Macintosh

Escape from Monkey Island

This game is a must buy! Escape from Monkey Island™ is smart, witty and hysterical. Without bloodshed, multi-player deathmatch action or evil wizards hell-bent on fulfilling dark prophecies, this game was able to hold my attention from its’ dramatic beginning to SHOCKING ending.

Escape from Monkey Island is a winner. Adventurers, casual gamers, and fans of the original Monkey Island games should grab EMI for a truly fun gaming experience for everybody - something which few games nowadays can attest to. With the gaming industry as hard-core as it is, it's refreshing to see a title as vibrant, entertaining and widely appealing as Escape from Monkey Island. Put down your joystick, give your gamepad a rest, and stop gibbing your buddies for a while in favor of some good old-fashioned Adventure Gaming.

I enjoyed Escape from Monkey Island for much the same reason that I enjoy those Mummy movies; they're all just great Saturday afternoon fun. And I must admit it feels good to review an adventure game and not feel compelled to compare it to Myst. Escape from Monkey Island, after all, has an ending. If anything, the game is more of a cross between the Leisure Suit Larry series and Redjack: Revenge of the Brethren, and that's quite an entertaining combination. Now, my only hope is that Aspyr manages to bring us a repackaged set of the first three (or anything else from LucasArts, for that matter) so I can discover what I missed.

Despite the difficulties with the interface, Escape from Monkey Island is an incredibly funny, good-looking and great-sounding game. I give it 3.5 GiN Gems out of 5, and I'm not monkeying around.

EFMI brings nothing new to the table. It will not attract a new generation of gamers and was made for the hardcore adventure gamer who enjoyed the previous episodes. Like many movie sequels that have outlived their usefulness, EFMI is a watered-down, shorter version of a classic that is relying on its past glories.