The Curse of Monkey Island is a 1997 adventure game created and released by LucasArts for computers running Microsoft Windows. It is the third game in the Monkey Island series and follows the story of Guybrush Threepwood, who tries to break a curse placed on his love, Elaine Marley, while facing threats from the undead pirate LeChuck.
This game was made by a new team compared to earlier games in the series, and it introduced changes in how the game looked and played. The art style uses a cartoon-like animation, and the menus for giving commands and managing items were replaced with a pop-up action menu and an inventory chest. The Curse of Monkey Island was the last LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine, which was improved for this game. It was the first Monkey Island game released on CD-ROM, allowing for a complete musical score, fully animated scenes, and the addition of voice acting for characters. Dominic Armato, Alexandra Boyd, Earl Boen, Leilani Jones, Neil Ross, and Denny Delk provided voices for Guybrush, Elaine, LeChuck, The Voodoo Lady, Wally "B" Feed, and Murray, respectively, and they returned for later games in the series.
The game sold well, especially in Germany. The lead artist, Bill Tiller, estimated that it sold about 500,000 copies worldwide over several years. It was nominated for multiple gaming awards and was called the best adventure game of the year by several publications. In 2000, Escape from Monkey Island was released, continuing the series with new changes to its graphics and gameplay. The game was re-released in 2018, along with a version for macOS.
Gameplay
The Curse of Monkey Island is a point-and-click adventure game. The SCUMM engine, which was used to create the interface in earlier Monkey Island games, was also used for this game. However, the verb command and inventory menus that previously appeared at the bottom of the screen are replaced by a pop-up action menu and an inventory chest. This change allows the game's scenes to fill the entire screen. This system was inspired by a similar one used in the 1995 game Full Throttle.
Players control Guybrush's actions using a computer mouse and optional keyboard shortcuts. An on-screen cursor changes color to show objects or people that Guybrush can interact with. Players can then open the action menu, which looks like a gold coin and has three icons: a hand, a skull, and a parrot. These icons represent actions related to the hands, eyes, and mouth. The hand icon is used for physical actions, such as picking up items or using objects. The skull icon is used to look at something, and the parrot icon is used to talk to someone or eat something. Clicking the right mouse button quickly performs the most obvious action, such as making Guybrush talk to a person.
Players can also open their inventory, which appears as an open chest taking up most of the screen. The chest shows all the items Guybrush has collected. By clicking and dragging items, players can try to use them with other items in the inventory (for example, combining a diamond with an engagement band to create a diamond ring) or with objects or people in the current scene.
At the start of the game, players can choose between two difficulty levels: normal mode or "Mega-Monkey" mode, which includes more puzzles. Later, during the game's third chapter, players are given a choice: to let Guybrush's crew help with ship-to-ship battles or to take full control of these battles themselves.
Plot
After the events of Monkey Island 2, Guybrush Threepwood returns to his normal adult form and escapes from the zombie pirate LeChuck’s "Carnival of the Damned." He drifts to Plunder Island, where he finds Elaine Marley, his love interest, under attack by LeChuck. Guybrush is captured and meets Wally, a small mapmaker from the previous game. During his escape, Guybrush causes LeChuck to drop a "voodoo cannonball," which explodes and appears to destroy the villain. Guybrush proposes to Elaine using a diamond ring he found in LeChuck’s treasure, but Wally warns that the ring is cursed. Elaine is turned into a gold statue and stolen by pirates. Guybrush seeks help from the Voodoo Lady, who advises him to replace the cursed ring with a more valuable, non-cursed one found on Blood Island.
To recover Elaine and find the map to Blood Island, Guybrush completes tasks at a chicken restaurant, a barber shop, a theater, a caber tossing event, a banjo duel, a ventriloquism show, and an exclusive beach club. He also gathers a crew of three pirate barbers and commandeers a ship. However, the map is stolen by Captain Rottingham. Guybrush battles other pirates to earn treasure, upgrades his ship’s cannons, and learns rhyming insults to defeat Rottingham in sword fighting. His ship crashes on Blood Island during a storm. Meanwhile, LeChuck returns as a fiery demon determined to defeat Guybrush and make Elaine his bride.
