Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge

The Good
Unfortunately, it's difficult to speak highly of this game, without comparing it to numerous other games.

The graphics, sound, and gameplay of this game were all top-notch. The same LucasArts humor is here, but as an "adventure game", it's far above all of their other products.

Nearly every other LucasArts adventure game (Secret of Monkey Island, and Curse of Monkey Island, and Full Throttle, and Sam and Max, and so on) suffered from what I consider to be one huge flaw -- all of these games had a lot of unnecessary "filler" material, that detracted from the actual adventure. For example, in the other two Monkey Island games, you had to spend a large amount of time dicking around with "insult sword-fighting". While it was amusing, at first, it would get old very quickly.

In Full Throttle, you had to spend a bunch of time driving around mountain roads, fighting other bikers. I can't even remember what the purpose of that exercise was, aside from stretching out playtime.

More often than not, I found myself wanting these non-game sequences to be over with, so I could continue following the game's main story.

Monkey Island 2 has none of this kind of "filler" material - it's all story, baby!. Sure, it has its share of inventory puzzles, but for the most part, they all made sense.

The game world also seemed a lot "bigger" than the other games in the Monkey Island series, and it was fairly non-linear. If you're stuck on one particular island, for example, you could take a break and go to another island and fiddle around with the puzzles there for a while.

The Bad
Well... there were one or two maze puzzles that seemed a bit haphazard and slapped together... but those could've been a lot worse.

The Bottom Line
This is, in my opinion, one of the best adventure games ever to be released by LucasArts (and certainly much better than most Sierra games). It's even good as a stand-alone game. While it's certainly not required to play Monkey Island 1 first to understand what's going on in this game, you'll only miss out on a few in-jokes.

The Good
Being a sequel to one of the true comedy classics of pc gaming is no easy task, it takes a great deal of creative talent to make a game that stands up to a record like that of the original Monkey Island, but fear not my pirate friend, Monkey Island 2 lives up to the legend and even surpasses it. With a completely twisted (and far darker) storyline, the sequel thrusts you back into the role of the now rich & famous Guybrush Treepwood and from that point on it's Rock & Roll time baby!!

The graphics have taken a major quality boost, with beautiful hand-drawn backgrounds and much more detailed character & object sprites. As far as puzzles are concerned this one is the perfect example of classic LucasArts adventuring genius, with puzzles that are often complex yet logical and incredibly entertaining. Yet what stands out from MI2 is the excellent comedic talent poured in it. Everything from clever dialogue writing to physical comedy (ever wonder how does an adventure character place big items like a dog in his "inventory"? :D) to even a edgier touch of juvenile humor (spitting contests! Yeah!!!), MI2 does it all and on top of that... it's got monkeys!!!!!!!

The Bad
Well I fall among the ones that DIDN'T like the ending. I didn't hate it, but I felt it pretty much sucked when compared to the rest of the game. Quite frankly it seems as if they had to tie up the game in a hurry and the final parts of the game (from the point you get shot from the cannon and on) feel more and more disjointed and, well, stitched toghether. And the ending itself feels completely slapped-on (think the new Planet of the Apes)

The Bottom Line
Twice the amount of monkeys means twice the amount of fun and comedy. This one would have been a winner even if it where a crappy MI1 follow-up, yet Gilbert and co. rose to the challenge and delivered an even bigger dose of Simian entertainment. It sort of comes appart at the end, but it's still a remarkable game and requiered playing.

The Good
Since The Secret of Monkey Island sold well, it was not surprising that LucasArts decided to do a follow-up. After Guybrush Threepwood completes the three trials and dealt with LeChuck, he is now searching for the legendary “Big Whoop” treasure. Much of what you have seen in the first game can be seen in the sequel. You have the copy protection screen, this time requiring users to input a number of ingredients needed to make a voodoo recipe. You have to turn the wheel in such a way that the numbers match what is on the screen, or you won't get into the game.

What's unique about Monkey Island 2 is that it offers two game modes, the normal mode and a “Lite” version. The “Lite” version is aimed squarely at a younger audience and is much shorter than the normal mode. It also bypasses a few puzzles, so you won't, for example, get to participate in the Spitting Contest or resurrect Rap Scallion. The game is told in flashback since we see Guybrush hanging by a thread and telling Elaine how he found Big Whoop. After this, you have the nice credits with a beautiful rendition of the MI theme song. The only thing I enjoyed out of this was the dancing monkeys and Guybrush telling them to get lost.

When I finally got into the game, I noticed how neat the revamped interface is, removing the Turn On/Turn Off commands (Since you didn't get to use these commands in the first game, they were unnecessary.) and adding proper pictures to inventory items. I also noticed the background music while you play, and I enjoyed listening to those reggae tunes. I actually found myself tapping my feet to the music at times.

Most of the characters from the first game are here, and there are as funny as they were back then. Speaking of funny, Monkey Island 2 is always known for its humor. Examples: You can walk into the woodsmith's hut on Scabb Island and ask that tounge-twister for an amusing conversation with the woodsmith; or beg the men of low moral fiber just for a bucket; or rattle the garbage can outside a mansion's kitchen to make the chef come out, and run around the house while the chef curses at me. I just can't wait to hear what the dialogue sounds like in the Special Edition of the game.

There are a lot of hand-painted backgrounds, causing the graphics to be rich and colorful than those in the first game. In my opinion, most of the stunning backgrounds are found on Phatt Island.

The Bad
For such a great game, the ending just doesn't seem make any sense.

The Bottom Line
Monkey Island 2 is a great game that every MI fan should play every once in a while. It is much longer than the first one, and there is a lot of humor added to the mix. An easy version of the game can e played by beginners if they want to skip the puzzles, but they would me missing out on the best aspects of the game. I enjoyed listening to the reggae tunes that make up the background music. Monkey Island 2 worked beautiful on my P4/1.8G, no timer-related issue or no crashes. There was no need to use DOSBox or some slowdown program. Unfortunately as I upgraded my machine, running without emulation software became more irrelevant.