Why is the Monkey Island series so popular?

edited August 2010 in Tales of Monkey Island
Don't get me wrong - I only played through the first two installements recently and I'm wondering why this franchise has lasted so long and what it brought to make people so excited when they first heard about Tales? I really can't see anything that could have been revolutionary or new at the time of their release...

Comments

  • edited July 2010
    Spoiler - It's not popular. I'd say 70% of the modern gaming populace have never heard of it and assume it is a puzzle game for 4 year olds.
  • edited July 2010
    I really can't see anything that could have been revolutionary or new at the time of their release...

    Well... that's the point. In our time, we take what MI has done as granted. I would say they were so revolutionary that now we can't even imagine what the adventure genre would be like without them :p
  • edited July 2010
    It's actually popular based more on the first game alone! The nostalgia with that and with many article writers on big gaming websites such as Kotaku, Joystiq, EuroGamer, etc all singing praise about this old series, also along with many olders gamers talking about how awesome the first two games were, that's what it's built upon. If anything, only a small lot of gamers actually know Monkey Island went beyond two games!
  • edited July 2010
    tabstis wrote: »
    I really can't see anything that could have been revolutionary or new at the time of their release...
    Graphically, Secret was pretty damn amazing. SCROLLING rooms?! You can walk BEHIND things?! Three-dimensional gameplay, my friends! How 3D is it? The game even uses PERSPECTIVE! Shit, did that character just get BIGGER because he came CLOSER relative to ME?! HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. So THIS is what they advertised as "eye-gouging 3D graphics"! And guess what? THAT ACTUALLY DIDN'T DISAPPOINT. And don't forget the special character animations for specific scenes! And while I don't know about you or Mister Gilbert, I thought those close-up scenes when you talked to someone were absolutely breathtaking.

    What's this? A game NOT in a classical fantasy setting?! No trolls, elves, dwarves, kings, etc?! That's something DIFFERENT!

    It's an adventure game in which you cannot die or reach a game over or get stuck, which was pretty new as an idea. Often you could stop doing one puzzle in order to solve other concurrently-running ones if you got stuck.

    Interface-wise? You have to remember, the back of the box proclaimed "No typing: Point and Click interface". The idea that you didn't have to type commands into a parser was pretty neat at the time!

    LeChuck's Revenge upped the ante in many regards. Two difficulty modes, the IMUSE music system that changed the music depending on character actions to create more organic musical tracks. The hand-drawn backdrops didn't hurt either, creating a more complex and visually beautiful world than you'd be able to find elsewhere.

    These things helped it make a great impression as a technically-impressive and well-polished game. The puzzles were also extremely well-designed and logical, the jokes were hilarious and only get more hilarious as you grow up(if you happened to play the games as a kid, anyway!), and the story is simple and classic. You look at things that are insanely popular and you see that they're all just extremely well-done versions of classic stories that have been told over and over again for thousands of years. Monkey Island is no different, it took the elements of your classic adventure and pirate stories and executed them extremely well in a comedy puzzle game format. And what came of it was simply pure gold.
  • edited July 2010
    Spoiler - It's not popular. I'd say 70% of the modern gaming populace have never heard of it and assume it is a puzzle game for 4 year olds.

    Yes quite, although it's like that you say that Justin Bieber is more popular than Iron Maiden - which he is now, based on hype, Youtube views etc.

    But, the point is really in loyal fan base. Quality of one music band, or video game if you like comes from the quality of fan feedback to it - name me just one game which has more fan renditions of characters in the form of fanart, music covers, number of fan sites etc. than Monkey Island - not even Super Mario can match that.
    tabstis wrote: »
    I really can't see anything that could have been revolutionary or new at the time of their release...

    Well, you can't. Since you are modern gamer and you already played Curse and Escape before 1 and 2 so it's a little harder that way. But i would say it's in an epic yet amusing and funny approach that first MI took and second did even better.

    Also, the production level for original games were very high. Adventure games were the rulers in terms of graphics so Monkey Island 1 and 2 featured most up-to date graphics at a time. But that wasn't really THAT important cause the game also had a great movie-like storry plus a tons of charm and humor, with a lot of well-rounded characters and dialogs.

