Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is an adventure game created and released by LucasArts in 1991. In the game, players guide the pirate Guybrush Threepwood as he searches for the famous treasure of Big Whoop and battles the zombie pirate LeChuck.
Like The Secret of Monkey Island (1990), this game was directed by Ron Gilbert, with assistance from Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. Monkey Island 2 was the sixth LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine and the first to use the iMUSE sound system.
The game received praise from critics but did not sell well commercially. It was followed by The Curse of Monkey Island in 1997. A remake of the game was released in 2010, similar to a remake of the first game. In 2022, Ron Gilbert released Return to Monkey Island, which takes place after the unresolved ending of Monkey Island 2.
Gameplay
LeChuck's Revenge is similar to other adventure games that use the SCUMM system. The game's actions and conversations are shown in an Animation Window at the top of the screen. Text commands appear in the lower left corner, and items the player has collected are displayed as pictures in the lower right corner. Below the Animation Window is a Sentence Line, which explains what the player is doing.
The game allowed players to choose between different difficulty levels. In some versions, players are asked to pick between the regular game and a simpler version called "Monkey 2 Lite." This version skips many puzzles and is described humorously on the game's packaging as being meant for video-game reviewers.
Plot
Several months after the events of The Secret of Monkey Island, Guybrush Threepwood is on Scabb Island searching for the legendary treasure called "Big Whoop." He is robbed by Largo LaGrande, who was once the first mate of pirate LeChuck. LeChuck's ghost was defeated by Guybrush in a previous game. Largo has placed a ban on the island, stopping anyone from leaving. At the International House of Mojo, located in the island's swamp, Guybrush meets the Voodoo Lady, who helped him in his first adventure. By completing tasks such as collecting laundry and digging up graves, Guybrush gathers materials for the Voodoo Lady to create a voodoo doll of Largo. Guybrush uses the doll to fight Largo. However, Guybrush accidentally shows Largo a piece of LeChuck's still-living beard, which Largo steals. Largo uses the beard to bring LeChuck back to life as an undead zombie.
From his fortress on the island, LeChuck vows to take revenge on Guybrush. The Voodoo Lady explains that Big Whoop holds the key to another world, which would allow Guybrush to escape LeChuck forever. She gives Guybrush a book that describes how four pirates who discovered the treasure created a map to its location. The map was split into four parts. One of the pirates was the grandfather of Elaine Marley, Guybrush's love interest, who has ended their relationship. Guybrush hires a ship captained by Captain Dread to search for the map pieces.
Guybrush's journey takes him between three islands: Scabb, Phatt, and Booty. On Phatt Island, Governor Phatt imprisons Guybrush, hoping to claim the reward LeChuck has offered for Guybrush's capture. Guybrush escapes. On Booty Island, Guybrush meets Stan, a ship salesman from the first game who now sells used coffins. He also reunites with Elaine, who is angry with him and says their relationship was a mistake. Through quests involving a Mardi Gras party, a spitting contest, a bloodhound, a drinking contest, a glass-bottom boat, a sunken ship's figurehead, rigged gambling, a library catalog, and temporarily bringing the dead back to life, Guybrush collects the map pieces. He gives the pieces to Wally, a small cartographer, who determines that Big Whoop is on Dinky Island. Wally and the map are soon kidnapped by LeChuck. Guybrush sneaks into LeChuck's fortress but is captured. LeChuck traps Guybrush and Wally in a deadly trap. They escape, but Guybrush accidentally causes an explosion that sends him to Dinky Island. There, he meets Herman Toothrot, a castaway he previously met on Monkey Island.
With the help of a talking parrot, Guybrush navigates a maze-like jungle to find where Big Whoop is buried. He digs until he hits concrete and uses dynamite to break through it. Elaine hears the explosion from Booty Island and goes to investigate. She finds Guybrush hanging over a deep hole, which he falls into, landing in an underground facility. LeChuck arrives and claims to be Guybrush's brother. He tortures Guybrush using a voodoo doll. In the tunnels, Guybrush finds an E ticket, a first aid station, a "lost parents" area with the skeletal remains of his parents, and an elevator leading to Mêlée Island, a place Guybrush visited before. Guybrush creates a voodoo doll of LeChuck and tears off his foe's leg.
