1. LCR
2. SMI
3. CMI (very close to SMI, but SMI wins because of nostalgia)
4. TMI
5. EMI
I liked Tales, but at times it felt like they tried to hard to be like the older games, and I think the music just didn't capture the atmosphere as well as in the three first games. LeChuck's Revenge is in a league of its own, but the music and sound effects really made the first three games special.
I wouldn't be sure 3 and 4 are to be considered "original".
To anyone, who complains about things not being explained/not making sence - have you played Lechuck's revenge recently? Do you remember the ending by chance? Also where MI 3 started and how Big Whoop is explained in the end?
I don't find it too irritating, that there is no "ha-ha this is actually Monkey Island you are standing on"-part in ToMI, like in the end of MI2 and 3.
Obviously SoMI had its own charm. It was a fairly small feeling game for me, but given it was the 'pilot' so to speak, it was pretty good.
SoMI:LCR was epic. Great ending, great zombieness. Largo was a great character, the islands were some of the best in the series, etc. etc.
CoMI was a beautiful interactive comic. The art was fantastic and the story was solid until the amusement-park aberration.
EfMI had a few nice aspects to it, but gormless-Guybrush and the unfinished feel to the writing, implementation, etc. left it feeling dead for me.
ToMI has taken the EfMI 3D graphics but made them better. Guybrush is likeable, he looks good, the writings been pretty solid. I felt like the first episode was limited. There was a brilliant anticipation for it, and then we were stuck on Flotsam with very limited avenues of exploration. This is a drawback of the episodic nature of TTG's portfolio for me, but is no longer a problem given we can go straight into the next chapter. The characters were forgettable. Nipperkin was alright for me, and van Winslow was good, but there was the glass-guy whose name I still can't remember.
Chapter Two felt a bit odd. The whole mermaid city thing didn't feel like it fitted into MI, but the ep was written reasonably for all that.
Chapter Three had a few gorgeous locations and the amount of good quality characters really took away from the empty feel I got in eps 1 & 2. De Cava, Santino/Murray, Moose, Noogie and Bugeye along with Le Flay and brief cameos for Frenchy McFrench and the Voodoo lady all pulled off the random-boat-in-the-middle-of-nowhere/random-belly scenarios well.
Chapter Four's "darkness" at times saw TTG overreach itself for me. Still, overall it was a solid enough ep, highly amusing and with some sort of gravitas to the characters in it.
Chapter Five was great. Simply put.
When all these are added together I think ToMI was inconsistent: hit & miss. For all that, i'd say it was on the right track and the bravery and versatility of ToMI should be commended; they didn't just use the old stale formulae.
So:
1. SoMI:LCR (no.2)
2. CoMI (no.3)
3. ToMI (no."6")
4. SoMI (no.1)
5. EfMI (no.4)
For me, it's a close-run thing between CoMI and ToMI, but the focused, uniform feel to the game beats ToMI.
I'm surprised to see so much love for Curse. I replayed it recently and found it to be loaded with constant "click until something works." It is at the bottom of my list. Despite a few bugs and the interface issues I loved Escape for the interaction between Elaine and Guybrush:
It is hard to sort these because all the games seem to come from a different time (except SMI and LRC which are, basically, the same technology wise).
The problem with Tales for me is the lack of immersion. If you look at the four other games environments that you explore there are so many locations and places that are illustrated but impossible to get to. It gives the feeling of your story taking place in a larger world. Tales only contains the characters and locations that are important to the story. There is nowhere on Flotsam you can't go and each of the characters are part of the story. There are no pirates wandering around like on Melee, no buildings that you can't get to like in Puerto Pollo or Phatt or Booty Islands. It feels like each environment Guybrush visits has been tailor made for his adventure. This was the major problem I had with the game and the reason why it's below Revenge, Secret and Curse on my list.
1 - MI2 (there's no beating this one... It's a hopeless battle)
2 - ToMI (Yeah! I consider Tales to be the 2nd best MI game ever made! It's so awesome! Can't wait for a 2nd season or whatever...)
3 - CMI (Kickass art direction! Gave the series a whole new look.)
4 - SMI (I know it's the one that started it all, but looking back it feels kinda bland compared to the other ones)
5 - EMI (What a load.... I'm not even gonna comment on this one)
The problem with Tales for me is the lack of immersion. If you look at the four other games environments that you explore there are so many locations and places that are illustrated but impossible to get to. It gives the feeling of your story taking place in a larger world. Tales only contains the characters and locations that are important to the story. There is nowhere on Flotsam you can't go and each of the characters are part of the story. There are no pirates wandering around like on Melee, no buildings that you can't get to like in Puerto Pollo or Phatt or Booty Islands. It feels like each environment Guybrush visits has been tailor made for his adventure. This was the major problem I had with the game and the reason why it's below Revenge, Secret and Curse on my list.