    Add to that some incredible pieces of music and there you go.
  • edited July 2010
    In terms of adventure games, the Monkey Island series may well be the most popular. It's easy to put this down to the fact that it's awesome, but then it doesn't make sense why Day of the Tentacle hasn't been equally deified. My guess would be that Guybrush is an instantly likable character. No matter how brilliant the other LucasArts adventure games were, I personally find myself sympathising with guybrush a lot more than any other main character from an adventure game. Maybe a whole lot of other people feel that too *shrug*

    Edit: Almost all of the reasons people are giving for Monkey Island being innovative can be met with "Loom did it first", and Loom was more innovative. Monkey Island wasn't the best looking, funniest or most original game at the time.
  • edited July 2010
    I think there are quite a few things that have to "work together" to make a game popular. Quality, for sure, but also a bit of luck.

    Had I not played the first Monkey Island games by the time they came out, I strongly doubt I'd catch any interest in this saga today (that is: when Tales would have been my first game and I then would decide to play all the other titles that were released before. I imagine that to be strange).

    Monkey Island was revolutionary in some aspects at the time it was made (graphicwise, improved Scumm system etc.) and really got high grades there.

    What's more, Guybrush Threepwood was sort of a prototype of an 'anti-hero' in an adventure game. That was revolutionary. He's been so damn lovable as a character ever since and it's just fun to play him.
  • edited July 2010
    It's easy to put this down to the fact that it's awesome, but then it doesn't make sense why Day of the Tentacle hasn't been equally deified.

    Well, LucasArts did quite a few awesome adventure games, but the most awesome are generally considered to be Monkey Island, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango.

    Interesting note: Tim Schafer worked on each of those games. But, then again, IIRC, he also worked on Day of Tentacle... I guess it just wasn't as revolutionary as MI.

    Or it's just a matter of taste. Personally, I love MI, FT and GF, but have a "meh" filling towards Day of Tentacle.
  • edited July 2010
    Farlander wrote: »
    Well, LucasArts did quite a few awesome adventure games, but the most awesome are generally considered to be Monkey Island, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango.
    I don't know what lists you're reading, but I was certain that Day of the Tentacle fairly consistently tops adventure game "Best-Of" lists, as well as being a prominent contender in "best game of all time" list that actually knows that PCs exist.
  • edited July 2010
    Full Throttle is actually underrated amongst these titles, and the reason why Monkey Island is the most popular Lucas Arts game could be simply because it's the longest running series.

    Apart from the fact that it is awesome.
  • edited July 2010
    Mermaid wrote: »
    Guybrush has been so damn lovable as a character ever since and it's just fun to play him.

    Woop! That's 2 for the lovable guybrush theory of popularity :D
  • edited July 2010
    I don't know what lists you're reading, but I was certain that Day of the Tentacle fairly consistently tops adventure game "Best-Of" lists, as well as being a prominent contender in "best game of all time" list that actually knows that PCs exist.

    I don't read any lists or tops (they really can go to hell anyway, for various reasons), I make my opinion based on, well, talking with many other people and learning their respective opinions, and so far Day of the Tentacle, while still being a good game, doesn't hold up in popularity as MI, FT and GF do. In my eyes, at least.

    Besides, the "Best of" lists you refer to still don't show a game's popularity. Evil Islands, for example, is one of my most favorite games of all time (an RPG by Russian developers... oh yeah, and English translation of that game sucks), and is a damn great game with revolutionary ideas that 99% of the RPG developers still don't really use much, but even in Russia it could never be called really popular.
  • edited July 2010
    I doubt he was actually suggesting that day of the tentacle is as popular as the others, just sort of yanking you for using the word awesome to mean popular when it doesn't.
  • edited July 2010
    Mermaid wrote: »
    What's more, Guybrush Threepwood was sort of a prototype of an 'anti-hero' in an adventure game. That was revolutionary. He's been so damn lovable as a character ever since and it's just fun to play him.

    Or as Curse of Monkey Island calls it, a "lovably inept cartoon character".
  • edited July 2010
    I doubt he was actually suggesting that day of the tentacle is as popular as the others, just sort of yanking you for using the word awesome to mean popular when it doesn't.

