Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster (Switch)

 

Down with the Empire!

Another Doom-clone I got in a sale and a Star Wars game at that. Never played before, but I did play the sequel, Dark Forces II. My friend had a demo of it and we played it a lot, but we couldn't finish it and mostly due to not understanding what we were doing. Then my neighbor got the full version so I borrowed it and played a bit with it. Got all these cheat codes as well which enable me to actually play other parts than the first level. Got stuck in a level since I didn't understand what I was doing there either. 

Well, this game then. Basically like Doom, run around and shoot enemies and find keys to complete certain objectives. A bit more story focused than Doom and the objectives aren't just kill everything (but that helps a lot), sometimes it's place this tracker or place this explosive and so on. Story is that the Rebel Alliance is hiring Kyle Katarn, a former Imperial Officer turned mercenary to first grab the plans for the first Death Star (which now is contradicted by Rouge One if I recall correctly). After that one of their secret bases is destroyed by some unknown force... The DARK FORCES!!! Kyle and communication operative Jan Ors is sent out to discover the secret of this new enemy. 

During the adventure you rescue the spy Imperial officer that briefs the heroes in Return of the Jedi (oh and you get the mission by the lady rebel leader also from that movie), gets captured by Jabba the Hut, fights of Boba Fett and blows up some imperial bases. It's a fun distraction, but I wouldn't got around the game without using the cheats I found on the Internet to get past certain problems, mostly unlimited Ammo, Pogo and Invincibility. Started using them in the prison rescue since I couldn't figure out the elevator puzzle and short on ammo and I needed ammo to go between areas... I think this game might be a bit badly designed to be honest. On the other hand, I can actually jump and what a difference that make!

Still, it feels like Star Wars with the music, sounds and all the designs. Would love a remaster of the second game since there you have FMV and Jedi Powers... throw in Rebel Assault II... and Shadow of the Empire as well, but keep the Cutscenes from the N64 version. Might be a bit harder than I would like and some of the puzzles are hard to figure out I feel. Or I'm just stupid, but we now that can't be it!

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Movie)

Crack that whip!

Well, I watched Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in cinema back in the day, would be a waste to miss this one so I went together with my parents and sister while I was on vacation during the summer of 2023. And I enjoyed it. Starts out at the end of second world war as Indiana Jones together with a friend is looking for the Spear of Longinus, also known as the spear of destiny, that is said to have pierced Jesus Christ as he was crucified and the nazi's wanted it to rule the world. First heard about the spear when reading Phantom comics as the Phantom in the 17th-century found the hidden ruins of Lemuria and together with his brother-in-law picks it up, but the spear curses the brother-in-law to become a monster as he want's it's powers to rule the world. Then it appeared in Castlevania and other stuff as a normal occult item, Gabriel Knight 3 also mentioned it for example.

Some occult things at least goes on since they deep-faked Harrison Fords face to look like he did back in the 80's and its uncanny. Still sounds like an old man, but the looks. My sister said at times she got out of it as it wasn't seamless all the time, but I kinda enjoyed it. The spear is taken on a train and Indy's friend gets taken by the nazi's. Indy saves them, finds that the spear is just a fake, but they find one part of the dial of destiny, an item said created by Archimedes that could predict the future. It belonged to a nazi officer and played by Mads Mikkelsen. They stop the train and rescues all the artefacts and treasures in it as the allies comes in. Now we skip to 1969 and Indy is retiring from his professor job when his friends daughter shows up in search for the dial part Indy have hidden away after his friend went mad over studying it. But with it follows CIA goons that are working for Mads Mikkelsen that helped the Americans put man on the moon. 

Turns out Mads Mikkelsen is still a nazi (who would have thought that, he looked so nice?) and is looking for the dial in order to use it to travel through time back to before the war and replace Hitler and make the nazi's rule the world. Indy together with Helena (his friends daughter and his god-daughter) travels across the Mediterranean together with her child friend Teddy in search of map to the second piece that sank on a roman galley which they need the help of a Spanish diver (played by Antonio Banderas). They get it, but at the same time the nazi's catch up with them and kills the crew off their ship. They get away with the map and deduce that the second piece lies in the grave of Archimedes back in Syracuse. Teddy gets kidnapped and escapes on his own while Helena and Indy gets to the treasure with the nazi's right behind. Indy is shot while the other heroes escape. Mads drag Indy to the airfield where they fly away on an airplane while using the dial to pinpoint a wormhole through time. Helena gets on the plane while Teddy gets another plane and follows. 