I agree and wish we could have done more like that. It's hard to get right. I tried to sneak at least a tiny bit of that into chapter 5, but yeah. Hopefully it's something we'll get better at as we make more games. Jordan Mechner has said that making the goal should be to make the world feel like you've only seen half of it, even if you've actually seen 95% of it. That's a good target, but hard to achieve!
The problem with Tales for me is the lack of immersion. If you look at the four other games environments that you explore there are so many locations and places that are illustrated but impossible to get to. It gives the feeling of your story taking place in a larger world. Tales only contains the characters and locations that are important to the story.
I agree with you. It's a problem if TTG are looking to make the best MI yet, but I think the writing has been good enough and imaginative enough to counterbalance this and make a good, solid installment overall.
I agree and wish we could have done more like that. It's hard to get right. I tried to sneak at least a tiny bit of that into chapter 5, but yeah. Hopefully it's something we'll get better at as we make more games. Jordan Mechner has said that making the goal should be to make the world feel like you've only seen half of it, even if you've actually seen 95% of it. That's a good target, but hard to achieve!
And clearly the TTT are aware of the problem, which I think has really helped as we've gone through the eps
I agree, the writing, feel and characterisation of Tales is great. It just needs those little extra touches to be a really great Monkey Island game.
Thanks for the feedback Jake. It took Jordan Mechner a few games to really nail that atmosphere and he's a screenwriter! I think it will definitely come with time as Telltale grows.
Counting TMI as one game, it'd be CMI, TMI, MI1, MI2, EMI. But TMI is extremely close to taking 1st place, and it may once I replay it more in the future.
Counting TMI as one game, it'd be CMI, TMI, MI1, MI2, EMI. But TMI is extremely close to taking 1st place, and it may once I replay it more in the future.
Actually I'm pretty sure he's referring to the Dinky Island tunnels lead to Monkey Island retcon as well as the fact that CMI actually ends on Monkey Island. EFMI ended on Mêlée Island.
Wait so you mean you went inside the Keelhauler Gazette? And Well, Blow Me Down Glassworks? Would you mind enlightening us as to how you got inside these locations? :rolleyes:
----
Alright that's enough commentary on other people's comments, now for my thoughts on the topic at hand. I hate to disappoint so many of you, but this is how my list goes:
1. SOMI/TOMI
2. CMI
3. EFMI
4. LCR
That's right. I actually just quite literally ranked LCR lower than EFMI. This is pretty close to the order I first played them in (TOMI excluded of course) except that I played EFMI before CMI. This wasn't by choice mind you.
I first played SOMI when we got our very first 2x CD-ROM drive for our Tandy PC for Christmas. To start us off we got SOMI and LOOM on CD. I still count both of those as two of my favorite games of all time. SOMI actually took me an embarrassing amount of time to complete based on the fact that somehow I never realized you can interact with the
dam
on Monkey Island. It actually took me probably about 6 years to complete (having started playing at approx. age 6). I don't know why I never gave up on the game. My brother used to get annoyed to no end with me because even when I wasn't actually playing I was constantly throughout those years asking him, "What if..."
I wanted so badly to get LCR so it would hopefully shed some light on what I was supposed to have done. As I said though, the fates would have it that LCR was the last of the "original" 4 that I ever played. I begged my mom and was THRILLED when I got EFMI for Christmas the same year that it came out.
Later my mom picked up CMI off Walmart's $10 bargain rack (they get good stuff sometimes, I picked up S&M - S1:E1-E3 myself the same way a few months back).
I didn't get LCR until probably around 2005 or 2006 when my mom finally managed to find a copy of MI:Madness.
All that said, I still feel that EFMI is SEVERELY underrated. It wasn't that bad. I understand it had its flaws. It introduced huge plot holes (ironically whilst trying to fill in existing ones). The 3D models had so few polygons it's amazing they held each other up. But I liked it in spite of its flaws. I even didn't think Monkey Kombat was nearly as infuriating as everyone insists that it is. I rank EFMI lower than CMI simply because I like CMI better, but it still beats out LCR in my book.
