The MI 3 that never was
Ron Gilbert's original concept for a third game!
The question is, what would you think if Gilbert, Grossman and Shafer made that third game, picking right up from LCR and pretended Curse, Escape and Tales never happened? Ignoring how unlikely this is to happen, of course, would this be a travesty and disrespectful to the franchise?
If those three wanted to make that final missing game (PLEASE!!! I'M BEGGING HERE!! WANT MY BLOOD?!?! A LIMB??!!? MY FIRSTBORN?!?! TAKE THEM... WHATEVER IT TAKES!!), should they try to steer the franchise back to where they want it and go from there, or ignore everything from Curse onwards?
In short, are you an MI purist or liberal?
The question is, what would you think if Gilbert, Grossman and Shafer made that third game, picking right up from LCR and pretended Curse, Escape and Tales never happened? Ignoring how unlikely this is to happen, of course, would this be a travesty and disrespectful to the franchise?
If those three wanted to make that final missing game (PLEASE!!! I'M BEGGING HERE!! WANT MY BLOOD?!?! A LIMB??!!? MY FIRSTBORN?!?! TAKE THEM... WHATEVER IT TAKES!!), should they try to steer the franchise back to where they want it and go from there, or ignore everything from Curse onwards?
In short, are you an MI purist or liberal?
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So I don't know... I hated MI 3 at first, because it was way too cartoonish, and completely destroyed MI 2's ambiance. But then with the time, I came to like that approach too. (But I think that's because the realsation is just outstanding.) I hated MI 4, some things were cool but it was way too lame in my opinion. But then again, if ToMI is not the last of the series, it could be very awesome in some future installments.
I think the 2 second kinda closes itself. I don't see a "serious and dark" sequel to that, since it's the conclusion.
In short, yes. The Curse of Monkey Island, Escape from Monkey Island—yes, even that one—and Tales of Monkey Island aren't bad games but are decent-to-excellent entries into the franchise. To not only ignore but to entirely throw them out the window would be a great disservice to the people who worked on them.
If there is to be something akin to Gilbert's Monkey Island 3 (and who's to say that Tales of Monkey Island doesn't take ideas that Gilbert had for Monkey Island 3, since he helped form the story), it will have to be worked around the story as progressed by the next three games. It is what it is now.
But I can help wondering how it could (should??) have all turned out...
All it would do would be to conclude the "real" trilogy the way Gilbert originally envisioned it, and even if his version is disappointing I'd LOVE to know what it was. Only condition would of course be that they would really do it exactly like it would have been planned back then (probably with updated technology, idk, making it 16 color VGA is probably not gonna work
OR they could do a reverse ghost busters. Ghost busters had 2 movies and the 3rd part came out as a game. So yeah. MI movie, based on SMI and LR2 and on Gilberts original idea? I'd like that. (Not as much as a game, but whatever works. I just want to know what Ron thought back then.)
With that done, Lucas/TTG could continue the "CMI" story with Tales Season 2 and 3 and 4 etc. The movie version would get even less in the way.
In my opinion, the two biggest weaknesses of the Monkey Island series has been the uncreative stories and the horrible endings. This has been true of all the Monkey Island games to date, including Tales. To be fair, the story in Tales was more interesting than it usually is, but has of yet it has not been concluded, so I'm reserving judgment until I play the second season.
Don't get me wrong, I loved them all (though I still get a little irritated with Escape) but would prefer to see some consistency with story lines really.
I completly agree ^^
It would be terrible if they just ignored Curse onwards, although this may not have been what Ron had in mind, they were GREAT games (don't forget that) and the characters have grown with them.
Maybe there could be another way of Ron telling us the story of what he'd planned to of happened.... but I don't think a game would work at all....
He went through Big Whoop, had his spirit heavily empowered by voodoo, but ended up in a part of the crossroads, went "oh bugger, I've come a bit too far", then had to use the spell to get back out. The time spent in the crossroads was negligible in the real-world, and he emerges to the witnesses of Marley & co, now somewhat undead and with lots of nice voodoo powers. There you go, plot hole explained: Big Whoop and the Crossroads can be made to meet ends with some thinking.
