Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo - Kotaku Comments

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Rebochan — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 09:14:50 MST

Ah...if only they were still making these games...

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

theHern — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:51:23 MST

Ahern appears to work at Microsoft, only that's an illusion, as I'm actually Creative Director at Crackpot Entertainment, developer of the new action-adventure title "Insecticide." Involving neither monkeys nor islands, it is nonetheless a rollicking return to story-based content. And, at the risk of sounding less than blatantly self-promotional, let me also just comment on the article: who were these bozos?!

theHern

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Ilia Chentsov — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 02:20:20 MST

@Purple Dave: You fight like a cow and I'm all out of gum, so let's rock this spoony bard.

Ilia Chentsov

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Purple Dave — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 18:28:31 MST

@Ilia Chentsov:
Dangit, it's hard to quote stuff like Vader showing Luke a photo of Anakin and pregnant Padme on vacation...

Purple Dave

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Ilia Chentsov — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 17:08:54 MST

@Brackynews: Those game quotes quickly become boringe.
Also, the cake is a lie and all your base are belong to us.

Ilia Chentsov

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Brackynews — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:12:28 MST

@Nawara_Ven: We'll surely avoid scurvy if we all eat an.. orange.

Brackynews

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

sxp151, the happy-headed nose — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 14:16:25 MST

People who wish the classic-style graphic adventure were still around should really check out Zack & Wiki. It reminds me more than anything of a Japanese-style Leisure Suit Larry 2: clever goofy puzzles, lots of deaths, points for everything, and satisfying to solve.

Of course, Sam & Max is also doing the old-school LucasArts style quite well, and that series is definitely worth playing. (Season 2 Episode 1 is a real treat.)

sxp151, the happy-headed nose

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

jp-30 — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 13:39:23 MST

>> but the latter are almost unheard of.<<

You guys need to head over to [www.adventuregamers.com]

You'll see funny cartoony adventures like the Egyptian Ankh series (already up to its 3rd installment), plus of course the new Sam & Max episodic adventures made by ex-LucasArters at Telltale games (one of the Sam & Max games from last season "Abe Lincoln Must Die" is now a free download at [www.telltalegames.com] ).

Then there's Bill Tiller's forthcoming adventure (he was the art designer behind Curse of Monkey Island among other LucasArts classics) A Vampyre Story [www.amegames.com]

Other games to watch out for in the future include Cassius Pearl (trailer here: [www.youtube.com] )

Plenty of funny, LucasArtsesque adventure games in the pipeline... also less 'point & clickey', but there's Tim Schafer's Psychonauts & forthcoming Brutal Legend and Ron Gilbert's 'humerous RPG' that he's been pitching to a number of studios, but nobody knows much in the way of details on that one.

jp-30

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Purple Dave — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 12:50:35 MST

@JuliusMode:
I heard Johnny Depp already did a few Monkey Island films...

@Kenzya:
There are two distinct styles of adventure games. There's the serious ones, like the Myst series, and there's the comical ones like Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island. The former are still coming out in a steady trickle for PC, but the latter are almost unheard of. Even the last King's Quest game tossed the lighthearted humor of its predecessors in favor of dark and gloomy near-FPS gameplay. Broken Sword didn't go quite so far down that path with its last iteration, but it did at least start to (then again, it was never quite as comical as some of the later KQ games anyways).

Purple Dave

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Parabolee — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 10:27:58 MST

I only have one question...

Who do I have to kill/blow to get a Monkey Island 5? I'd even settle for it on the DS! Or as an XBLA game.

Parabolee

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

MooYork — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 09:21:56 MST

I learned from this to never spend more than twenty bucks for a computer game.

