The Curse of Monkey Island

The Good
The ultimate and mystical adventure of a young wannabe pirate, Guybrush Threepwood, is something more of a classic by now, not to mention older games are usually harder to find, so when you see a bundle like this, it's a treat as much as for nostalgic players who wore out their floppies as is for newcomers who were too young and hence missed the saga.

One of the cooler things is that you don't have to install the first two Monkey Island games, but can just run it from autorun screen (so only thing on your hard drive will be actual savegames). Of course, you won't be needing any code protection wheel either, I can't say I've seen any such things in re-releases of older games or in any newer ones to boot. So, let's meet the cast and see what good can we pull out of this bundle...

First, there's Guybrush. The only game hero I know of that is capable to hold his breath for ten minutes. As silly as it may seem, this highly advanced skill will come in quite handy on more than one occasion. You will follow his bald adventure in the world of pirates and ghosts as he will learn how to fence (hey, dont' take me wrong, this is adventure game, not some arcade), come face to face with the various evils and puzzles, and became a pirate to be feared. Furthermore, you'll reveal the secret of Monkey Island (and it's not the secret of Herman's lost pants), meet many recurring characters through this trilogy, and find the love of your life. Then there's Elaine Marley, a governor of several island, and Guybrush's better half... hm, if that's possible. You can follow their relationship through this trilogy quite well, from their first moment together ("Blfft...") to various takeovers by LeChuck. Yes, LeChuck, now there's a man... err, ghost... err, zombie-pirate... err, zombie-ghost-pirate whose ultimate goal should be to terrorize everyone and everything. Instead, it seems the only one he will be terrorizing is our hero in their endless struggle over Elaine.

The Secret of Monkey Island is actually a bit enhanced now (even though Monkey Island 2 is left intact for some reason), as it has digital music and icons of items instead of just text description. Of course, both being so distant from The Curse of Monkey Island, none has voice-acting nor high color graphics, so you won't be able to hear Guybrush until you start playing the third installment of the series. The music in all these games is simply legendary by now, simple but so easy to remember (or this could actually be due to the fact I'm familiar with it for like fourteen years now).

The Bad
I dunno about other releases, but in US box release, first two MI games come in a temporary paper case which is rather lame. Come to think of it, I didn't seem much bundled games (except Westwood 10th Anniversary) that come with their own jewel case, or at least provide you with enough cases to contain all the cds within the package. It'd be better if they only released this trilogy in a double jewel-case that can hold 3 discs instead of putting resources into needless box cover. Bad management is what this is.

The Bottom Line
I personally stopped being a Monkey Island fan ever since I saw the third installment in the series. Yeah, it had voice-acting, it had cool music, it was advanced, but something was lost from the originators, and I don't just mean the graphics underwent some changes. But hey, not being a fan doesn't mean I didn't like the sequels nonetheless, but they just aren't representatives of one of the better adventure games, imho. This package is great as it is cheap and it will give you the two original Monkey Island games if you missed them by any chance. And it is a good thing it also contains the third one, so you get the insight in how it may progress furthermore. But whether you want to get EFMI after that, it's entirely your call.