I'm sure that will upset quite a few of you who have ranked it as #1. Perhaps it's just the fact that I've played it the fewest times, I've had the least amount of time to bond with the game, or maybe I just became disenchanted with it in particular after having played the games so wretchedly out of order.
As far as Tales goes, I honestly felt like "THIS is Monkey Island." I feel it far excelled over CMI in numerous ways, despite the flaws it may have.
1.LCR ( purly for the feel of the game and good times playing
2.TMI ( i really loved the epicness of the journey)
3.CMI ( almost ties with TMI)
4.EMI
5.SMI
I first played SOMI when we got our very first 2x CD-ROM drive for our Tandy PC for Christmas. To start us off we got SOMI and LOOM on CD. I still count both of those as two of my favorite games of all time. SOMI actually took me an embarrassing amount of time to complete based on the fact that somehow I never realized you can interact with the
dam
on Monkey Island. It actually took me probably about 6 years to complete (having started playing at approx. age 6). I don't know why I never gave up on the game. My brother used to get annoyed to no end with me because even when I wasn't actually playing I was constantly throughout those years asking him, "What if..."
This sounds quite similar to how I came into the series as well, my cousin ended up solving that
damn dam puzzle
, however. He solved it by being angry and trying to
blow things up at random with the gunpowder.
Those old CD drives that came with a bunch of games were the greatest.
I never played LeChuck's Revenge, HOPE LUCASARTS WILL MAKE A SPECIAL EDITION FOR ME. Please?
I suggest that you download Dosbox and the original game, before waiting around for LucasArts.
Don't let the older graphics keep you from playing it. It is GREAT.
That said:
LCR, SMI, CMI, TMI, EMI
(I have forgotten whether I had beaten EMI or not)
Tales was great - Curse deserves a bit more credit; Blood and Skull Island were awesome!! Guybrush: "If you squint and turn your head, it looks like a bunny." ROFL I can't help but follow those "instructions" of the Flying Welshman. I just have to play this game again!
Very similar to a lot of other peoples, except in some respects there is a very fine line between all my top 4:
MI2
CMI
TMI
SMI (I actually have a hard time putting this 4th, i still think its an awesome game)
Big gap between those 4 and EMI. Although there's still a lot I like about the places and characters, for me it's the controls. Why the hell did they get rid of the point and click?! The cursor was just awful and I wasn't a fan of the 3D at first compared to the cartoony CMI which i thought worked well. (although again at the time that took a while to get used to after pixel Guybrush!)
I seem to remember getting used to the controls in EMI at the time, but in between chapters of Tales coming out I've replayed all the other 3 but just could not get
into controlling a wayward Guybrush. It just seemed such a chore and took forever to get him to Walk To wherever. I talked to Carla and Otis and then gave up
I agree with you- people would not stop complaining. However, there seems to have been this shift in gaming toward easiness. Why should games be easy? A friend of mine worked at a video game store and people would return games not because they were bad, but because they were hard.
Games are supposed to be a challenge. In fact, the whole idea of the genre itself is challenge. But, with MI, you have that guarantee of safety from death at least comforting you a little!
Therefore, I ask for more illogical puzzles. I want monkey wrenches, I want green spit, I want the dewey decimal system!
The way i think of it is this. Does a film stop playing and loop on the same bit if you don't understand the plot? No. You can still watch the rest of it. Games are different. If you can't do one small part, the rest of the game is lost for you. That's why i like difficulty levels. Start of easy, and work through the rest on replays.
I agree and wish we could have done more like that. It's hard to get right. I tried to sneak at least a tiny bit of that into chapter 5, but yeah. Hopefully it's something we'll get better at as we make more games. Jordan Mechner has said that making the goal should be to make the world feel like you've only seen half of it, even if you've actually seen 95% of it. That's a good target, but hard to achieve!
This attitude is exactly why I love Telltale Games so much. Learn from this, developers.
I tried to sneak at least a tiny bit of that into chapter 5, but yeah.
Umm, like when Morgan said "I already beat two posers and a decent fighter" in the time interval we solved other puzzles in different places after the Insult/Compliment Swordfight puzzles, even though there is seemingly no other dead person walking around like Guybrush?