MooYork

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Mucki — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 08:52:51 MST

Actually there's quite an active adventure scene in Europe, espacially in Germany, but also in France, Spain and parts of Eastern Europe. In the last few years some really great (more serious) 2d/2.5d adventure games came out like "The Moment of Silence", "Runaway", "Black Mirror" or just recently "Overclocked".
Of course this is a niche market even over here, but apparently they aren't too expensive to make and sell enough to keep these studios alive.
I really like the idea to keep these games old-school in terms of graphics and gameplay since 3d adventure games with action and stealth parts just don't work in my opinion (compare the great "Broken Sowrd 1+2" to the awful sequels).
My point is there wasn't really much to improve in the genre 10 years ago. The good games sounded, played and looked awesome (and still do) and every try to add something new resulted in a decline of quality. So I think it's cool that every once in a while a true gem is released even though it doesn't use the newest fancy technology and therefore doesn't get any publicity.

Mucki

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

s0lidmetal — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 08:50:09 MST

@Dirkcee: in after You fight like a dairy farmer.

Nuts.

s0lidmetal

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Ethereus — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 08:33:57 MST

This post just made me so damn sad...

Ethereus

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Malkavian — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 07:54:24 MST

Monkey Island 3 was one the last great p&c adventure games.
After the 90's point&click adventure games has become an almost dead genre.Apart from the Sam&Max games there are no big budget games.Maybe the revival of RPGS helped kill it,I remember reading about a game developed by Blizzard called "Warcraft adventures".
From what I read about it and looking at the few screenshots,it was going to be a typical p&c adventure game,it was canceled perhaps to divert resources to some obscure MMORPG they were also in the early stages of developing at the time.

Malkavian

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

el_rezzo — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 07:05:00 MST

@mcderek3000: That's the kind of thing that dreams are made of

MI3 was the first PC game I bought with my own money and I would still remember it as the best game I've played (along with FFVII which I got just after I think). There are too many great games now days for me to spend a full month immersed in like when I was a kid, I mean I just picked up Orange Box, COD4, Mass Effect, Assassins Creed and Sam & Max Season 1 in the last month and they were all great but all the playtime just blurs together.

el_rezzo

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Ilia Chentsov — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 05:23:29 MST

Pirates of the Caribbean (the first movie, at least) was a pretty good rendition of Monkey Island. Based on "Pirates of the Caribbean" Disney ride? Check. Crazy pirates? Check. Undead beardy pirate? Check. Monkey (also undead)? Check. Swear fencing? Check! And so on...

Ilia Chentsov

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

SwapMeet — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:13:50 MST

@boopadoo: They found out that they could make gobs of $$$ off their Star Wars license. They kept releasing mediocre game after mediocre game and found that people didn't care how crappy it was, it would still sell. For a long time from 2000-2006, all they produced were Star Wars-themed games (most of which sucked badly). Even now, Lucasarts is primarily a Star Wars studio. Sam and Max 2 was canceled late into development because the suits at Lucasarts didn't think the adventure genre was viable (see the limited commercial success of Psychonauts). For the most part, they were probably correct, but it's a chicken and the egg dilemma. How do they know it won't succeed unless you try it first?

SwapMeet

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

konchy — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 03:40:53 MST

Fluffy toy from Day of the tentacle please! Purple!

konchy

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

mcderek3000 — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 02:58:22 MST

If Sam 'n Max episodic content can succeed, perhaps Monkey Island episodic content could be next in Telltale's pipeline.

My only concern then is that it should have the cartoony style of Curse - as that game looked fantastic.

mcderek3000

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Kenzya — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 02:45:50 MST

I love the the adventure gaming genre and I love the old adventure games of yester-year.

I hate the people that remember adventure games and suddenly realize that gaming today ISN'T AS GOOD AS IT USED TO BE or some variant of that phrase. Give me a break.

There's still a fucking shitload of adventure games out there to play. The Chzo Mythos is an awesome series. Anyway, I am happy the market evolved the way that it did because adventure games are taxing on the mind and on the will... I have never loved a genre that has made me so infuriated before.

I still go back to the Monkey Island series once a year. I get the urge to sit down and enjoy one of my favorite game settings (not pirates, the Monkey Island universe) and listen to some lovely dialogue. I also know all of the puzzles so I really am playing a tedious book.