LeChuck begs Guybrush to remove his mask, revealing that he is actually Guybrush's brother, Chuckie. Their reunion is interrupted by a workman who tells them "you kids" should not be there. The two brothers, now appearing as children, leave the tunnels and meet their parents above-ground in the "Big Whoop" amusement park. Guybrush is confused, and Chuckie's eyes glow with evil energy. On Dinky Island, Elaine wonders if LeChuck has cast a spell on Guybrush.
Development
The idea for a sequel to The Secret of Monkey Island came during the planning of the original game by its director, Ron Gilbert, who worked at Lucasfilm Games. Gilbert imagined The Secret of Monkey Island as the first of three adventure games, but he had not yet fully planned the story for all three. In a 1990 interview with the in-house newsletter The Adventurer, Gilbert mentioned the possibility of a second game. He later told Retro Gamer in 2006 that he knew a sequel would be made before finishing the first game. Gilbert began planning ideas for Monkey Island 2 before Lucasfilm Games released the original game. He said that the company’s management style, which allowed staff more freedom, helped him create the sequel. This freedom came from the company’s project management practices, which Gilbert compared to the setting of Lord of the Flies, where people could work independently. Another reason for creating Monkey Island 2 was the desire to use ideas from the first game that had not been fully developed. Gilbert explained that some design choices were left unfinished to meet deadlines, but he saved the work to use in the sequel.
Gilbert said the main reason he started working on Monkey Island 2 was his own interest in expanding the story of the first game, not because of suggestions from Lucasfilm Games’ management. He noted that the company could not judge whether a sequel would be successful because it did not know how well the first game sold. This uncertainty led Gilbert to begin the sequel without official approval from the company. He wanted to avoid a situation where poor sales of the first game might cause Lucasfilm Games to stop making Monkey Island games and instead focus on other projects, like Star Wars licensed games. Eventually, Gilbert convinced the company to support the sequel, even if it was not guaranteed to be profitable. He said this decision happened during a time when the company had simpler operations.
In 1990, when development of Monkey Island 2 was approved, Lucasfilm Games and its other divisions were reorganized into a new company called LucasArts Entertainment Company. Monkey Island 2 became the first adventure game made under the LucasArts brand. Development of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge began shortly after The Secret of Monkey Island was released in October 1990. Like many other games LucasArts made at the time, the company both developed and published the sequel.
LucasArts aimed to use a new, more organized method for making games. Monkey Island 2 was one of the first games to follow this new structure, along with Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. This meant the team set a clear schedule for development, decided on deadlines, and assigned a full team to work on the sequel.
Most of the original game’s staff returned to work on the sequel. Gilbert took charge again, and co-designers, programmers, and writers Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman also returned. Grossman temporarily left the project to help with another game, The Dig, but came back to finish Monkey Island 2. Other returning staff included lead artist Steve Purcell, animator Sean Turner, composer Michael Land, playtesting supervisor Judith Lucero (who also wrote the game’s manual), and game tester James Hampton. New team members included artists Peter Chan and Larry Ahern, a scripter-programmer, and Shelley Day, who was brought in to produce the game alongside Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.
Monkey Island 2 used the fifth version of LucasArts’ special game engine, called SCUMM. The company added tools to help manage the game’s scripts, object locations, and character actions. These tools included FLEM, which handled object states and movement boundaries, and BILE, a program that allowed artists to animate individual body parts. These features made it easier to create complex interactions in the game. Though SCUMM was designed to work on different platforms, Monkey Island 2 was made for IBM PC compatibles running MS-DOS, like other LucasArts games at the time.
The game’s interface was also updated. Players could now use verb-based commands, and the point-and-click menu was expanded for easier use. The inventory system was improved by replacing text descriptions with icons.
The revised engine gave programmers shortcuts to build game objects more efficiently. However, a LucasArts programmer later said it still took about nine months of work to complete the object-oriented programming for the game. In 1992, a writer for CU Amiga noted that SCUMM’s design as a high-level language helped creative staff focus on storytelling rather than technical details. Ron Gilbert later said the system allowed the team to quickly test and add new ideas during development, creating a more flexible process.