Wait so you mean you went inside the Keelhauler Gazette? And Well, Blow Me Down Glassworks? Would you mind enlightening us as to how you got inside these locations? :rolleyes:
It's not about whether or not you can get inside, it's about adding that extra colour to the environment by having a few buildings, streets and locations that are present while not being part of the game. It adds an immersive quality and pulls you into the MI world. The Keelhauler and Glassworks were there because they played a part in Guybrush's adventure. There was nothing there that wasn't.
i'm putting TMI dead last. or at the very most somewhere in EMI's ballpark.
it did nothing to bring the series "home" in my opinion. if anything it was even more "out there" than EMI, it was definitely less immersive than any of them. all the worlds were totally empty, just basically a series of rooms with forced items and uninspired puzzles everywhere. the resolution was great. the camera movement was great. there was emotion and storytelling involved, all good things. the game and the "world" and the effort to make it challenging and intelligent and inspired just wasn't there at all.
1. Tie: CMI and MI2. If not for the drop in quality of CMI's last act, it would be on top. MI2 is still the most consistently great.
3. TOMI. Episode 3 matched the best of Monkey Island and episode 4 came close. But the other episodes weren't as good (apart from DeSinge's Lab and the Human Lechuck puzzles).
4. MI1. A good start to the series, but a little uneven.
5. EFMI. Still a good game, just not great. Only thing better here than in TOMI is the music.
If I wanted to give you a challenge, I could hand you an a N64 and a copy of Goldeneye. "Here, kill all the bad people with your fists instead of guns." Just because something is challenging doesn't make it fun or good.
What? Karate chopping everybody's the best fun in this game!
Umm, like when Morgan said "I already beat two posers and a decent fighter" in the time interval we solved other puzzles in different places after the Insult/Compliment Swordfight puzzles, even though there is seemingly no other dead person walking around like Guybrush?
No the dialog is Mark, with Sean and Mike. I love that stuff, but have next to nothing to do with it.
just basically a series of rooms with forced items and uninspired puzzles everywhere.
If you look at it side by side with the old games, the areas are just as detailed, and I actually think the puzzles were impressively varied and clever. They were, however, very, very easy. Which unfortunately is a trend in the industry right now, and not just for adventure games. I blame the audience for this as much as Telltale for giving in to it.
1. Curse-Tales (I'm rather ambivalent about which one is better. I don't see myself playing Tales as often as I play Curse, but it made me laugh the most out of all of them...)
2. Secret of Monkey Island
3. LeChuck's Revenge
4. Escape from Monkey Island
If you look at it side by side with the old games, the areas are just as detailed, and I actually think the puzzles were impressively varied and clever.
i don't agree
re: areas. the first 3 games, especially 2 & 3 had far more lush detail. you'd never just have plain textures on things. there were tons of nuances in every scene, hundreds of things to look at closely. there were cracks and stains on walls, rotting wood, things really looked worn and aged and just rich. you could see large distances, you felt like you were in a world.
just look at this random scene for instance
you can't tell me TMI had that kind of detail. that feels like you're in a real town that is BIG and has a life of its own. you can see great expansive views, horizons, distant buildings etc and every inch is different than the next. not just two or three tight screens with plain, bright, plastic textures.
to continue to the next point, the puzzles, it ties in with the areas. in the old ones, items seemed to be in their natural place for the most part. in TMI, it seemed like the creators almost thought of random items and puzzle ideas first, and then just dropped them into locations where made no larger sense. like "he needs to melt a pyrite parrot to finish this puzzle. ok let's just drop a BBQ in middle of the jungle." or "guybrush needs to earn the trust of the thief. ok let's just drop a treasure chest in the middle of the jungle with a magic belt buckle that will magically earn his trust." that's just lazy puzzle design.
more clever, natural puzzles would have something like a fire or BBQ in a natural setting, and a more involved clever way to earn trust, not just a magic trinket that makes no sense with no reason for just sitting there for you. that way it just doesn't stick out like a sore thumb that "THIS IS HERE FOR A PUZZLE YOU'LL DO SOON." idk, it's hard to explain.
This is a difficult one really. I thoroughly enjoyed Tales and I'm excited about the obviously open ending but for me it doesn't quite compare to the power three. The story and humour were perfect, the art beautiful and the voice acting fantastic but much of the time the puzzles were a little too simple (especially ep5) and I didn't like Elaine much.
RockNRoll, I agree with everything you said, especially regarding the placement of the puzzles.
Coming from someone who played the games in order at about the time they were released, I'd put them about here:
1) MI2 - I found this to be the funniest and creepiest game in the series simultaneously, with an atmosphere to it that has yet not been matched.
2) CMI - I'm so glad that this game was made at a time when LucasArts were still willing to put plenty of resources into making adventure games, and it really was proof that a classic Monkey Island could be made without Ron Gilbert at the helm.