Now, the portal doesn't take them to Germany circa 1939, instead they end up in Syracuse during the roman siege of the island. Apparently the dial was sent out by Archimedes to get help. The nazi plane is shot down by the romans and Helena and Indy parachutes down. The planes scares the romans away and is hinted about as a tale of dragons seen in a puppet show earlier in the film. Nice touch. They meet Archimedes and Indy is determined to stay since his relationship with Marion is failing after Mutt died while enlisting in the army. Helena knocks him out and drags him back to New York in "modern times". She also ensures that Marion comes by and Sallah (which helped Indy earlier in the film) ending the movie on a happy note and the series as well.

As said, I really liked this movie. The beginning felt like the old movies (shoddy CGI non-withstanding) and it felt like references to other Indiana Jones media. Saw one person on Twitter that shared a picture from Fate of Atlantis that also had a boat sequence looking for Plato's texts. Now, I recall another diving segment from an Indiana Jones comic when Indy looked for treasure and is attacked by an octopus that kills pretty much the whole crew (that deserved it since they where on mutiny to kill Indy and the captain and a mutual friend). Something like the Sea-Devil or whatever. The Spear of Longinus was also a sequel story to the Last Crusade where nazi's are looking for the spear in Ireland where Henry Jones Sr. gets involved. Seeing Sallah and Marion is nice (although we saw Marion last time as well). The only thing missing is a fisticuff battle with the main muscle of the nazi's, but I assume Harrison Ford can't really do those stunts anymore. It's also somewhat more gruesome with deaths (and that's coming for a series where the heads melts of, hearts are ripped out and so on). The death of Indy's coworker was abrupt, same for the diver crew and I would say the drowning of the muscle is somewhat worse than being dragged into an ant-nest. Probably the last Indy movie we will see, waiting for the blu-ray release so I can have the whole collection.

Return to Monkey Island (Switch)

 

A pirate I was meant to be!

Trim the sails and roam the seas!

After finishing of these huge games, losing our family cat that was with us for over 15 years and spent the last two weeks (as of writing) working with the stressful environment at work with several sick in Covid, people quiting left and right and so on (and getting a positive Covid result on my own, thanks for that) I needed something more fun to lighten the mood. What better than a return trip to the Caribbean with the mighty pirate Guybrush Threepwood? Made by most of the creators behind Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2? Sign me up!

It starts right where they left of, back in Monkey Island 2 where little Guybrush and Chuckie steps out of behind the scenes of the pirate theme park as they look for their parents... turns out it's just Guybrush Jr and Chuckie reenacting the end for Monkey Island 2 as Guybrush is the father and is about to the tell the story of how he really found the secret of Monkey Island. Apparently LeChuck has gathered a crew at Melee Island and is about to set sail for the treasure and Guybrush arrives to stop him. Several things have happened since the last time... I guess since Ossie Mandrill was about to turn the whole Caribbean into a theme park and drove off the pirates at the first place, since the pirate leaders of Secret have been deposed by Captain Madison and her co-captains and they ain't that impressed with the old pirate life. So Guybrush is on his own.

He has to infiltrate LeChuck's ship so that he can beat him to Monkey Island and while there complete a magic ritual to decrypt the map to the secret... that turns us back to Melee Island and the International House of Mojo where it have been hidden away in this safe which needs 5 keys you need to search the Caribbean for. Leaving a trail of destruction in your wake to new and old friends that Elaine have to clear up after you. And it's nice with her just being nice, no animosity that usually goes into romancing in game series to keep that element being a part of the story. You meet Herman Toothrot in a cave and fight him for one key, you ensure that Stan goes from a month in prison to ten years so that you can break him out and use it to scam pirates to accept limes against scurvy to get a flag that is a piece of a map to a sunken ship where one of the keys are found. A bit of a roundabout way to get the key, but it's an adventure game.

