Yo why the hell hadn't I played this game before? As a huge Monkey Island fan this was always a gaping hole for me, but this game was so much fun, hilarious, and one of the best monkey island games I've played!!! First out, huge shout out to Ed for gifting me this one so I could finally stop being lazy and playing this.

This one has some of the best music in the series, some of the best puzzles (that don't feel too crazy obtuse for the most part) it's fully and very well voice acted, and a funny story to continue on Guybrush's crazy adventures.

I think my only complaint here (like a lot of these games) is I really do wish it was a little longer. Only five hours for me to complete here, of course, if you're not good with these types of games that might take longer.

I think overall I still slightly prefer Monkey Island 2, but a genuinely fantastic game, and one of the best monkey islands!!!

The Curse of Monkey Island is a staple of my life like few other games. Point n Clicks don't really lend themselves to multiple playthroughs (unless you're speedrunning or something; I've thought about it) but good ol' COMI.EXE is such a refuge of nostalgic comfort that I come back to it every few years and go through all the motions again and again. I am, frankly, incapable of assessing it as a game with anything resembling objectivity.

Nostalgia aside, much of the appeal is audiovisual. The 480p era of adventure gaming was extremely short lived, and this is clearly the pinnacle of it. The Michael Land music is, unsurprisingly, extremely good. And I'm convinced that nobody in video games knew how to direct voice actors correctly for years EXCEPT at LucasArts, where they were unimpeachable.

Although it's certainly my most replayed, I don't think this is the best Monkey Island game. The first two games were witty but also mysterious, a nuance that Curse abandons almost entirely for pure goofiness. They also clearly ran out of time/money before they could flesh out the final act, which feels more and more tacked-on every time I play. Still: inevitably I will play this again.

“The Curse of Monkey Island” is arguably the only Monkey Island sequel that didn’t involve the original creative team to be still perceived as a classic. It’s a faithful reiteration of the formula of the first two games with updated graphics and voice acting. The cartoonish visual style took a whole new direction, and even though the mood does feel different, it was undoubtedly the most logical way to transpose the visuals of the first two games in a higher definition. It also became the visual standard for all the other sequels and remakes.

The game also brought essential quality-of-life improvements such as double-clicking to exit an area or the “coin” to condense the dozen of verbs from the previous games into three main actions.

The plot and overall structure felt very similar to “The Secret of Monkey Island”, with the last chapter reminding me of “Monkey Island 2”. The plot is as lousy and derivative as it gets, but the characters and puzzle chains can get quite hilarious. Despite having none of the original writers, the humor felt absolutely on par with the standards set by the series. I always thought that the Guybrush-LeChuck-Elaine triangle was what made us tired of Monkey Island over the years. It felt unnecessary in the first sequel already, and “The Curse of Monkey Island” even turns it into the main driving force behind the plot. Introducing new characters and trying out new things could have been risky but, at the same time, much more rewarding. Not that the plot is that essential in a Monkey Island game, as it’s usually about the humor of the individual sequences.

Sometimes it's enough to just be good, instead of reinventing the wheel. Monkey 2 arguably suffered from being overambitious, slowly falling apart as you got further along in your hunt for the treasure map. Curse of Monkey Island drops the dead weight and just lets the game flow. Great puzzles with great writing. The art style is gorgeous and for the first time that these characters have gotten voices: It's a killer cast. Its only real flaw is the last section, which turns in an endless Dialogue Tree slog.

Games, like movies, used to just have jokes in them. Not just absurd circumstances, not darkly humorous satires, but actual jokes that exist for no reason other than to evoke a chortle. Indeed, games like this were jam-packed with them, feeling no obligation to create a logically cogent or historically accurate world when you could instead extract a few laughs from a pirate doing community theater or a laser-guided cannon.

Not every joke lands, but that hardly matters when they come so fast, so thick, and so confidently. Not every puzzle makes sense, but that's what hint websites are for. This game isn't a masterpiece, but it's a great way to spend ten hours—especially if you've got a few friends to play it with.

A lot better than you might expect, knowing that the three main creatives of the previous games didn't work on it. I was extremely impressed with how good the writing still was even without them - it's not as meta or cynical as the first two, but it's every bit as sharp and funny. Turns out losing a bit of that Ron Gilbert edge doesn't make it feel particularly compromised, or inauthentic. (The excellent VA helps with this too - I've found that Gilbert's particular style tends to not work as well when voiced (I'm currently experiencing this with THIMBLEWEED PARK) but this slightly altered tone seems fully written with it in mind, and the actors are all old hands - they crush it.)

I'm also a big fan of the look, and although it's heresy to say it, I might put it above MONKEY ISLAND 2 in that category. That game had some really gorgeous painted backgrounds that are rightly celebrated, but they clashed with the more traditional spritework on the characters (a pet peeve of mine). Here, the animation is practically seamless between the characters and background elements, and it does feel at times like you're playing a live cartoon. It's leagues better than other adventure games that tried for this style back then like TOONSTRUCK, KING'S QUEST VII, and even this team's previous FULL THROTTLE. Tons of charm and personality. For once I don't lament an evolving series moving away from my beloved chunky sprites!

On that stuff alone, and the fact that they managed to keep this series going in fine form presentation- and humor-wise without the main dudes, this should score higher, but the puzzle design is pretty lacking and repetitive (almost always just trying to figure out how to get a thing from a guy), the middle section with the ship combat/insult swordfighting is awkward, and the ending is abrupt and unsatisfying. All those knock it down a bit. You could also complain about some of the absurd puzzle solutions, if you wanted to, but I don't, really. They're par for the course for this period (although that shouldn't be an excuse), but I am absolutely willing to give them a pass in this instance because they are complicated, unbelievable, and stupid not only to be difficult, but in service of gags, and on that level they work bigtime. This is a genuinely funny game.

A pleasant surprise. Just a hair away from the overall quality of the other two, even with its differences.

Un xogo ao que lle pesa demasiado a traizón estética e a evolución de sistema de xogo que supuxo. O guión é bo, aínda que obvie o final do 2 para despois volver a el dun xeito estrano, e en realidade é divertido e con puzzles ben definidos, difíciles pero lóxicos, moi no nivel estándar de Lucasarts.
O problema para min é o feito de abandoar o sistema de verbos -que é o mellor que tiña Lucasarts- e ir ao point & click. E tamén o de facer un Guybrush que non ten nada que ver co dos anteriores, porque podía ir ao rollo cartoon sen esa traizón.
Como cousa boa, tentar voltar aos insultos, máis ou menos, e o combate naval, algo repetitivo pero agradecíbel. Tamén se agradece o final, aínda que sexa un pouco estrano para unha aventura gráfica.