Gilbert explained in 2006 that the development of the first two Monkey Island games happened continuously, as one creative process. Most of the unused ideas from the first game were carried over into the sequel. Grossman later said the sequel developed smoothly because adventure games of that time required fewer resources than more complex projects, like movies. He compared making an adventure game to staging a puppet show rather than a film, which allowed LucasArts to create the sequel’s story and gameplay without needing too many resources.
LucasArts also used a “tight” approach to assign staff to Monkey Island 2. Creative teams were divided into small groups that met regularly to plan the game’s story and features. During development, artists and designers worked on separate floors of LucasArts’ headquarters, requiring designers to visit artists frequently for collaboration.
Special edition
LucasArts released a new version of the sequel to The Secret of Monkey Island called Monkey Island 2: Special Edition. This version included improved sound and visuals and was available on PlayStation 3, iPhone, iPod Touch, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox 360 in July 2010. A version for Mac OS X was not released at that time, and the iOS version was no longer available by March 2015.
Later, the Special Edition versions of The Secret of Monkey Island and its sequel were sold as a physical collection for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC (only in Europe). The Special Edition included updated graphics, better audio, new voice-overs, extra content like concept art, and a hint system. The "lite" mode from the original game was removed, as was the original introduction with the main musical theme, which had outdated credits. Players could switch between the updated version and the original version at any time, though they could choose to keep the voice-overs from the remake. Players could also use the original point-and-click controls or control Guybrush directly using a control pad.
LucasArts announced the remake during the Game Developers Conference on March 10, 2010. The original creators of the game—Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer, and Dave Grossman—were present. They recorded a commentary track for the Special Edition, which could be accessed in the game using silhouettes similar to those in Mystery Science Theater 3000. Craig Derrick, who led the remake, introduced a new interface inspired by The Curse of Monkey Island and confirmed the return of the original voice cast, including Dominic Armato as Guybrush, Alexandra Boyd as Elaine, Earl Boen as LeChuck, and Neil Ross as Wally. Phil LaMarr and Tom Kane also joined as additional voices.
The Special Edition of Monkey Island 2 was developed by Craig Derrick and his team at LucasArts, known as "Team 3." This team had previously remade The Secret of Monkey Island. Derrick, who was a fan of the series, had struggled to get approval for the remake because LucasArts was not focused on adventure games at the time. After the success of the Secret of Monkey Island remake in 2009, Derrick convinced the company to proceed with Monkey Island 2.
At that time, most of the team working on the Secret of Monkey Island remake was already busy with another project. To help, LucasArts added staff from other departments and assigned most of the work to its Singapore office. More resources were used for Monkey Island 2 than for the first remake to match the original game’s complexity.
Derrick said the team used experience and tools from the first remake to complete the project efficiently. This allowed them to add features like background audio commentary by Gilbert, Schafer, and Grossman, recorded at the 2010 Game Developers Conference. Derrick had planned to include similar commentary in the first remake but faced scheduling issues. He credited the collaboration between LucasArts’ San Francisco and Singapore teams for the project’s success, despite some challenges in coordination.
Derrick said the final product met his expectations. Ron Gilbert was happy with the remake’s accuracy and praised the ability to switch between the new and original versions of the game, calling it a sign of LucasArts’ care and respect for the series.
Reception
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge was very exciting for many people. Amiga Power said it was the most eagerly awaited game of 1992. Ron Gilbert, one of the game's creators, said that Monkey Island 2 and its first game sold well, but Sierra Online and King's Quest were more successful. A writer for Next Generation noted that the games were "relatively minor hits" in the United States but became very popular in Europe on the PC and Amiga. Edge reported that both games sold very poorly when they were first released. Tim Schafer, a game designer, said Monkey Island 2 sold about 25,000 copies. At the time, LucasArts was excited if they sold 100,000 copies of a PC graphic adventure. After Monkey Island 2 did not sell as well as expected, Schafer said the company told the team that the game was a failure and they should try making something else. He thought the series became more famous later because of software piracy. The need to create a more successful game led to the development of Full Throttle, which sold one million copies and was the first LucasArts adventure game to do so.