LeChuck grabs the secret before Guybrush so it's of to Monkey Island and the catacombs below the Giant Monkey Head and a series of interesting puzzles which leads to a door with two rotating wheels of pirates... is that a reference to the original games code wheel as copy protection? At least the game is solvable inside the game, haven't forgotten Thimbleweed Park. LeChuck is already inside fighting one of Madisons co-captains so you hurry and... you turn up in the alleyway in Melee Island and it looks that everything is back to being a theme park. You find the chest with the secret, grabs a key in the display and unlocks it, getting a t-shirt for you trouble. Didn't know what else to expect really. Back in the present Guybrush jr. says the same as I was thinking, Guybrush is bad with endings. And yet it was satisfactory enough. Looking it up it was actually one of several endings, but most are just a small after-credit scene change.

It was a fun time, made me laugh out loud several times so it was my brand of humour. They had a hint system built in that I used before getting frustrated on some of the puzzles, but I got through most without using it. A replay bonus is getting every trivia card and answering right on all of them. Many is about the games story, but some are 4th-wall breaking about the creation of the games. Many returning voices so that was fun, missing Ottis, Stan (which I believe have changed voice most of all) and LeChuck, since Earl Boen is retired (update: and now even dead, real sadness). Which is sad since Earl Boen could really sound sinister, and I miss that bit of punch with the new voice actor. He have been in Monkey Island before as the shopkeeper from the first game and maybe it's that that is the problem. And there was one side-character I actually thought sounded more like LeChuck so that could have affected me as well. Apparently people had a problem with the art-style before release, but I love it. It looks like the high detailed pictures they used in the first two games and applied on the whole game. I got what everything represented and it looked like I remember it, although, that is 7 years ago since last time. A bit miffed by the ending, but can overlook it. Took one day to play through, maybe another if you gonna complete it.

Star Fox Adventure (GCN)

I actually liked it

Since I was playing the N64 again I thought give the Rare games a spin since I don't own a console that can play those game at home (the one and only reason I ever is interested in a XBox One in order to get the Rare Replay... and maybe the Mistwalker games). Sadly my sister have taken the Banjo-Kazooie games that I first intended to play so I picked up Diddy Kong Racing instead. Never finished it and didn't do it this time either, but I got further and only have one single stage left before defeating the dragon boss for the second time. So I picked up Jet Force Gemini, still stuck at the double boss at Lupus stage. Picked up Perfect Dark and got to the end boss on easy, but got killed. Tried getting invincible cheat to finally see the end credits, no. Couldn't finish the first stage on hard and actually got out of the Datadyne Tower intro stages on medium difficulty, but not further than that. Put in GoldenEye instead, sound not working so I should probably try to clean the cartridge and couldn't finish the first stage. Then I put in Shadow of the Empire instead, finished the speed-racer and space station stages before the sewer did me in. Put on some Castlevania 64 and actually got to the castle for the first time, where I got my ass kicked and closed the game. Then I remembered another Rare game, Star Fox Adventure on the GameCube.  No memory card though since all of them was at my place so I played the first half of the game in one go and then restarted when I got home on my Wii with memory card plugged in.

I think the graphics looks nice 16 years after the release (compared to many N64 games).

Simply put the game starts with the fox girl Krystal arriving at Dinosaur planet following a distress signal on a pterodactyl (called Cloudrunners in the game) where she is attacked by a flying ship that belongs to general Scales, the tyrant that almost have conquered the planet. Her staff fall to the planet and she is able to esquape to Krazoa palace, a holy place for the dinosaurs where she finds a krazoa spirit and releases it in the temple, but she gets caught in a crystal (ha) by an unseen force. Cut to the Star Fox team that have lost Falco and gets a mission by General Pepper to investigate Dinosaur Planet since it threatens to blow up the whole system (since the planet is being teared apart by the magical forces in the planet when Scales took the four Spellstones that kept the energies in check). As Fox arrives at the planet he is tasked with finding the prince of the Earthwalkers (triceratops) that have been kidnapped by the SharpClaw clan (General Scales army).  Doing so put Prince Tricky as your companion that can help in certain puzzles. 