On Blood Island, Guybrush meets the cannibals from Monkey Island, who are now vegetarians who worship volcanoes. He also encounters Stan, a salesman from earlier games who runs an insurance business. Guybrush’s tasks include solving problems at a hotel, dealing with nacho cheese, finding a hangover cure, handling tofu, exploring crypts, talking to a skull named Murray, fixing a broken lighthouse, and using a makeshift compass. He meets the ghost of a debutante who was tricked by LeChuck, who stole a diamond from her engagement ring and sold it to smugglers on Skull Island. Guybrush retrieves the engagement band by reuniting the ghost with a lost love and cheats at poker to win the diamond from the smugglers. He combines the ring and band, places it on Elaine’s finger, and breaks the curse, restoring her to normal. However, Guybrush and Elaine are quickly captured by LeChuck’s followers and taken to the Carnival of the Damned on Monkey Island.
LeChuck reveals that Big Whoop, the treasure Guybrush sought earlier, is a portal to hell that turns people into immortal undead. After Elaine rejected him, LeChuck searched for the secret of Monkey Island to impress her. His ship was wrecked in a typhoon, and he was stranded on Blood Island until Elaine’s grandfather’s ship arrived. Learning that Captain Marley had a map to Big Whoop, LeChuck stole the diamond from the debutante, bought a ship, and reached Monkey Island first. He passed through the portal, gained supernatural powers, and killed Marley’s crew. He sent Marley’s ship into a whirlpool. Dinky Island, where the map pieces lead, is a small island near Monkey Island connected by tunnels. LeChuck built the Carnival of the Damned to lure sailors onto a roller coaster that sends them into a lava river, turning them into his undead army.
LeChuck turns Guybrush into a child, but Guybrush breaks the spell and boards the roller coaster. He jumps off at scenes from previous games, creates an explosive, and triggers an avalanche that buries LeChuck under the theme park. Guybrush and Elaine marry and begin their honeymoon at sea.
Development
The game The Curse of Monkey Island was announced at the European Computer Trade Show in September 1996. According to Next Generation, earlier games in the series were "relatively minor hits" in the United States but became huge successes on the PC and Amiga in Europe. Ron Gilbert, the creator of the Monkey Island series, had left the project after Monkey Island 2. The new leaders were Jonathan Ackley and Larry Ahern, both of whom had previously worked on Full Throttle (the game’s interface was almost entirely based on that game). Bill Tiller was the lead background artist.
During development, major changes included giving Murray, the talking skull, a bigger role. Murray was originally only in the first chapter, but test players liked him so much that he returned in later parts of the game.
The game was later released on a CD-ROM collection that included The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. This collection was called the Monkey Island Bounty Pack.
After the game was released, plans for a Monkey Island film were announced. This was revealed when Tony Stacchi, a concept artist for the film, shared his artwork on The Scumm Bar, a fan website. The film was canceled early in development, but Stacchi included the artwork in his portfolio.
Michael Land, who composed music for the first two games, created the score for The Curse of Monkey Island. This was the first game in the series to include voice acting. The main voice actors were Dominic Armato as Guybrush Threepwood, Alexandra Boyd as Elaine Marley and Son Pirate, Earl Boen as LeChuck, Denny Delk as Murray, Skully, and Father Pirate, Neil Ross as Wally B. Feed, Alan Young as Haggis McMutton, Michael Sorich as Edward Van Helgen and Charles DeGoulash (Ghost Groom), Gregg Berger as Cutthroat Bill, and Leilani Jones Wilmore as the Voodoo Lady. Other actors included Kay E. Kuter as Griswold Goodsoup, Tom Kane as Captain René Rottingham and the Flying Welshman, Patrick Pinney as Stan, and Victor Raider-Wexler as Slappy Cromwell and the Snowcone Guy. Additional voices included Mary Kay Bergman as Minnie "Stronie" Goodsoup (Ghost Bride), Gary Coleman as Kenny Falmouth, and Glenn Quinn as Pirate #5.