Kenzya

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Rabmonk006 — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 02:43:32 MST

Oh my god, I want a guybrush fluffy toy... NOW.
Something tells me if they ever made a Monkey Island 5 it would turn into some kind of FPS action adventure crap fest... Id say they might as well quit while they were ahead but... well MI4 was junk.. loved Grim Fandango too though. Sigh. Ill just keep whoring out DOSbox for the next 10 years.

Rabmonk006

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

metallicorphan — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 02:42:07 MST

i wish all the monkey island games could come to xbox live arcade,that would be great...and stick in Grim Fandango as well

metallicorphan

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Kum0 — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 02:16:45 MST

Look I am rubber you are Glue!

Monkey Island is still one of my fav francises of all time.
All 3 games would make an awesome XBLA games!

Kum0

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Cow_Shed — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 01:39:50 MST

@GLaDOS: 3D video cards and peoples insane desire to use them.

Cow_Shed

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

GLaDOS — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 22:50:26 MST

Games like the Monkey Island series make me feel that all gaming these days is becoming too generic. That was a unique series, though the transition to 3D was not something I liked.

Monkey Island 1, 2, and 3 were amazing, with 2 being the best, IMO. The humor was witty and not over the top, the story was stunning, and you had to use your brain to progress in the story. What happened to those kinds of games?

GLaDOS

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Thrillhaus — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 22:14:45 MST

@boopadoo: Quite frankly, there was no more market to be cornered. A little genre called the "fps" came along and put 50 bullets in its head. Grim fandango was their attempt to "modernize" the adventure game with its non point-n-clicky d pad controls, and that didnt sell at all.

Thrillhaus

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

boopadoo — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:44:58 MST

What happened at LucasArts? They cornered the market in adventure games, then something happened. They lost key designers, gave up on developing new IP, and started churning out "safe" titles based on LucasFilm. Makes me sad.

boopadoo

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Nawara_Ven — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:40:42 MST

Trim the sails and roam the seas, my friends.

Nawara_Ven

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

sxp151, the happy-headed nose — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:28:16 MST

What a great idea. I wish we could do this with political pundits, or even with other video game news.

In two years, who will remember when hardly any of surfergirl's predictions come true? And every analyst has their own prediction of the console that will dominate; can't we check their predictions as well?

Does anyone have ten-year-old predictions about how Sega was going to crush the competition with the Saturn?

sxp151, the happy-headed nose

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Dirkcee — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:08:56 MST

how appropriate, you fight like a cow.
best games ever

Dirkcee

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

TheIrishNinja — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:47:08 MST

that was really cool to see.
SCUMM greatest hits pack for Wii (or on the VC!) or bust.

TheIrishNinja

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

Julius Mode — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:36:22 MST

I still dream of a Monkey Island film being made. It's been more than ten years, but I still get hopeful whenever I see a movie preview that's even vaguely piratey. Does this make me lame?

Julius Mode

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

as702ecs — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:23:32 MST

great article, simon. a competent exercise in nostalgia for a simpler time. bloody brilliant!

(and yes, i'm being sincere)

as702ecs

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

xzero — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:46:48 MST

Ahh monkey island.. my favorite games.. at least the first 3..such wonderful funny times.

Excellent interview and excellent questions.. wish there were new point n click games coming out with all the new graphics and effects they have nowadays.

xzero

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

mutedia — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:41:32 MST

In my opinion curse was the last good monkey game... I played 1 through 3 this summer and had so much fun but i couldn't get that far ahead in 4..

maybe it's the switch to 3d..

mutedia

Ten Years Ago: LucasArts' Monkey Island Duo

brennan — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:27:07 MST

Nice post Simon!
I only hope they can remake the Monkey Island series and not butcher it some day.
I thoroughly enjoyed that series, and I get nostalgic because it was one of my first game purchases.

brennan