Monkey Island 2 received high scores from critics for all versions. Amiga Computing gave the Amiga version a 95% rating, and Computer and Video Games gave the PC version a 96% rating. When Kixx XL released Monkey Island 2 as a budget game, reviews stayed high, with CU Amiga giving it a 91% rating. Today, many people still think it is a high-quality game. It is often considered one of the best in the point-and-click genre and still holds up well against modern adventure games. The game has a 90% rating on GameRankings, a review site that collects scores from many sources.
Monkey Island 2 was praised for several reasons. It is user-friendly because it has a "lite" mode, which makes it easier for beginners to play. The difficulty of the game is also well balanced. Changes to the controls, such as fewer verbs and a graphical inventory, made the game easier to use. The music was noted for using the iMUSE system, which made sound an important part of the game's atmosphere. Graphically, the game improved over its first version, and reviewers were impressed. Critics also said the developers made installing the Amiga version's 11 floppy disks easier, though they recommended using a hard drive for better performance.
In 1992, Computer Gaming World named Monkey Island 2 the best adventure game of the year, praising its "challenging puzzles, wonderful sense of humor, and stunning visual presentation." In 1996, the magazine ranked it as the 74th best game of all time. In 1994, PC Gamer UK named it the fourth best computer game of all time, saying, "Anyone who claims to have an interest in adventuring cannot afford to be without this." In 1996, GamesMaster ranked it 29th on their "Top 100 Games of All Time." In 2011, Adventure Gamers named it the eighth-best adventure game ever released.
To celebrate the series' 30th anniversary, Ron Gilbert shared secrets from the original source code during a video with the Video Games History Foundation. These included early character designs, deleted scenes, unused animations, and alternative environments from the first two games.
The Special Edition received a B+ rating from Gaming Bus. The site said the music was better and of higher quality, the graphics were improved, and there was more content. However, some controls had issues, and the hints were too helpful.
Date
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is an adventure game created and released by LucasArts in 1991. In the game, players guide the pirate Guybrush Threepwood as he searches for the famous treasure of Big Whoop and battles the zombie pirate LeChuck.
Like The Secret of Monkey Island (1990), this game was directed by Ron Gilbert, with assistance from Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. Monkey Island 2 was the sixth LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine and the first to use the iMUSE sound system.
The game received praise from critics but did not sell well commercially. It was followed by The Curse of Monkey Island in 1997. A remake of the game was released in 2010, similar to a remake of the first game. In 2022, Ron Gilbert released Return to Monkey Island, which takes place after the unresolved ending of Monkey Island 2.
Gameplay
LeChuck's Revenge is similar to other adventure games that use the SCUMM system. The game's actions and conversations are shown in an Animation Window at the top of the screen. Text commands appear in the lower left corner, and items the player has collected are displayed as pictures in the lower right corner. Below the Animation Window is a Sentence Line, which explains what the player is doing.
The game allowed players to choose between different difficulty levels. In some versions, players are asked to pick between the regular game and a simpler version called "Monkey 2 Lite." This version skips many puzzles and is described humorously on the game's packaging as being meant for video-game reviewers.
Plot
Several months after the events of The Secret of Monkey Island, Guybrush Threepwood is on Scabb Island searching for the legendary treasure called "Big Whoop." He is robbed by Largo LaGrande, who was once the first mate of pirate LeChuck. LeChuck's ghost was defeated by Guybrush in a previous game. Largo has placed a ban on the island, stopping anyone from leaving. At the International House of Mojo, located in the island's swamp, Guybrush meets the Voodoo Lady, who helped him in his first adventure. By completing tasks such as collecting laundry and digging up graves, Guybrush gathers materials for the Voodoo Lady to create a voodoo doll of Largo. Guybrush uses the doll to fight Largo. However, Guybrush accidentally shows Largo a piece of LeChuck's still-living beard, which Largo steals. Largo uses the beard to bring LeChuck back to life as an undead zombie.
