{"id":706,"date":"2022-04-08T11:05:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T08:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amazement.fi\/sixt\/?p=706"},"modified":"2023-03-24T18:46:12","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T16:46:12","slug":"return-to-monkey-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amazement.fi\/sixt\/return-to-monkey-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Return to Monkey Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I'LL SEND YOU SCREAMING TO ANOTHER DIMENSION, ONE OF INFINITE PAIN! <\/h5>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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LECHUCK, MONKEY ISLAND 2: LECHUCK'S REVENGE (1991) <\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>[vc_empty_space height=”50px”][vc_column_text]I’m a rather stable guy. When I experience big disappointments, I usually get over them rather quickly… and then again, when I accomplish something big, I easily downplay the achievement. I guess it’s not that easy to rock my world.<\/p>\n

But on Monday, April 4th 2022 my old idol Ron Gilbert managed to do just that. He revealed<\/a> that for the last two years, he’s been working on a sequel to the infamous Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge! The game is soon finished and will be out later in 2022. WTF!<\/p>\n

For me personally, this is especially emotional because throughout my life, Monkey Island 1 & 2 are the video games (and pieces of art in general) that have had the most significant influence to me as a human being. They’ve been with me every step of the way. I first played them in 1991 or 1992 at age 8 without any understanding of the English language (I believe my dad told me what the verbs meant and that’s all). When I got on my first date in 1998, we spent the evening playing SoMI together. And in 2007, when I madly fell in love for the first time, some the best moments of that relationship were spent playing SoMI together. And without Monkey Island, I never would’ve begun developing Sixtus Flaming, that’s for sure. I can’t stress enough the monumental importance these games have to me. Nothing else can ever come close.<\/p>\n

I’m not the only one to whom this was an incredible announcement, though: after 30 years, the man who’s always been best known from Monkey Islands 1 & 2 returns for the incredibly long anticipated 3rd chapter. Do we finally get to find out the SECRET of Monkey Island? Do we get to find out what happened in\/after the end of LeChuck’s Revenge? Well, I believe these questions have stayed with us for all these decades solely because they WERE left unanswered, and that was BRILLIANT. If Ron is going to answer them now (I don’t think he should), he’d better have even bigger questions in store for us. I very much believe that it’s the questions \u2013 the mystery \u2013 that drives us. That’s what made Monkey Island’s legacy so wonderful. That’s why the 3rd game should end with the same amount of ambiguity.<\/p>\n

PIXEL ART VS. HI-RES?<\/h2>\n

The teaser trailer<\/a> that was released with the announcement showed a glimpse of the visual style of the upcoming game. Some loved it, some liked it, and then there were those of us who think that Monkey Island is, in it’s core, a pixelart world \u2013 Ron Gilbert himself has said so in his famous 2013 blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the teaser trailer makes clear, however (and he soon updated that blog post accordingly), those words don’t matter anymore because Gilbert has changed his mind. Either he was pressured into that by Disney or simply because it’s been 9 years and circumstances\/people change.<\/p>\n

I’ve spent some time this week arguing that the retro visual style is a crucial part of the true Monkey Island spirit. Well, it is, but I have now come to a realization that the idea of making the new game a hi-res one in itself is NOT the actual issue here. I don’t dislike Curse’s visual style (as a Monkey Island game) because it has better resolution than Monkey 2. I dislike it because the approach is GOOFY and CARTOONISH.<\/p>\n

“Well why is that such a big deal?” you might ask. “Guybrush is a funny chap and the games have so much humour in them they can be called comedies. Cartoonish style is a good match to that.”<\/p>\n

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Crop from the box cover art of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge<\/span>
\u00a9 LucasFilm Games, Disney<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Monkey 1 & 2 certainly have those qualities: they are very funny games! But at least for me personally, that’s not at all the full extent of what these games have going for them. Especially Monkey 2! If you look at the magnificent cover art of LeChuck’s Revenge and imagine you’d now see it for the first time, I’d be surprised if your reaction would be “ah, we’re in for some goofy fun.” That cover is downright scary.<\/strong> And at least to a certain 8-year-old boy, it was definitely scary.<\/p>\n