Escort Mission: The Game

So get the Gatekeepers to open the portals to the floating continents in space, fly there, get spellstone, take it to one of two force point temples, get a Krazoa spirit and take it to the Krazoa palace in order to release it, rinse and repeat. And I gotta say, I liked the game when it came out, I finished it several times, but playing it again... it's rather linear. There's hardly any sidequests and only thing is getting stuff you don't actually need. Mostly cheat tokens that hardly does anything or Bafamdads (1-ups) that you hardly will use after the first spellstone gives you an extra heart container, or Airwing energy-balls that you need a minimum amount of that you shouldn't have any problem with getting. Your progress is constantly determined if you can get item A or do quest B that enables you to get onward, either giving you a ability or giving you the ability for more money to get another item or pay your way past a checkpoint. Why? Why can't I explore and try to find the krazoas in between on my own? Is this Rare's commentary on the rail-shooter by doing the whole adventure on the same style? Well, the reason is that the development got cut short since Microsoft bought out Rare and they finished this as their final game for Nintendo. And it was even in development for the N64, but titles Dinosaur Planet and without anything Star Fox. Now, I know that some people would have liked to see the original intent (and I would lie if I wasn't curious at the time the gaming magazines reported on it) and some people seems to really hate this Star Fox game. I get it if you want a on rails-shooter, but to me this was much more fun than the rails-shooter. It had enough deep story (although now I would say there's some weird things story wise). Then again, I only played the original Star Fox game and not the N64 that everyone seems to love.

I really like the design of the Airwing in this

You get all the stuff and at the top of Krazoa Palace a mysterious force makes General Scales give Fox the last spirit and releasing that and freeing Krystal, Andross awakens once again (being the mysterious force that trapped Krystal and controlled Scales) so Fox follows him on the Airwing and after fighting of the first waves of Andross Falco appears giving you bombs so Fox can blow the brains of Andross once again. Day saved, pay check arrived and Krystal thanks Fox by joining the Star Fox crew. It felt a bit rushed in the end, especially that you never fought General Scales and Andross was a bit from the left field, although it can be chalked up to be the constant enemy for Fox... although he wasn't there for the next two games if I recall. Overall I still liked it, but it is a bit much gathering items that you hardly use (why do I need 31 fairies to light my way when it's only required twice or to have over 100 energy-balls when only around 20 is necessary to complete the game?) and the linearity of the game makes replays rather redundant. You can't really miss anything except things that doesn't help you in any way. Wish they were able to let it stew a bit longer, but sadly it wasn't to be, but it was at least over 10 hours to play the game, but I have forgotten much since I was perplexed several times over the solutions of the puzzles.

Thimbleweed Park

X-Files Theme

As a person who played a lot of LucasArts game I had to get Thimbleweed Park made by Ron Gilbert, the guy behind Monkey Island and such. The game pretty much looks like the old games that used the SCUMM-engine with both graphics and inventory and command fields. It begins with a german financier following a set of instructions that ends with him being killed by an unknown assailant. The game then shifts to two of the games playable characters, Agent Rey and Agent Reyes from the FBI.

Agent Scully and Agent Mulder

They begin to investigate the murder in Thimbleweed Park and find out the history of the town that have fallen on hard times with the Pillow Factory being closed downed and the town founder dying from a heart attack a few days ago. They also met other characters like Delores Edmund, the niece to Chuck Edmund, the founder of the factory. Ransome the *beeping* Insult Clown that was cursed by a gypsy on his last show to forever where his clown make-up and lastly the ghost of Franklin Edmunds, Delores father that have been trapped in the towns hotel.

The whole cast

So first part is finding the murderer, you do that but also uncovers other stories, like Delores trying to get her uncles will read, Ransome finding the doll prototype he created with Franklin and Franklin just trying to get to the afterlife. Also as the game goes on you also suspect that Rey and Reyes have other motives as well. And some things I saw a mile ahead, but at the end of the game it pretty much broke my suspension of disbelief. And it's pretty much a problem with all the fourth wall breaking as it is dragged into the plot of the game itself. And at that moment I began thinking, why should I care about these people? They are just pixels (as stated in the game pretty much). Before that I actually cared about them. I wondered how Franklin died and felt pity for him not being able to stand up to his brother and carve his own path. Same for Delores who just wanted to be a game designer, Ransome learning humility to be a better person instead of the bitterness and cynicism that put him in his situation. And then everything is just joked away in a "it's just a game and nothing matter". 