3) Tales of Monkey Island - While I don't find it quite as funny as the above episodes, by the time I finished this series I knew that TTG had managed to create a thoroughly solid Monkey Island game with several standout moments. I think there will be more, and I expect they will be better still.
4) SMI - I like the first Monkey Island game a lot, but to me it has always been MI2 where the series really matured. The first game is a fine start and was spectacularly exciting in its time, but in comparison to what comes after it feels more like a blueprint for greatness to come.
5) Escape from Monkey Island - It's not that it's a bad game, it's just not what I expect from a Monkey Island game. The humour largely fell flat for me, the story veered rapidly off a cliff and it looked like it was produced on the cheap compared to Grim Fandango which used the same engine. I think denying that it exists like some people like to do is just silly, but it remains the only MI game that I can genuinely say disappointed me.
CMI- Looks great, plays great, awesome humour.
LCR- Horrible horrible ending. Aside from that it was pretty good. Although I pretty much had to play it with a walkthrough next to me. That I was 11 or so and didn't knew english well probably didn't help much either .
TOMI- Really catches the MI feel. Hats of to TTG.
SOMI- Although probably rushing through it with a walkthrough because the only time I had to play it was on school during classes (don't ask) was a bad idea.
EMI- Didn't happen... Only one I didn't finish either. Just gave up at Monkey Combat.
CMI - was at least 4 star on everything
MI2 - the story was great and the puzzles challenging
MI1 - the original, and a very charming story, especially benefits from the Special Edition
ToMI - a nice try, and I think a second season would be much better as the formula is now in place
EMI - some nice ideas, but it failed, unfortunately.
I find these thread so fascinating, everyone seems to delve so deep into these things, and I read it and think "Yeah that's soo so true" but I'm not clever enough to think of them... or am so blinded by love for MI that I can't see them
Tales definitely has the most advanced graphics (duh), and I'd be lying if I say that it's not a big deal to me. Also, I love how the stakes get higher in Tales at the end than MI's ever been (that was the first time I ever believed that Guybrush can't win). It's got my favorite Guybrush design, too.
1) CMI: liked the puzzles, liked the graphics, liked the controls, liked the voices, music... I don't think I can name anything I didn't like about CMI.
2) LCR: lots of funny bits, nice puzzles.
3) SMI: really nice, set the precedent, but I think the sequels improved on it.
4) TMI: better than "it-which-must-not-be-named" (Okay, okay, I mean EMI) but I didn't really like it that much. I didn't like the controls, I wasn't crazy about the graphics. The voices and jokes were great, but I didn't like the puzzle as much and the story seems to have holes in it compared to the other ones. I'm guessing it's because they wanted to call for a sequel?
EMI is out of the list, because I just like to pretend it didn't exist. I played all of it, even though the controls were horrible (the arrows made stuff move by 2, so if I wanted to talk to someone, I needed to press up and down until it went around and fell on the right option. And that only worked when the number of options was odd).
I didn't like the graphics, I didn't like the controls, I wasn't crazy about the puzzles and the story was... ugh.
I don't even mention it exists when I introduce people to the series. It's not like you need to play it to follow anyways.
Comments
2. SMI
3. CMI (very close to SMI, but SMI wins because of nostalgia)
4. TMI
5. EMI
I liked Tales, but at times it felt like they tried to hard to be like the older games, and I think the music just didn't capture the atmosphere as well as in the three first games. LeChuck's Revenge is in a league of its own, but the music and sound effects really made the first three games special.
SoMI:LCR was epic. Great ending, great zombieness. Largo was a great character, the islands were some of the best in the series, etc. etc.
CoMI was a beautiful interactive comic. The art was fantastic and the story was solid until the amusement-park aberration.
EfMI had a few nice aspects to it, but gormless-Guybrush and the unfinished feel to the writing, implementation, etc. left it feeling dead for me.
ToMI has taken the EfMI 3D graphics but made them better. Guybrush is likeable, he looks good, the writings been pretty solid. I felt like the first episode was limited. There was a brilliant anticipation for it, and then we were stuck on Flotsam with very limited avenues of exploration. This is a drawback of the episodic nature of TTG's portfolio for me, but is no longer a problem given we can go straight into the next chapter. The characters were forgettable. Nipperkin was alright for me, and van Winslow was good, but there was the glass-guy whose name I still can't remember.
Chapter Two felt a bit odd. The whole mermaid city thing didn't feel like it fitted into MI, but the ep was written reasonably for all that.