From his fortress on the island, LeChuck vows to take revenge on Guybrush. The Voodoo Lady explains that Big Whoop holds the key to another world, which would allow Guybrush to escape LeChuck forever. She gives Guybrush a book that describes how four pirates who discovered the treasure created a map to its location. The map was split into four parts. One of the pirates was the grandfather of Elaine Marley, Guybrush's love interest, who has ended their relationship. Guybrush hires a ship captained by Captain Dread to search for the map pieces.
Guybrush's journey takes him between three islands: Scabb, Phatt, and Booty. On Phatt Island, Governor Phatt imprisons Guybrush, hoping to claim the reward LeChuck has offered for Guybrush's capture. Guybrush escapes. On Booty Island, Guybrush meets Stan, a ship salesman from the first game who now sells used coffins. He also reunites with Elaine, who is angry with him and says their relationship was a mistake. Through quests involving a Mardi Gras party, a spitting contest, a bloodhound, a drinking contest, a glass-bottom boat, a sunken ship's figurehead, rigged gambling, a library catalog, and temporarily bringing the dead back to life, Guybrush collects the map pieces. He gives the pieces to Wally, a small cartographer, who determines that Big Whoop is on Dinky Island. Wally and the map are soon kidnapped by LeChuck. Guybrush sneaks into LeChuck's fortress but is captured. LeChuck traps Guybrush and Wally in a deadly trap. They escape, but Guybrush accidentally causes an explosion that sends him to Dinky Island. There, he meets Herman Toothrot, a castaway he previously met on Monkey Island.
With the help of a talking parrot, Guybrush navigates a maze-like jungle to find where Big Whoop is buried. He digs until he hits concrete and uses dynamite to break through it. Elaine hears the explosion from Booty Island and goes to investigate. She finds Guybrush hanging over a deep hole, which he falls into, landing in an underground facility. LeChuck arrives and claims to be Guybrush's brother. He tortures Guybrush using a voodoo doll. In the tunnels, Guybrush finds an E ticket, a first aid station, a "lost parents" area with the skeletal remains of his parents, and an elevator leading to Mêlée Island, a place Guybrush visited before. Guybrush creates a voodoo doll of LeChuck and tears off his foe's leg.
LeChuck begs Guybrush to remove his mask, revealing that he is actually Guybrush's brother, Chuckie. Their reunion is interrupted by a workman who tells them "you kids" should not be there. The two brothers, now appearing as children, leave the tunnels and meet their parents above-ground in the "Big Whoop" amusement park. Guybrush is confused, and Chuckie's eyes glow with evil energy. On Dinky Island, Elaine wonders if LeChuck has cast a spell on Guybrush.
Development
The idea for a sequel to The Secret of Monkey Island came during the planning of the original game by its director, Ron Gilbert, who worked at Lucasfilm Games. Gilbert imagined The Secret of Monkey Island as the first of three adventure games, but he had not yet fully planned the story for all three. In a 1990 interview with the in-house newsletter The Adventurer, Gilbert mentioned the possibility of a second game. He later told Retro Gamer in 2006 that he knew a sequel would be made before finishing the first game. Gilbert began planning ideas for Monkey Island 2 before Lucasfilm Games released the original game. He said that the company’s management style, which allowed staff more freedom, helped him create the sequel. This freedom came from the company’s project management practices, which Gilbert compared to the setting of Lord of the Flies, where people could work independently. Another reason for creating Monkey Island 2 was the desire to use ideas from the first game that had not been fully developed. Gilbert explained that some design choices were left unfinished to meet deadlines, but he saved the work to use in the sequel.
Gilbert said the main reason he started working on Monkey Island 2 was his own interest in expanding the story of the first game, not because of suggestions from Lucasfilm Games’ management. He noted that the company could not judge whether a sequel would be successful because it did not know how well the first game sold. This uncertainty led Gilbert to begin the sequel without official approval from the company. He wanted to avoid a situation where poor sales of the first game might cause Lucasfilm Games to stop making Monkey Island games and instead focus on other projects, like Star Wars licensed games. Eventually, Gilbert convinced the company to support the sequel, even if it was not guaranteed to be profitable. He said this decision happened during a time when the company had simpler operations.