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Crop from the game Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge<\/span>
\u00a9 LucasFilm Games, Disney<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

“WHAT’S WITH THAT BIG, SHARP, DEADLY-LOOKING PIN?”<\/h2>\n

When I entered that tunnel at the end of Monkey 2 for the first time (again, I was 8 years old) and started my escape, my heart was pounding<\/strong> because it was clear that LeChuck could reappear any second! I kept click-click-clicking things hoping that Guybrush would move faster to prevent another encounter. I was about to have a heart attack whenever the scary music would announce the zombie pirate’s arrival. To this day I remember the visceral panic. As I looked at LeChuck’s pixelart sprite graphic, in my mind’s eye I was looking at the realistic monster I had seen in the box cover art.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was young and those things stayed in my mind: I started having actual nightmares because of that part of Monkey 2. I even asked my parents to hide the diskettes of the game so that I couldn’t play it anymore! But I always found them anyway and resumed playing…<\/p>\n

I haven’t really discussed this with anyone before so I don’t know if anyone else has anywhere near the same experience of these darker aspects of Monkey 2. I don’t know if others have found it as scary.<\/p>\n

To me, this definitely influenced how I see the games now: while I love them both, Monkey 2 is my favourite because it’s a richer experience that offers a wider variety of emotions. And when I think of the game, it’s easy to draw comparisons to a phenomenal tv-series from the same era, Twin Peaks<\/strong> (1990-91), which also had the ability to jump from scary to funny and back effortlessly. Actually, if you look at the ending of season 2 of Twin Peaks and compare that to the ending of Monkey 2, well… there definitely are similarities! Both are legendary. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ron Gilbert was influenced by the tv show to some extent. Gilbert also recently tweeted<\/a> that he finished watching Twin Peaks: The Return (2017) and loved it.<\/p>\n

REALISTIC VS. CARTOONISH<\/h2>\n
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A close-up of Guybrush in the Secret of Monkey Island<\/span>
\u00a9 LucasFilm Games, Disney<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

So, to come back to the pixelart thing, I think my biggest problem with The Curse of Monkey Island and the ones that came after is simple: the better resolution is not the problem there, it’s the fact that the characters aren’t realistic<\/strong>. I think I would have absolutely no problem with the new game having hi-res visuals had the characters been created in a realistic visual style, using that box cover art for LeChuck’s Revenge as a reference. And if you look at any of the SoMI’s in-game closeup screens (especially the VGA version), they are extremely realistic as well. Actually in-game, SoMI is the more realistic one of the two.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, having a realistic visual style in the new game would probably be a problem for other people. It would likely be a turnoff for anyone waiting for the visual style Curse etc. had.<\/p>\n

And THAT is precisely why the pixelart approach is so wonderful: with pixelart, there is ambiguity<\/strong>. It doesn’t matter if you prefer a realistic look or a more cartoonish look. It’s up to you to experience the art either way! Those big, juicy pixels leave the characters’ details ambiguous and therefore give you room to dream so you can decide for yourself.<\/p>\n

TO SUM IT UP<\/h2>\n

We now know that the team decided to go with the more-or-less cartoonish high-res style. It’s a shame, but I’ll be doing my best to ignore this. In any case, I’m definitely going to be playing the hell out of Return to Monkey Island when it arrives. I have a firm belief that even in its worst possible form it’s going to be a dream come true.<\/p>\n

I want to send my heartfelt thanks to the whole RtMI team for realizing this dream I’ve had for 30 games that there would be another one. I’m sure it’s gonna be fantastic! And my guess is we’ll see an actual trailer within the next month.<\/p>\n

-luuk<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”20px”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 30 years, Monkey Island returns! The game had a staggering influence to our lead developer’s life \u2013 what’s up with that new visual style, though?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amazement.fi\/sixt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amazement.fi\/sixt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amazement.fi\/sixt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amazement.fi\/sixt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amazement.fi\/sixt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.amazement.fi\/sixt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":764,"href":"https:\/\/www.amazement.fi\/sixt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions\/764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amazement.fi\/sixt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amazement.fi\/sixt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amazement.fi\/sixt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}