Monkey Island fan vote

[J T]

Anyone played Tales?

I found it started slowly, and a bit annoyingly, but by the end of the episodes i was thoroughly enjoying it. Well worth checking out.

[Phantom]

As I didn't have a peecee back in the DOS days (only Amiga, so I've played only the first two Monkey Island's), I have to say that I liked most the first one. Not that the second is bad, but the first one I've finished it twice (one in Amiga and one under PSP via ScummVM).

[burns flipper]

I played Tales, that was good. Was a bit tricky inside the manatee. Liked the ending, very clever.

[Harrison]

I've still not tried Tales yet. How would you rate it compared to the other 4? Where would you place it in an order from best to worst out of the 5?

[burns flipper]

Hmmmmmm...that's a tricky one...

I'd say:
2...3...1...5...4

But it's very close. 2/3/1 are pretty much as good as each other. 3 had great graphics and voice acting, 1 & 2 are classics, 5 was good but not entirely sure it captured the same...what's the word...like the same atmosphere as the first 3. Like #1 was wandering around a dark island at night for the main part, and you really got the sense of the sea breeze and the town lanterns and wandering through the forest at night. And 2 had a 'populated' feel about it, like on all the islands you visit there's actual people milling around you can talk to, like the whole place is a living area and there's always something to do or take part in with other people like diving for treasure or spitting contests.

5 was set on a few islands, in a giant manatee and in the afterlife, there wasn't anywhere really memorable like the Governor's Mansion or the Giant Monkey Head or the hotel in MI3...you know, memorable defined places. It was good, if I was to choose one MI game to play once more I'd choose 1, 2 or 3.


We don't talk about number 4.

[Harrison]

That was a nice compact evaluation of the series... the progression of the game mechanics is definitely something that evolved alongside other games of their time. For me the original MI was the ground breaking classic that the others all build on, so even though 2 was a more rounded and overall better game, I still personally think of MI1 as the best.

An interesting point you made about 2 and its populated feel due to a working population moving around and constantly doing things is something often forgotten. That ideas was first pioneered in The Lure of the Temptress (still one of my favourite adventures), using its Virtual Theatre system, where characters would go about their daily lives, have conversations with each other and performing tasks without the player's involvement. We see a working virtual world in a lot of games these days, but it all started on the Amiga back in the 90's.

Regarding 4. I never did get far in that game. Played it once for about an hour and didn't like it, so gave up. It's the only one I've not completed. Will definitely give 5 a go when I get time.

[burns flipper]

The system wasn't advanced like in Lure - the characters in MI2 were stationary, but there were quite a few of them and they always seemed to be sat there doing something, like the librarian or Wally the Cartographer or the shopkeeper lady.

In Lure, the characters actually had their own lives, and you could follow them around to see what they get up to. They would go and chat to other characters, and one puzzle involved you waiting for the locksmith to go do his daily rounds so you could nip into his house to steal something. I seem to remember sitting in the blacksmiths shop, and people popping in and chatting - very good way to get lots of gossip, some of which related to the people in the game and helped draw you in more, also they would give clues near the end abuot the people missing in the caverns. Lure was an excellent game!

[Harrison]

There were also some time sensitive puzzle in Lure too. One I remember is needing to meet someone outside of a shop, but they only went there at about 5pm, so you have to wait for them. It definitely was a revolutionary idea and game design.

My favourite game that uses time amazingly is Zelda - Majora's Mask. I still remember starting to play that, the 72 hour time limit ending and thinking I'd lost the game, and discovering time was looping so you could continue though the same time period, experimenting and doing different things each time. Amazing game design to utilise a limited size world for so much content. Something Nintendo game designers have always been one of the best at.