Non-English versions of the game removed a section at the start of the second CD. In this section, Guybrush’s crew sings the song "A Pirate I Was Meant To Be." The player must stop the crew from singing, but each time they try, the crew adds a new line that rhymes with the player’s last word. The song ends only when the player says a line ending with the word "orange." Because the section depends on rhyming in English, it was removed from non-English versions of the game.
Reception
The Curse of Monkey Island sold 52,049 copies in the United States by the end of 1997, according to market research firm PC Data. From January 1998 to July 1998, an additional 40,538 copies were sold in the United States, earning $1.57 million in revenue during that time. The game was very popular in Germany. Heinrich Lenhardt of PC Gamer US wrote, "[I]f it wasn't for the sales figures in Germany, LucasArts probably wouldn't have bothered" to continue the franchise. In late November 1997, the game appeared at #4 on Media Control's computer game sales charts for Germany. It stayed in the top 10 through January 1998, reaching third place in the first half of December. The game remained in the top 20 through March 1998. By the end of May 1998, the game had been listed in Media Control's top rankings for 24 weeks, reaching 27th place. In August 1998, the game received a "Gold" award from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (V.U.D.), showing that it sold at least 100,000 copies in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland combined.
The game remained available for purchase by 2001. That year, PC Data reported that 19,552 more copies were sold in North America. Louis Castle of Westwood Studios estimated that The Curse of Monkey Island sold 300,000 copies worldwide by 2002. LucasArts' Bill Tiller said in 2003 that the game sold over 500,000 copies globally. In 2009, Tiller estimated total sales between 700,000 and 800,000 copies.
Computer Gaming World said that The Curse of Monkey Island is a valuable addition to LucasArts's collection of adventure games. GameSpot praised the game's cartoonish graphics, music, humor, characters, and challenging but not frustrating puzzles. Next Generation said the game looks attractive with high-quality production, including music, artwork, voice acting, and animation. However, they noted the puzzles were uninspired, the story was weak, and some pop culture references distracted players. They said the game is barely fun enough for fans of the series. Just Adventure liked the game's music. Adventure Classic Gaming said some players might criticize the game's many unexpected plot twists, while others might call them creative. Adrenaline Vault compared The Curse of Monkey Island to the adventure genre, saying it has a good story and strong dialogue.
Adventure Gamers said the game's humorous style added to its charm but criticized the secondary characters as underdeveloped and the ending as anticlimactic. The game's sudden ending was criticized by GameSpot, Just Adventure, and Computer Gaming World, with the last calling it "the game's only real disappointment." PC Zone said the cartoonish graphics made the game feel different from the first two Monkey Island titles, but still gave it a high score of 92/100, praising its voice acting and humor.
In a later review, RPGFan said the game's detailed graphics and spoken dialogue helped tell the story in a new and better way.
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated The Curse of Monkey Island for "Computer Entertainment Title of the Year," "PC Adventure Game of the Year," and "Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics" at the first Interactive Achievement Awards. These awards were given to StarCraft, Blade Runner, and Riven: The Sequel to Myst, respectively. Similarly, the Computer Game Developers Conference nominated Curse for four Spotlight Awards, including "Best Adventure/RPG," but other games won those awards. However, The Curse of Monkey Island was named the best adventure game of 1997 by Computer Games Strategy Plus, Computer Gaming World, GameSpot, and PC Gamer US. It also won GameSpot's "Best Cinematics" prize. The editors of Computer Gaming World wrote: "Everything in this game is done well: beautiful graphics, excellent voice acting, a strong story, clever puzzles, and a script with more humor than most movies. It is easily the most entertaining adventure game in years."
Legacy
In 1998, PC Gamer listed The Curse of Monkey Island as the 33rd-best computer game ever released. The editors described it as "a great and lasting adventure, well-written and perfectly acted by voice actors."
In 2008, Ron Gilbert said the game was "great" and noted that "the creators did an excellent job of showing the humor and style of the game."
In 2011, Adventure Gamers ranked The Curse of Monkey Island as the 45th-best adventure game ever released.