You could say that mysterious unaccessible point on the crossroads map was Big Whoop if you really wanted to connect them
Personally I find it too convenient that he would have a ressurection spell at hand, considering he had no idea what Big Whoop even was before he found it (RotPG said he brought it with him from when he was alive).
I'm sure there are ways you can explain it, the problem is the game just outright ignored it and it gets a little frustrating when they skip over details from one of the founding games.
I may seem obsessed with the plot but thats just how I am.
Now, to be fair, the Big Whoop thing contradicted the original story of LeChuck, where he just randomly died one day. So, in theory, the contradiction that LeChuck broke out of the Crossroads was in line with the original story.
True, I don't deny this. In fact ToMI tries to follow this route as well, following more closely from the story lines of 1 and 2 which I respect. Problem is it's a follow on from COMI, proceeding events that took place in that game. In that regard it needs to be more coherant with the later plot developments.
He quit LucasArts to found Humongous Entertainment in 1992 - just a year after MI2 was published. I've never heard any credible report that he left on anything but his own terms.
It didn't really contradict. It just fleshed it out. The first game said that LeChuck's shop got destroyed in a storm, and the next time LeChuck was heard of by this one pirate, he was (un)dead. CMI just built more substance into it.
LeChuck had a shop?? What did he sell??
okay, now I really need to learn how to make a flash game and make The Shadow of Monkey Island.
It is stated in MI1 that LeChuck died when his ship sank; or at least that's what the pirates of Melee believe. CMI changed the "true facts" into him being the only one surviving the storm, after which he landed on Blood Island and sold the Goodsoup ring to buy another ship to take him to Monkey Island, where he found Big Whoop.
But "The treasures of Big Whoop be the very gates of hell themselves!" Which implies a certain amount of permanence. Who's to say LeChuck didn't have to use the magic-spell to find his way back to the Land of the Living?
Also it's extremely sad that I can quote MI1 and CMI verbatim from memory. :P
He sold allen wrenches, gerbil feeders, toilet seats, electric heaters, trash compactors, juice extractors, shower rods and water heaters.
So Stan took it over when he died and added walkie-talkies, copper wires safety goggles, radial tires, BB pellets, rubber mallets, fans and dehumidifiers, picture hangers, paper cutters, waffle irons, window shutters, paint removers, window louvres, masking tape and plastic gutters, kitchen faucets, folding tables, weather stripping, jumper cables, hooks and tackle, grout and spackle, power foggers, spoons and ladles, pesticides for fumigation, high-performance lubrication metal roofing, water proofing, multi-purpose insulation, air compressors, brass connectors, wrecking chisels, smoke detectors, tire guages, hamster cages, thermostats and bug deflectors, trailer hitch demagnetizers, automatic circumcisers, tennis rackets, angle brackets, Duracells and Energizers, soffit panels, circuit breakers, vacuum cleaners, coffee makers, calculators, generators and matching salt and pepper shakers to the sales?
Blast, I can't fight the urge to link this. Of course, I'm betting Gibbeynator and apenpaap knew that would happen.
... ... ...
Gah, I can't hold back posting Stan's New Store, either! My soul is weak!
People who went on the roller coaster in CMI were being revived as soon as they came out of the lava.
You'll also notice they are revived as skeletons and not as ghosts... So CMI actually manages to contradict itself
But LeChuck's crew were ghosts, because the root beer worked on them.
What is this evil that I have unleashed with a simple typo? That is painfully catching...
The fact is, he left it. And they were able to create an awesome game without him (I think curse of monkey island is an amazing game). And for people to discredit it entirely is a slap in the face for everyone who put time and effort into creating it. The creators too it on themselves and produced for us another monkey island game. Shouldn’t they be praised rather then dismissed?
What Ron intended the story to be like is irrelevant; he abandoned the project therefore his intentions no longer matter.
EDIT: not saying the games aren't good, but I'd like to see one without gaping plot-holes in it. And I mean no disrespect to the developers of the three sequels.
Curse and Tales were good/great games, but I don't consider them to be canon.
I don't need them to be canon either.
A lot of you here are taking this way to seriously, it's just a game you know.