It was fun as long as it lasted, but some things spoiled the taste afterwards. Mostly because the game just ended. 

Full Throttle

Get your motor running

Heading out the Highway!

We're back with another Lucasarts adventure games, this time the bikers dream, Full Throttle. Released in 1995 I had a demo of this game portraying the beginning segment of you waking up outside a bar and you had to get your wheels on the road to help your gang, the Polecats. Playing the full game its revealed the main character, Ben, has been asked to escort Malcolm Corley, the head of Corley Motors to a shareholder meeting.  Ben was hesitant, but they needed the cash so the others persuaded him and they are of. Corley and Ben hit it of since they like to talk about their big interest, bikes. Corley Motor is the last company that still produces them, but Adrian Ripburger, the Vice-President are very keen on a new projects... minivans. So you can already guess Malcolm is pretty much dead. Ripburger is the one that knocked you out and left you in a dumpster. You get your key for the bike back and on the highway to catch up with the Polecats before its to late.

During the travels you fight of some other bikers to acquire better weapon until you reach the gorge. So you search for the Cavefish, a mole like gang where you steal a ramp to perform a stunt across the gorge. You catch up, but its to late, Ripburger has smashed Corley's head in with a tire-iron and blames the Polecats. Ben escapes, but somehow get blown up so he is taken Mo, a mechanic. He later learns that the one rescuing him was a photographer, a photographer that captured the act of the murder on film. So it begins a race to catch the photos before Ripburger and stop him from killing of Corley's only heir so he can take over the company. If you don't get it, Mo is the hidden daughter of Corley.

You infiltrate Corley headquarters during the shareholder meeting and use the old ploy of taking away the villains presentation and instead showcasing the murder and playing the recorded will of Malcolm Corley giving everything to Maureen "Mo" Corley. Ripburger escape and while locating the Polecats Mo and Ben are ambushed by Ripburger in the truck he stole from the meeting. An intense, hanging from the truck grill scene later, they have been swallowed up by a wingless plane that belonged to Mo's own biker gang, the Vultures. Ben climbs to the controls and... well I started guessing since I don't get what I'm supposed to do. After seeing my death scene a couple of times I give up and look up the answer. Raise the gears. OBVIOUSLY!!! How am I supposed to get that? Anyway, the plane stops right on the edge of the gore and the truck is hewn forward and dangles down with Ripburger hanging from his coat on the machine gun he used to attack Ben and Mo. So Ben makes the logical solution to fiddle with the controls and disengage them, making Ripburger plummet to his death. Ben enters the plane while the other bikers escape and for him to survive as well you have to move to the left, unveiling another screen with your bike on so you can ride it out with an explosion behind you.

The game pretty much ends at Malcolm Corley's funeral. When its over Mo and Ben parts way since the road is calling him and Mo has to take care of the company. Credits roll to the heavy metal soundtrack and your booted out of the game. I made the gaming sin of ending halfway through, but still. The game feels like Brütal Legend, but honestly with a tighter story. Same guy did the games so no wonder maybe. But there is some puzzles that annoys the hell out of me. First, how am I supposed to get that I have to gather up enough bunnies from the first box and then get another one to clear the mine field? It's contra intuitive, better let him get two boxes at once then. Then we have to find the secret place to kick to open the secret door into Corley's office. You know what isn't fun? Waiting for the timer to reset time and time again while I walk around kicking a wall. At least the key puzzle was simple for the safe. And the final stretch of the game, while cool when you succeed is bogged down by guessing since how are you as first timer gonna get what the input is to stop a runaway plane? Cast is good and so is the music. Heck, the villain is played by Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker himself. And he is gruesome. Overall a good game with great story and most of the puzzles are fine. Not that many Lucasarts games left to experience. Let's see what the next game will be.

Loom

Having played the Secret of Monkey Island many people encounters the pirate Cobb at the SCUMM bar talking about this high fantasy game called Loom and in the third game they reference someone named Bobbin Threadbare (Bobbin was also referenced in the original game at the circus). So with that much advertising I just had to play it, and boy was it fantastic. For clarification I went with the CD-version without going that some saw as a bit flawed due to changes in dialog and almost no music. I can see way and I might replay another version just to get a full experience. Still it was a rather fantastic journey while it lasted.

