The Curse of Monkey Island

aka: A Maldição da Ilha dos Macacos, CMI, La Maldicion de Monkey Island, La Malédiction De l'Ile aux Singes, La maledizione di Monkey Island, MI3, Monkey Island 3, Prokljatje Ostrova Obez'jan
Moby ID: 547
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Having barely escaped LeChuck's dreadful amusement park, Guybrush Threepwood finds himself stuck in the middle of the sea, with nothing in his boat but a sausage and a diary. Musing over the events that have led him into this predicament, Guybrush suddenly discovers a ship navigated by none other than his archenemy. Once again, Guybrush saves his beloved Elaine from the claws of his undead rival. In the midst of the treasure that belonged to the defeated foe Guybrush finds a ring. Overwhelmed by his love to Elaine, he proposes marriage to her and gives her the ring. What he doesn't know is that the ring is cursed; before he is able to realize what is happening, Elaine is turned into a gold statue. Will Guybrush be able to lift the curse and to save his one and only love?

This third installment of the Monkey Island is, like its predecessors, a humorous puzzle-solving adventure game. The game features cartoon-style SVGA graphics and (for the first time in the series) voice-overs for all the conversations. The interface no longer involves a list of verbs that occupies a part of the screen; instead, it follows the same principle as in Full Throttle: the player chooses first the object to interact with, then the action from a menu that appears. Like the second game, The Curse of Monkey Island has two difficulty levels.

Spellings

  • Проклятье Острова Обезьян - Russian spelling (unofficial)
  • 猴岛小英雄3:猴岛的诅咒 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 猴島小英雄III:猴島的詛咒 - Traditional Chinese spelling
  • 원숭이섬의 저주 - Korean spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

318 People (272 developers, 46 thanks) · View all

Project Leads
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2D Animation
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2D Cleanup and In-Betweens
Art and Animation Director
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[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 90% (based on 42 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 322 ratings with 18 reviews)

Long Live Guybrush Threepwood!

The Good
The Curse of Monkey Island (1997) picks up sometime after the second game with Guybrush quickly getting trouble with the zombie pirate Le Chuck and, after turning her into a gold statue, his bride-to-be. The game offers new puzzles to solve, new locations to explore and, yes, plenty of wit, satire and comedy. LucasArts uses cartoon quality animation, CD quality music and has every characters voiced by some incredibly talented actors.

The Bad
While much of Le Chuck's back story is revealed, with some call backs to the first two games, do not expect to get a clear explanation about the fabled Big Whoop treasure or the actual secret of Monkey Island. Fans may need some time to get use to the new point n' click interface and, in the late 1990's, you needed a pretty powerful computer to run the game without some major slow downs Last, but not least, the Carnival on the second disc feels underdeveloped as does the ending.



The Bottom Line
Curse of Monkey Island is a great addition to the Monkey Island franchise by offer appropriate improvements to the series, while still respecting its comedic, graphic adventure roots. Look behind you! It's A three headed monkey!

Windows · by ETJB (428) · 2010

Lovable, beautiful; a masterpiece.

The Good
I loved everything about this game. This is my favourite in the series, and I will individually point out all of the features I adore:

Music - Probably the best music in the Monkey Island series. It is so imaginative and well put together - I definitely admire Michael Land for all of the wonderful pieces in this game, and they go amazingly well with whatever scene is present - whether it's happy music for the wonderful island of Puerto Pollo, or it's an anxious score for the rollercoaster chase at the end - it is all exquisite and deserves more recognition than it gets.

Characters - The character development is lovely. You get to know the ins and outs of all the characters by the vast range of speech options you can click, and you can explore all of their personalities as if you were really talking to them. Each character shines through outside of the screen into your mind, and this is valuable in a game. Guybrush's gullibility is so obvious here, as is LeChuck's uncertainty about what's going on, and Elaine's irritation and patronization towards Guybrush!

Graphics - Very cartoon style graphics are present here, which I find good. The puffy clouds become a trademark, so to speak, and the drawing of the backgrounds is lovely; all of which are very interactive and Guybrush makes his comments on all of the scenery and objects around him.

Gameplay - Somewhat different to the earlier games, but very good. It has become easier for people to learn how to play without imposing limitations, by simply 'looking' 'using' or 'talking', instead of all the 'open' 'close' etc. The humour in the game is brilliant, and I never ceased to smile while playing Monkey Island 3! The storyline is excellent and imaginative, and a lot of effort has clearly gone into the making of this masterpiece.

The Bad
There isn't much to dislike about this game in my view. On newer PCs you may encounter errors with the palette of the game, but this is fairly rare and shouldn't cause a problem - and can be cured with a save and restart of the application.

Other than that - Nope, nothing I dislike about this game!

The Bottom Line
Buy it - You will love it, and as with all the other MI games, it can be played at any age and be loved. While it can be enjoyed, unfortunately it is not always appreciated, and you must look carefully at everything they are saying on-screen, to fully understand the genius behind this game.