    ...
    Oh, yeah. In that case, I should reread my posts more often, I didn't actually mean to use the word "awesome" the second time.
  • edited July 2010
    Mermaid wrote: »
    Had I not played the first Monkey Island games by the time they came out, I strongly doubt I'd catch any interest in this saga today (that is: when Tales would have been my first game and I then would decide to play all the other titles that were released before. I imagine that to be strange).

    The funny thing is, that's exactly what happened to me!
  • Macfly77Macfly77 Moderator
    edited July 2010
    I don't know what lists you're reading, but I was certain that Day of the Tentacle fairly consistently tops adventure game "Best-Of" lists, as well as being a prominent contender in "best game of all time" list that actually knows that PCs exist.

    Case in point (pretty sure I'm using that expression correctly!).
  • edited July 2010
    Monkey Island isn't so much popular as much as it has a devoted cult following which has given the series enough of a reason to stay alive for so long. On top of that I think the general public likes pirates and for the most part during the course of the series pirates aren't very commonly used in the media so the games generate interest that way. I also think the developers themselves have more fun making Monkey Island games than any other game and I'm sure the concepts they come up with are easy to sell to the people in charge of LucasArts and Telltale.

    Whatever the reason, I'm just glad that the series has lasted this long. Hooray!
  • edited July 2010
    The humour is, and always has been, my motivation to why I like MI so much
  • edited July 2010
    RogerXY wrote: »
    The humour is, and always has been, my motivation to why I like MI so much

    I agree!
  • edited July 2010
    I also think the developers themselves have more fun making Monkey Island games than any other game
    ToMI was good and all, but it's very obvious Sam&Max is still Taletale's pride and most beloved game to work upon.
  • edited July 2010
    ToMI was good and all, but it's very obvious Sam&Max is still Taletale's pride and most beloved game to work upon.
    The cool thing is that Telltale games, rather than being a homogeneous entity, is actually made up of a relatively large group of people who may have a pretty wide set of opinions on which game they're happiest to work on.

    ...now, I think Sam and Max is way more fun to play when it's done well and the franchise has a better atmosphere, but that's another matter entirely.
  • edited July 2010
    ...now, I think Sam and Max is way more fun to play when it's done well and the franchise has a better atmosphere, but that's another matter entirely.

    Funny, I never understood and will never understand why people would hype Sam & Max that much. Waaay too chaotic, wwaaaaaayyy to overloaded with puns. I love a reasonable amount of humour in a game, but I can't play S&M for more than 10 minutes before getting irritated by Max's neverending I-have-a-pun-for-everything and quit the game. Well, another question of taste I guess.
  • edited July 2010
    Well, I can't speak for everyone, but I personally love the series because of how the stories can be serious, but not too serious. In other words, the series knows how to handle serious situations, but also make the games very funny. At its core, the games are actually pretty spooky and deal with a lot of deep themes and involve a lot of death and destruction.

    Take Tales for instance, the story is about trust, betrayal, and working with others that you generally don't like, but must in order to save those you truly care about and love. There is nothing funny about that at all, but the humorous interactions, hilarious script, and funny situations make the games laugh out loud funny. I love it because the stories are great, dark, and involved, but are never overly dramatic because of the humor. Even after a lot of depth and dark situations, you leave the game feeling the way you do leaving a great comedian, refreshed and happy because you just laughed your ass off.

    This applies to nearly every game in the series in that if you were just told the story without mentions of the dialogue, you would say, "That's sounds pretty damn dark and depressing." It's not though because it’s funny, clever, and complicated. The only game where this isn't so true is Escape because the story gets a little too outrageous and it's impossible to describe the story without it sounding as such. I love Escape, but that is one of the reasons why a lot of people hate it, because the story went too far off the norm for the series. So in the end, the stories take themselves serious but not too serious.
  • edited August 2010
    ToMI is my favourite, and I have played through it about 3 times now and I am now on my 4'th play through. The story really grips you and makes you feel you are interacting in a really good movie. So the story is the main reason for me, but I also love the puzzles and the funny humour.

    Sam & Max I have only completed Season 1, and I am on Season 2 now, and I don't think I will complete it for a little while.
    Sam and Max is good, but it just don't grip me the same way ToMI does.
  • edited August 2010
    monkey island makes people feel warm and fuzzy inside
  • edited August 2010
    MI gets me in a better mood. The games are funny, music and graphics are great.
  • edited August 2010
    cos there my fav game series! thats why its so popular
  • edited August 2010
    It's not popular among the gaming community at large. That is also to say that adventure games in general are not massively popular anymore either among the gaming populous.