It's THE Loom on the island of Loom in the game Loom

The story is that your character Bobbin Threadbare is a Loom-child, a child spun from the Loom by his mother Cygna Threadbare without consent of the elders, for this she was turned into a swan and banished beyond the thread. Around his 17 or 18 birthday he is summoned by the elders and there he overhear his caretaker arguing with the elders and she is put under the same spell as Cygna, but it backfires and turns the elders into swans at the same time. They all fly away leaving Bobbin alone and with one of the elders distaff with which he can perform drafts that works like spells. Trying to find his people he set of to the mainland uncovering a plot by the clerics to use the different skills of the guilds to conquer the universe. Really, this is novel worthy and apparently it was plans for two sequels making a trilogy and it shows since in the endgame the clerics try raising an army of the dead, but instead brings back Chaos and it's up to you to stop her. The climatic ending is near the Loom as Chaos wants control of it to spin the world as she see fit, but you decide to destroy with a draft that she gave you by killing your caretaker. MY GOD!!! WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Well, you enter the rift in the thread, turn yourself into a swan and fly away and Chaos shouts that we shall meet again. And of course there was no sequels. The man behind the idea left for other projects and no other people at Lucasarts felt they could do it so it disappeared. Damn it.

 It's the ending of Dark Dawn all over again! Boy, it was a long time since I referred to Golden Sun (when I wrote this 3 months or so ago, before I went on the Golden Sun memory lane).

It is a beautiful looking game, especially since the CD version boosted the graphics quite a bit, but as mentioned the music mostly disappeared and seems to only play during talking sequences. Sad since most I've heard is rather good renditions of the music from Swan Lake. Also, it appears to be censored, but the scenes that are left can be quite gruesome with two persons unmade by Chaos (the first ones head and chest flew at the screen as well) and another one eaten by a dragon. Apparently if you want perfection and could do without the voices the FM Towns version is the way to go. I must try that one out definitely. The voices are taken from a radio drama that came with the original and explains the origins of Bobbin and history of the world. They do a good job although at some points Bobbins voice actor feels a bit to much of a drama actor than a fluent voice actor.

Gameplay wise it's an adventure game where you walk around and solve puzzles to further the plot. Now, the puzzles are all solved by using magic. Magic works by reciting drafts you have stumbled upon while interacting with items all around you, hearing music notes that you then use the distaff with. Each spell consists of four notes and if you do it in reverse you can in some instances cast a reversing spell or similar. For example reversing Open makes thing close and so on. A tip is to write down every spell you see and it's only 16, but if you forget them it can put you in a dead end, but with the internet today you can trail and error you forward with the right spell (the spells are randomised at the beginning so don't bother saving the combinations after you finished). Spells are also effected by the difficulty you choose at the beginning. First time I choose practise and you get the different notes and they light up and in the bottom is a box showing the whole spell. Good way to start to get how the game works. In standard mode they just light up and I've heard that in expert mode you need to identify the notes by hearing. Might try that with the FM Towns version, but I guess not many are able to play that.

Not everyone can be a Leopold

Overall it's a short game and rather easy I found. The only times I had some trouble was at the very beginning before I understood how I played the game (it introduced me to The Adventure Gamer so no harm done) and the second time was near the end when I had mapped most of the spells and realised I don't know their true names, meaning I don't know how to use them. I checked it out on the web and since that is manual knowledge I don't see it as cheating, although it made me solve the current puzzle. It's well worth a play, but as mentioned it ends on a cliffhanger which to this day is unresolved. One could hope that Disney pick this one up and turns into their own animated fantasy trilogy now that they own all of Lucasarts. I would go see it, but then again, the only movie they've made that is equally dark is probably Taran and the Black Cauldron and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Escape From Monkey Island

So I had to continue the series, but how to do it without using ScummVM? Well, thankfully a sister project was the ResidualVM project that are focused on the 3d point and click adventure games, like Myst 3, Grim Fandango and of course Escape from Monkey Island (hopefully they supports Gabriel Knight 3 so I somewhere in the future can play that series as well).  At the moment it isn't 100 %, but it is playable and I could finish it, although some small bugs here and there, but I have a faint memory that they are in the code itself. Also irritating is a bug in the Lua bar on your second visit to Melee Island. If you run across the steps inside while someone else is crossing you risk getting stuck and have to restore. When it happened this time a faint memory emerged when I played this game as a kid and I stupidly had to replay the game up to that point since I saved over my game while stuck in hope of a restore would fix the problem. It doesn't. So save before entering and pray that you don't get stuck. Lucky me I just had to play 10 minutes again to get back to the bar.