Chapter Three had a few gorgeous locations and the amount of good quality characters really took away from the empty feel I got in eps 1 & 2. De Cava, Santino/Murray, Moose, Noogie and Bugeye along with Le Flay and brief cameos for Frenchy McFrench and the Voodoo lady all pulled off the random-boat-in-the-middle-of-nowhere/random-belly scenarios well.
Chapter Four's "darkness" at times saw TTG overreach itself for me. Still, overall it was a solid enough ep, highly amusing and with some sort of gravitas to the characters in it.
Chapter Five was great. Simply put.
When all these are added together I think ToMI was inconsistent: hit & miss. For all that, i'd say it was on the right track and the bravery and versatility of ToMI should be commended; they didn't just use the old stale formulae.
So:
1. SoMI:LCR (no.2)
2. CoMI (no.3)
3. ToMI (no."6")
4. SoMI (no.1)
5. EfMI (no.4)
For me, it's a close-run thing between CoMI and ToMI, but the focused, uniform feel to the game beats ToMI.
It is hard to sort these because all the games seem to come from a different time (except SMI and LRC which are, basically, the same technology wise).
EMI
LCR
TOMI
SMI
CMI
2 - ToMI (Yeah! I consider Tales to be the 2nd best MI game ever made! It's so awesome! Can't wait for a 2nd season or whatever...)
3 - CMI (Kickass art direction! Gave the series a whole new look.)
4 - SMI (I know it's the one that started it all, but looking back it feels kinda bland compared to the other ones)
5 - EMI (What a load.... I'm not even gonna comment on this one)
I agree and wish we could have done more like that. It's hard to get right. I tried to sneak at least a tiny bit of that into chapter 5, but yeah. Hopefully it's something we'll get better at as we make more games. Jordan Mechner has said that making the goal should be to make the world feel like you've only seen half of it, even if you've actually seen 95% of it. That's a good target, but hard to achieve!
And clearly the TTT are aware of the problem, which I think has really helped as we've gone through the eps
Thanks for the feedback Jake. It took Jordan Mechner a few games to really nail that atmosphere and he's a screenwriter! I think it will definitely come with time as Telltale grows.
TMI Episode 5
CMI
MI1
TMI Episode 3
TMI Episode 2
TMI Episode 1
MI2
EMI
This is the order I place them in.
Counting TMI as one game, it'd be CMI, TMI, MI1, MI2, EMI. But TMI is extremely close to taking 1st place, and it may once I replay it more in the future.
Very surprised to see MI2 so low on ANYones list!
Don't you mean, two? :rolleyes:
Actually I'm pretty sure he's referring to the Dinky Island tunnels lead to Monkey Island retcon as well as the fact that CMI actually ends on Monkey Island. EFMI ended on Mêlée Island.
Wait so you mean you went inside the Keelhauler Gazette? And Well, Blow Me Down Glassworks? Would you mind enlightening us as to how you got inside these locations? :rolleyes:
----
Alright that's enough commentary on other people's comments, now for my thoughts on the topic at hand. I hate to disappoint so many of you, but this is how my list goes:
1. SOMI/TOMI
2. CMI
3. EFMI
4. LCR
That's right. I actually just quite literally ranked LCR lower than EFMI. This is pretty close to the order I first played them in (TOMI excluded of course) except that I played EFMI before CMI. This wasn't by choice mind you.
I first played SOMI when we got our very first 2x CD-ROM drive for our Tandy PC for Christmas. To start us off we got SOMI and LOOM on CD. I still count both of those as two of my favorite games of all time. SOMI actually took me an embarrassing amount of time to complete based on the fact that somehow I never realized you can interact with the
I wanted so badly to get LCR so it would hopefully shed some light on what I was supposed to have done. As I said though, the fates would have it that LCR was the last of the "original" 4 that I ever played. I begged my mom and was THRILLED when I got EFMI for Christmas the same year that it came out.
Later my mom picked up CMI off Walmart's $10 bargain rack (they get good stuff sometimes, I picked up S&M - S1:E1-E3 myself the same way a few months back).
I didn't get LCR until probably around 2005 or 2006 when my mom finally managed to find a copy of MI:Madness.
All that said, I still feel that EFMI is SEVERELY underrated. It wasn't that bad. I understand it had its flaws. It introduced huge plot holes (ironically whilst trying to fill in existing ones). The 3D models had so few polygons it's amazing they held each other up. But I liked it in spite of its flaws. I even didn't think Monkey Kombat was nearly as infuriating as everyone insists that it is. I rank EFMI lower than CMI simply because I like CMI better, but it still beats out LCR in my book.