    Among adventure game enthusiasts, however, it is a is a cult classic series. Why? because it's funny, compelling, appropriately piratey, and is often littered with just the right amount of humorous anachronistic references. (One reason why Escape is the least popular game of the series is because they overdid the anachronisms, but the other games hold up fine.)
  • edited August 2010
    It might not be as popular as Pokemon or Super Mario but I like the series because it's funny and it has pirates! Personally, it's now one of my favorite series next to Banjo-Kazooie.
  • edited August 2010
    Monkey Island is by many considered the pinnacle of the adventure game genre. That's where the popularity comes from. Also, the majority of gamers today are actually old enough to have played these games when they came out, thus a very large amount of gamers have fond memories of playing it in their childhood or early teenage years.

    Seeing as point'n'click adventure games are still quite popular, despite the big developers saying otherwise, the Monkey Island's popularity among those still interested in the genre is a given.
  • edited August 2010
    Graphically, Secret was pretty damn amazing. SCROLLING rooms?! You can walk BEHIND things?! Three-dimensional gameplay, my friends! How 3D is it? The game even uses PERSPECTIVE! Shit, did that character just get BIGGER because he came CLOSER relative to ME?! HOLY MOTHER OF GOD. So THIS is what they advertised as "eye-gouging 3D graphics"! And guess what? THAT ACTUALLY DIDN'T DISAPPOINT. And don't forget the special character animations for specific scenes! And while I don't know about you or Mister Gilbert, I thought those close-up scenes when you talked to someone were absolutely breathtaking.

    What's this? A game NOT in a classical fantasy setting?! No trolls, elves, dwarves, kings, etc?! That's something DIFFERENT!

    It's an adventure game in which you cannot die or reach a game over or get stuck, which was pretty new as an idea. Often you could stop doing one puzzle in order to solve other concurrently-running ones if you got stuck.

    Interface-wise? You have to remember, the back of the box proclaimed "No typing: Point and Click interface". The idea that you didn't have to type commands into a parser was pretty neat at the time!

    LeChuck's Revenge upped the ante in many regards. Two difficulty modes, the IMUSE music system that changed the music depending on character actions to create more organic musical tracks. The hand-drawn backdrops didn't hurt either, creating a more complex and visually beautiful world than you'd be able to find elsewhere.

    These things helped it make a great impression as a technically-impressive and well-polished game. The puzzles were also extremely well-designed and logical, the jokes were hilarious and only get more hilarious as you grow up(if you happened to play the games as a kid, anyway!), and the story is simple and classic. You look at things that are insanely popular and you see that they're all just extremely well-done versions of classic stories that have been told over and over again for thousands of years. Monkey Island is no different, it took the elements of your classic adventure and pirate stories and executed them extremely well in a comedy puzzle game format. And what came of it was simply pure gold.

    Yeah. Definitely this.

    Also, I assume this is about MI1 and 2. But think about MI3. That sound, that backgrounds (unbeliveable think they were colored only in 256) that digital sound, that expression and way oof move of the characters. Monkey Island world was definitely alive and animated. And Curse was, to me, the bes animated adventure game to date. Broken Sword 2 was close, but not at that level.
  • edited August 2010
    Ghost82 wrote: »
    Yeah. Definitely this.

    Also, I assume this is about MI1 and 2. But think about MI3. That sound, that backgrounds (unbeliveable think they were colored only in 256) that digital sound, that expression and way oof move of the characters. Monkey Island world was definitely alive and animated. And Curse was, to me, the bes animated adventure game to date. Broken Sword 2 was close, but not at that level.
    I think the discussion is more about the titles that made a name for Monkey Island, it was a pretty important franchise by the time Curse came along, but you are right in that Curse had some pretty amazing production values when it was first released.
  • edited August 2010
    tabstis wrote: »
    Don't get me wrong - I only played through the first two installements recently and I'm wondering why this franchise has lasted so long and what it brought to make people so excited when they first heard about Tales? I really can't see anything that could have been revolutionary or new at the time of their release...

    You, sir, are a blasphemer.
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