In 1990, when development of Monkey Island 2 was approved, Lucasfilm Games and its other divisions were reorganized into a new company called LucasArts Entertainment Company. Monkey Island 2 became the first adventure game made under the LucasArts brand. Development of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge began shortly after The Secret of Monkey Island was released in October 1990. Like many other games LucasArts made at the time, the company both developed and published the sequel.
LucasArts aimed to use a new, more organized method for making games. Monkey Island 2 was one of the first games to follow this new structure, along with Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. This meant the team set a clear schedule for development, decided on deadlines, and assigned a full team to work on the sequel.
Most of the original game’s staff returned to work on the sequel. Gilbert took charge again, and co-designers, programmers, and writers Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman also returned. Grossman temporarily left the project to help with another game, The Dig, but came back to finish Monkey Island 2. Other returning staff included lead artist Steve Purcell, animator Sean Turner, composer Michael Land, playtesting supervisor Judith Lucero (who also wrote the game’s manual), and game tester James Hampton. New team members included artists Peter Chan and Larry Ahern, a scripter-programmer, and Shelley Day, who was brought in to produce the game alongside Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.
Monkey Island 2 used the fifth version of LucasArts’ special game engine, called SCUMM. The company added tools to help manage the game’s scripts, object locations, and character actions. These tools included FLEM, which handled object states and movement boundaries, and BILE, a program that allowed artists to animate individual body parts. These features made it easier to create complex interactions in the game. Though SCUMM was designed to work on different platforms, Monkey Island 2 was made for IBM PC compatibles running MS-DOS, like other LucasArts games at the time.
The game’s interface was also updated. Players could now use verb-based commands, and the point-and-click menu was expanded for easier use. The inventory system was improved by replacing text descriptions with icons.
The revised engine gave programmers shortcuts to build game objects more efficiently. However, a LucasArts programmer later said it still took about nine months of work to complete the object-oriented programming for the game. In 1992, a writer for CU Amiga noted that SCUMM’s design as a high-level language helped creative staff focus on storytelling rather than technical details. Ron Gilbert later said the system allowed the team to quickly test and add new ideas during development, creating a more flexible process.
Gilbert explained in 2006 that the development of the first two Monkey Island games happened continuously, as one creative process. Most of the unused ideas from the first game were carried over into the sequel. Grossman later said the sequel developed smoothly because adventure games of that time required fewer resources than more complex projects, like movies. He compared making an adventure game to staging a puppet show rather than a film, which allowed LucasArts to create the sequel’s story and gameplay without needing too many resources.
LucasArts also used a “tight” approach to assign staff to Monkey Island 2. Creative teams were divided into small groups that met regularly to plan the game’s story and features. During development, artists and designers worked on separate floors of LucasArts’ headquarters, requiring designers to visit artists frequently for collaboration.
Special edition
LucasArts released a new version of the sequel to The Secret of Monkey Island called Monkey Island 2: Special Edition. This version included improved sound and visuals and was available on PlayStation 3, iPhone, iPod Touch, Microsoft Windows, and Xbox 360 in July 2010. A version for Mac OS X was not released at that time, and the iOS version was no longer available by March 2015.
Later, the Special Edition versions of The Secret of Monkey Island and its sequel were sold as a physical collection for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC (only in Europe). The Special Edition included updated graphics, better audio, new voice-overs, extra content like concept art, and a hint system. The "lite" mode from the original game was removed, as was the original introduction with the main musical theme, which had outdated credits. Players could switch between the updated version and the original version at any time, though they could choose to keep the voice-overs from the remake. Players could also use the original point-and-click controls or control Guybrush directly using a control pad.
LucasArts announced the remake during the Game Developers Conference on March 10, 2010. The original creators of the game—Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer, and Dave Grossman—were present. They recorded a commentary track for the Special Edition, which could be accessed in the game using silhouettes similar to those in Mystery Science Theater 3000. Craig Derrick, who led the remake, introduced a new interface inspired by The Curse of Monkey Island and confirmed the return of the original voice cast, including Dominic Armato as Guybrush, Alexandra Boyd as Elaine, Earl Boen as LeChuck, and Neil Ross as Wally. Phil LaMarr and Tom Kane also joined as additional voices.