I'm sure that will upset quite a few of you who have ranked it as #1. Perhaps it's just the fact that I've played it the fewest times, I've had the least amount of time to bond with the game, or maybe I just became disenchanted with it in particular after having played the games so wretchedly out of order.
As far as Tales goes, I honestly felt like "THIS is Monkey Island." I feel it far excelled over CMI in numerous ways, despite the flaws it may have.
:winslow:, "I found the map sir!" :cool:
2.TMI ( i really loved the epicness of the journey)
3.CMI ( almost ties with TMI)
4.EMI
5.SMI
i love them all but i found EMI funnir then SMI
This sounds quite similar to how I came into the series as well, my cousin ended up solving that
Those old CD drives that came with a bunch of games were the greatest.
Don't let the older graphics keep you from playing it. It is GREAT.
That said:
LCR, SMI, CMI, TMI, EMI
(I have forgotten whether I had beaten EMI or not)
Tales was great - Curse deserves a bit more credit; Blood and Skull Island were awesome!! Guybrush: "If you squint and turn your head, it looks like a bunny." ROFL I can't help but follow those "instructions" of the Flying Welshman. I just have to play this game again!
MI2
CMI
TMI
SMI (I actually have a hard time putting this 4th, i still think its an awesome game)
Big gap between those 4 and EMI. Although there's still a lot I like about the places and characters, for me it's the controls. Why the hell did they get rid of the point and click?! The cursor was just awful and I wasn't a fan of the 3D at first compared to the cartoony CMI which i thought worked well. (although again at the time that took a while to get used to after pixel Guybrush!)
I seem to remember getting used to the controls in EMI at the time, but in between chapters of Tales coming out I've replayed all the other 3 but just could not get
into controlling a wayward Guybrush. It just seemed such a chore and took forever to get him to Walk To wherever. I talked to Carla and Otis and then gave up
This attitude is exactly why I love Telltale Games so much. Learn from this, developers.
Umm, like when Morgan said "I already beat two posers and a decent fighter" in the time interval we solved other puzzles in different places after the Insult/Compliment Swordfight puzzles, even though there is seemingly no other dead person walking around like Guybrush?
It's not about whether or not you can get inside, it's about adding that extra colour to the environment by having a few buildings, streets and locations that are present while not being part of the game. It adds an immersive quality and pulls you into the MI world. The Keelhauler and Glassworks were there because they played a part in Guybrush's adventure. There was nothing there that wasn't.
it did nothing to bring the series "home" in my opinion. if anything it was even more "out there" than EMI, it was definitely less immersive than any of them. all the worlds were totally empty, just basically a series of rooms with forced items and uninspired puzzles everywhere. the resolution was great. the camera movement was great. there was emotion and storytelling involved, all good things. the game and the "world" and the effort to make it challenging and intelligent and inspired just wasn't there at all.
MI2
MI1
CMI
EMI
TMI
3. TOMI. Episode 3 matched the best of Monkey Island and episode 4 came close. But the other episodes weren't as good (apart from DeSinge's Lab and the Human Lechuck puzzles).
4. MI1. A good start to the series, but a little uneven.
5. EFMI. Still a good game, just not great. Only thing better here than in TOMI is the music.
What? Karate chopping everybody's the best fun in this game!
No the dialog is Mark, with Sean and Mike. I love that stuff, but have next to nothing to do with it.
If you look at it side by side with the old games, the areas are just as detailed, and I actually think the puzzles were impressively varied and clever. They were, however, very, very easy. Which unfortunately is a trend in the industry right now, and not just for adventure games. I blame the audience for this as much as Telltale for giving in to it.
2. Secret of Monkey Island
3. LeChuck's Revenge
4. Escape from Monkey Island
2. LCR (Massive game, real epic. Would tie for first with the other two, but, unlike most I wasn't a huge fan of the ending.)
