Aladdin's voice actor which fits perfectly. But for some reason they cut out the song!!
Ur videos always worth the wait dude