Simply brilliant.

Windows · by Quackbal (45) · 2006

An elephant in Ron Gilbert's porcelain shop

The Good
Game designer/programmer Ron Gilbert is the equivalent of a folk hero for several thousands of old school adventure game fans. He was the brain behind 1987's Maniac Mansion, a seminal graphic adventure game with unprecedented atmosphere and storytelling; the brain behind 1990's The Secret of Monkey Island, another milestone that took absolutely everything about adventure games to the next level; and the brain behind 1991's Monkey Island 2, an epic, refined and outlandish piece of art that I seriously believe is the best adventure game ever made. He left LucasArts soon after for reasons that were discussed to death.

Monkey Island 3 has nothing to do with Ron Gilbert. It has everything to do with LucasArts' greed to make some new bucks off the revival of their flagship adventure game series several years after Gilbert's departure, when LucasArts was very probably faced with diminishing sales and critical reception.

This game's popularity baffles me. Then again, maybe not, as I can see where it's coming from. Monkey3 is like an Indiana Jones film NOT directed by Steven Spielberg, or like a Harry Potter novel NOT written by JK Rowling. It lacks the soul of the series, or worse yet, it is replaced with a different soul. Obviously, this is not sensed by those who dashed through the originals in a superficial way. It is only felt unanimously by fans who embraced Monkey1 and Monkey2 to their hearts, or were even obsessed about them, like I was in my late teens. See, not obsessing about a game series is no sin. (In fact, the world probably doesn't need more hardcore game geeks.) But trying to argue how a counterfeit entry to the series is on a par with the true classic entries... is plain wrong. Monkey3 has superior graphics and music compared to the originals, which seem to have dazzled several gamers, but this is the only upside I can think of.

The Bad
Monkey Island 3 was designed and led by the Ackley-Ahern duo, with only one of them present in the team of Monkey2 (as an animator). While they prove to be capable game developers by and large, in the delicate, nuanced, semi-serious, and very personal world of Ron Gilbert, they move and thrash around like a particularly clumsy elephant in a porcelain store.
Regardless if they do or do not understand what made the original games work, they prove utterly unable to emulate their general weirdness, their general Ron Gilbertness. Now it's hard to define this Ron Gilbertness in mere words and give it a semblance of justice -- but for the purposes of this review, we can try: bittersweet, spooky, unpredictable, odd, offbeat, atmospheric, enchanting, smart, subversive, tragicomic and poignant; definitely poignant. The design in Monkey3 sometimes manages to be remotely spooky and/or atmospheric (the theater scene comes to mind), but that's where similarities end.

The Bottom Line
Aimed squarely at prospective new fans who were probably still preteens during the run of the original Monkey Island games, Monkey Island 3 is an OK if unremarkable adventure game when taken strictly in isolation. It looks well, plays well and sounds great. But it's not a proper Monkey Island entry. What LucasArts does here is effectively betraying the old fans (and Ron Gilbert himself, I guess), and producing something lighter, less profound, less edgy and more "PG" than Monkey Island 1 and 2, all for the sake of catering to a "fresher" audience. Out of cold calculation, the Monkey Island soul is replaced by a cheaper, downsized one that proves incapable of emulating the feeling, mood and peculiar jokes of the original, despite trying hard.
All this results in that no real fan of the series would honestly cheer this game. They just feel it's fake, like a changeling. What is there to cheer about an Indiana Jones movie deprived of Spielberg?..

Windows · by András Gregorik (59) · 2011

[ View all 18 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Like a good wine... The Fabulous King (1332) Jul 9, 2013

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Curse of Monkey Island appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Cancelled movie

There used to be a department somewhere within Industrial Light and Magic, that was tasked with writing screenplays for animated films based on Lucasfilm's intellectual property from other media. One such screenplay was a Monkey Island movie, entitled The Curse of Monkey Island, likely loosely based on the game of the same name. In the big reorganization of Lucasfilm that occurred a couple of years ago the department was killed and the movie (still in pre-production) with it.

Cut content

  • A love song called "Plank of Love" was planned to be in the game but was never recorded. A stanza from the song, written by Chuck Jordan:

Elaine: "Oh, how I love you Guybrush."

Elaine: "Not even your corny jokes'll..."

Elaine: "Make me wish that I was not your bride..."

Elaine: "When you carry me 'cross your fo'c'sle!" * In a PC Gamer sneak preview of the game, the designers admitted that Gary Coleman's character, Kenny Falmouth, was supposed to answer "What-chu talkin' about, Guybrush?" to a certain question, but they decided to remove the line since they didn't want to risk offending the former star of Diff'rent Strokes.

Development

LucasArts initially designed longer end scenes for the game but due to budget and time restrains were forced to drop those plans.

Development tools

The Curse of Monkey Island used 3 engines: SCUMM (the last LucasArts game to use it), INSANE and iMUSE.

Fingers

You can notice how all the characters in the game have only four fingers on each of their hands. Hard to notice when you're too busy finishing the story, but you can check the end credits. You'll be able to see that quite clear.