3. SOMI
4. EFMI (Still loved this one, but there just aren't as many moments or characters that stand out as incredible, unlike the others)
I thought you had everything to do with everything. I'm disappointed in the amount of credit you're willing to take, Jake.
re: areas. the first 3 games, especially 2 & 3 had far more lush detail. you'd never just have plain textures on things. there were tons of nuances in every scene, hundreds of things to look at closely. there were cracks and stains on walls, rotting wood, things really looked worn and aged and just rich. you could see large distances, you felt like you were in a world.
just look at this random scene for instance
you can't tell me TMI had that kind of detail. that feels like you're in a real town that is BIG and has a life of its own. you can see great expansive views, horizons, distant buildings etc and every inch is different than the next. not just two or three tight screens with plain, bright, plastic textures.
to continue to the next point, the puzzles, it ties in with the areas. in the old ones, items seemed to be in their natural place for the most part. in TMI, it seemed like the creators almost thought of random items and puzzle ideas first, and then just dropped them into locations where made no larger sense. like "he needs to melt a pyrite parrot to finish this puzzle. ok let's just drop a BBQ in middle of the jungle." or "guybrush needs to earn the trust of the thief. ok let's just drop a treasure chest in the middle of the jungle with a magic belt buckle that will magically earn his trust." that's just lazy puzzle design.
more clever, natural puzzles would have something like a fire or BBQ in a natural setting, and a more involved clever way to earn trust, not just a magic trinket that makes no sense with no reason for just sitting there for you. that way it just doesn't stick out like a sore thumb that "THIS IS HERE FOR A PUZZLE YOU'LL DO SOON." idk, it's hard to explain.
RockNRoll, I agree with everything you said, especially regarding the placement of the puzzles.
1) MI2 - I found this to be the funniest and creepiest game in the series simultaneously, with an atmosphere to it that has yet not been matched.
2) CMI - I'm so glad that this game was made at a time when LucasArts were still willing to put plenty of resources into making adventure games, and it really was proof that a classic Monkey Island could be made without Ron Gilbert at the helm.
3) Tales of Monkey Island - While I don't find it quite as funny as the above episodes, by the time I finished this series I knew that TTG had managed to create a thoroughly solid Monkey Island game with several standout moments. I think there will be more, and I expect they will be better still.
4) SMI - I like the first Monkey Island game a lot, but to me it has always been MI2 where the series really matured. The first game is a fine start and was spectacularly exciting in its time, but in comparison to what comes after it feels more like a blueprint for greatness to come.
5) Escape from Monkey Island - It's not that it's a bad game, it's just not what I expect from a Monkey Island game. The humour largely fell flat for me, the story veered rapidly off a cliff and it looked like it was produced on the cheap compared to Grim Fandango which used the same engine. I think denying that it exists like some people like to do is just silly, but it remains the only MI game that I can genuinely say disappointed me.
LCR- Horrible horrible ending. Aside from that it was pretty good. Although I pretty much had to play it with a walkthrough next to me. That I was 11 or so and didn't knew english well probably didn't help much either .
TOMI- Really catches the MI feel. Hats of to TTG.
SOMI- Although probably rushing through it with a walkthrough because the only time I had to play it was on school during classes (don't ask) was a bad idea.
EMI- Didn't happen... Only one I didn't finish either. Just gave up at Monkey Combat.
CMI - was at least 4 star on everything
MI2 - the story was great and the puzzles challenging
MI1 - the original, and a very charming story, especially benefits from the Special Edition
ToMI - a nice try, and I think a second season would be much better as the formula is now in place
EMI - some nice ideas, but it failed, unfortunately.
2 - MI2
3 - ToMI
4 - SMI
5 - EfMI
Did I snap with anyone?
I find these thread so fascinating, everyone seems to delve so deep into these things, and I read it and think "Yeah that's soo so true" but I'm not clever enough to think of them... or am so blinded by love for MI that I can't see them
Spot on! Couldnt have said it better.
Though puzzle-wise, I'd say MI2's my favorite.
2) LCR: lots of funny bits, nice puzzles.
3) SMI: really nice, set the precedent, but I think the sequels improved on it.
4) TMI: better than "it-which-must-not-be-named" (Okay, okay, I mean EMI) but I didn't really like it that much. I didn't like the controls, I wasn't crazy about the graphics. The voices and jokes were great, but I didn't like the puzzle as much and the story seems to have holes in it compared to the other ones. I'm guessing it's because they wanted to call for a sequel?
EMI is out of the list, because I just like to pretend it didn't exist. I played all of it, even though the controls were horrible (the arrows made stuff move by 2, so if I wanted to talk to someone, I needed to press up and down until it went around and fell on the right option. And that only worked when the number of options was odd).
I didn't like the graphics, I didn't like the controls, I wasn't crazy about the puzzles and the story was... ugh.
I don't even mention it exists when I introduce people to the series. It's not like you need to play it to follow anyways.