The Special Edition of Monkey Island 2 was developed by Craig Derrick and his team at LucasArts, known as "Team 3." This team had previously remade The Secret of Monkey Island. Derrick, who was a fan of the series, had struggled to get approval for the remake because LucasArts was not focused on adventure games at the time. After the success of the Secret of Monkey Island remake in 2009, Derrick convinced the company to proceed with Monkey Island 2.
At that time, most of the team working on the Secret of Monkey Island remake was already busy with another project. To help, LucasArts added staff from other departments and assigned most of the work to its Singapore office. More resources were used for Monkey Island 2 than for the first remake to match the original game’s complexity.
Derrick said the team used experience and tools from the first remake to complete the project efficiently. This allowed them to add features like background audio commentary by Gilbert, Schafer, and Grossman, recorded at the 2010 Game Developers Conference. Derrick had planned to include similar commentary in the first remake but faced scheduling issues. He credited the collaboration between LucasArts’ San Francisco and Singapore teams for the project’s success, despite some challenges in coordination.
Derrick said the final product met his expectations. Ron Gilbert was happy with the remake’s accuracy and praised the ability to switch between the new and original versions of the game, calling it a sign of LucasArts’ care and respect for the series.
Reception
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge was very exciting for many people. Amiga Power said it was the most eagerly awaited game of 1992. Ron Gilbert, one of the game's creators, said that Monkey Island 2 and its first game sold well, but Sierra Online and King's Quest were more successful. A writer for Next Generation noted that the games were "relatively minor hits" in the United States but became very popular in Europe on the PC and Amiga. Edge reported that both games sold very poorly when they were first released. Tim Schafer, a game designer, said Monkey Island 2 sold about 25,000 copies. At the time, LucasArts was excited if they sold 100,000 copies of a PC graphic adventure. After Monkey Island 2 did not sell as well as expected, Schafer said the company told the team that the game was a failure and they should try making something else. He thought the series became more famous later because of software piracy. The need to create a more successful game led to the development of Full Throttle, which sold one million copies and was the first LucasArts adventure game to do so.
Monkey Island 2 received high scores from critics for all versions. Amiga Computing gave the Amiga version a 95% rating, and Computer and Video Games gave the PC version a 96% rating. When Kixx XL released Monkey Island 2 as a budget game, reviews stayed high, with CU Amiga giving it a 91% rating. Today, many people still think it is a high-quality game. It is often considered one of the best in the point-and-click genre and still holds up well against modern adventure games. The game has a 90% rating on GameRankings, a review site that collects scores from many sources.
Monkey Island 2 was praised for several reasons. It is user-friendly because it has a "lite" mode, which makes it easier for beginners to play. The difficulty of the game is also well balanced. Changes to the controls, such as fewer verbs and a graphical inventory, made the game easier to use. The music was noted for using the iMUSE system, which made sound an important part of the game's atmosphere. Graphically, the game improved over its first version, and reviewers were impressed. Critics also said the developers made installing the Amiga version's 11 floppy disks easier, though they recommended using a hard drive for better performance.
In 1992, Computer Gaming World named Monkey Island 2 the best adventure game of the year, praising its "challenging puzzles, wonderful sense of humor, and stunning visual presentation." In 1996, the magazine ranked it as the 74th best game of all time. In 1994, PC Gamer UK named it the fourth best computer game of all time, saying, "Anyone who claims to have an interest in adventuring cannot afford to be without this." In 1996, GamesMaster ranked it 29th on their "Top 100 Games of All Time." In 2011, Adventure Gamers named it the eighth-best adventure game ever released.
To celebrate the series' 30th anniversary, Ron Gilbert shared secrets from the original source code during a video with the Video Games History Foundation. These included early character designs, deleted scenes, unused animations, and alternative environments from the first two games.
The Special Edition received a B+ rating from Gaming Bus. The site said the music was better and of higher quality, the graphics were improved, and there was more content. However, some controls had issues, and the hints were too helpful.
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