Gags

  • When Van Helgen is doing his guitar riff, Guybrush will pull out a lighter if you don't move him for about a minute.
  • On the in-game menu there's a button which appears as disabled and it says "Enable 3D acceleration", but when you get over it with a mouse, it says "No, really, there's no 3D acceleration in this game."

German version

The German version of the game changed the character Rottingham into "Röchelieu" (an obvious pun referring to the cardinal Richelieu, the French politician of the 17th century), and he talks with French accent. Another slight change concerned Palido Domingo, which is a parody of the famous singer Placido Domingo. In the German version it was changed into "Blasido". Why is it funny and why did they change it? Because "blas" means "pale" in German! This way, the joke is even funnier, since the name "Blasido" is more similar to "Placido" than "Palido". Other changes: the character Minestrone is called "Meistersuppe", which is "master soup", and Haggis talks with a broad Frisian accent instead of the original Scotch.

A sequence missing in the European versions of the game is the shanty Guybrush's crew sings in chapter three: A Pirate I was meant to be. For reasons not yet known, the song was cut from non-English versions of the game: in an interview from 2021 designer Larry Ahern says he was not even aware of the song being cut and does not remember ever being asked about it, so he assumes it was probably a decision made by the localization team alone.

Macintosh

Although no Mac version of the game was released, it is possible to play on Mac OS X using ScummVM and the game files from the PC CDs.

Murray

Murray, the demonic skeleton, was only planned to be near LeChuck's ship in the original script. But thanks to loads of positive feedback on the Curse of Monkey Island demo and some initiative of the programmers, the character was added to four other locations in the game in the last few months of development. Murray even has to be used as an inventory item to solve a puzzle at one point.

References

  • In The Curse of Monkey Island there's a place where you can enter the 'forest' screen from original The Secret of Monkey Island. You can only see your new Guybrush head, lurking like from some hole in a tree-stump. From another place, the dying scene under water can be visited. More information about both easter eggs can be found in the tips & tricks section.
  • When you enter the dialogue with LeChuck in part V of the game, Guybrush threatens LeChuck that should he kill Guybrush, there will be no more sequels and LeChuck's name will be forgotten, just like Bobbin Threadbare's. Bobbin Threadbare, of course, is the name of the main character in Loom, and thanks to the low sales of the game, there never was a sequel.
  • The dead guy at Blondebeard's restaurant is none other than Manny Calavera - the main character from Grim Fandango.

References to the game

The Curse of Monkey Island was parodied in an episode of "Die Redaktion" (The Editorial Team), a monthly comedy video produced by the German gaming magazine GameStar. It was published on the DVD of issue 02/2007.

Ron Gilbert

Ron Gilbert, designer of the original two games of the series, said that the game was done well considering the tough job they had, but his biggest complaint was that Elaine fell in love with Guybrush. Gilbert says that Elaine thinks of Guybrush as more of a brother, and she would never do something like that.

Time

  • The church clock tower on Plunder Island always shows exact time in reality, Guybrush will tell you exactly what time is it.
  • Ask Palido Domingo about how long he's been staying at the beach. The answer it will depend on the date set on your computer clock.

Translation

Puerto Pollo, one of the main areas in the game, means Port Chicken in Spanish.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • March 1998 (Issue #164) – Adventure Game of the Year
  • PC Player (Germany)
    • Issue 01/1999 - Best Adventure in 1998

Information also contributed by Adam Schoales, Daniel Albu, Emepol; Gothicgene, James1, Jason Harang, Little Yoda; Marek, MAT, MDMaster, Scott Monster, Tom Murphy, Unicorn Lynx, Zack Green, and Zovni

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Related Sites +

  • CMI Walkthrough
    A walkthrough of The Curse of Monkey Island by Cindy Wells, which provides direction through both the regular and MegaMonkey modes of the game.
  • Escape from Monkey Island
    A website with lots of stuff about Monkey Island.
  • Hints for Curse of Monkey Island
    These hints are written so you can gradually get the help you need without spoiling the game for you.
  • LucasFans
    The unofficial LucasArts fan website.
  • ScummVM
    Get "Curse of Monkey Island", as well as many other adventure games, to run on modern systems by using ScummVM, a legal and free program.
  • The Curse of Monkey Island
    Official Website
  • The Scumm Bar
    A really good unofficial Monkey Island fan-club with lots of fan art, music and info about the game.
  • World Of Monkey Island
    An excellent fan-club with lots of things to look at such as errors in the game, screen shots, and more.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 547
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by robotriot.

Macintosh added by Stelios Kanitsakis.

Additional contributors: MAT, Swordmaster, Itay Brenner, Adam Baratz, Unicorn Lynx, Indra was here, Jeanne, Apogee IV, James Isaac, chirinea, Sciere, MDMaster, Zeppin, Paulus18950, federicocrane, Mastran, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added December 7, 1999. Last modified March 6, 2024.