So what to say about this follow up to in my eyes one of the best adventure games ever? It looks ugly as hell. 3D graphics in 2000 wasn't the best although I must give credit for at least making some of the characters look like there earlier form while other suffered from it.

Stan, what did they do to you?

Musically I can't complain, the tunes are there and harkens back to the original which is a nice touch. The dialog on the other hand... feels less fun. At times there are a funny line here and there, but not like the other games. Somehow they kiddied it down since the word Hell has been replaced with Heck and it gets a bit grating since it's obviously a censor thing. Earlier games had no problems with the word hell, so way this? And the voice acting isn't as top notch as before, together with a graphical let down that takes away the charm of the reaction in Curse of Monkey Island. Speaking of voice actors, they mostly make a decent job, but they changed Elaine Marley voice actor (although she came back for the special editions and Tales of Monkey Island) and while she sounds a bit like her it throws me of at certain times and then Stan, also another voice actor. This one sounds like how he looks, speaking through his teeth I would guess.

Stan, what do you sound like?

Gameplay wise is also a let down since it's no longer a point and click game, instead being played with keyboard or joystick, which make me guess it was intended for a console release primarily. This possess a problem since you don't know what you can interact with since Guybrush has to see it and at certain angles the command doesn't come up or you must stand exactly right for it to trigger. Reading through The Adventure Gamer I can't but help thinking that this was the reason the Scumm engine was created. 

Storywise, Guybrush and Elaine returns to Melee Island after a 3 month long honeymoon finding out that the Carrabien is being bought out by a Australisn tycoon, a politician named Charles L. Charles is grabbing Elaine's governor title and her mansion is being wrecked. This will lead Guybrush across the Carrabien to search for a legal contract to stop the demolition and then the discovery of an Ultimate Insult and the true secret of Monkey Island all the while LeChuck rears his ugly head again. The secret by the way is that the giant monkey head is in actuality the head of a gigantic monkey robot! How that worked since it is clearly shown in the original being the skeleton of a real giant monkey is beyond me.

Where's the steampunk stuff to make it work?

Is it hard? No not really, but to many puzzles for my taste are based on timing in where you set something in action and has to pull of the right move before the time passes. Sadly one of them is in the Lua bar which makes the glitch kick in. And as a kid I was stumped at this point since you need to stop a moving tray with a flaming ship under a painting and when the chef leaves the kitchen you sneak in, and empties a can of grog in a container causing the ship, for some reason beyond me, to be warm enough to melt a wax painting revealing a map. And they say Gabriel Knight 3 killed the genre. Replaying it I noticed another such puzzle I had forgotten, but I found this one rather fun. You have three trenches in a cliff and a pile of rocks. Three exit at the bottom. Two exit is just putting the rock in respective trench, the third is the puzzle. So you have to time the rocks so that they push one of them into the last exit. Now, the earlier timed puzzle had no fixed clue when to stop it, you had to try and memories the best position to stand and when to execute the action. This one on the other hand had branches where the rocks passed by alerting you to perform an action. A visual clue which made it rewarding to observe and try out until you solved. It might also be enjoyable since the bug wasn't present here.

Overall I'm rather mixed about this game. Still the lingering memories about the let down it was to play this after years of anticipating, how ugly it was, the irritating controls and the less than stellar writing. And yet there is moments when I can't but smile at certain jokes or allusions to the older games. To see a 3d version of Melee and Monkey Island trying for a complete copy of the settings from the first game (almost, several important places are gone or shuffled around, but they at least tried).  To see Carla, Otis and Meathook again, the return of Herman Toothrot and Murry, the evil demonic skull. It's all rather nostalgic still.

I maybe didn't need to see Stan sgsin

The Curse of Monkey Island

The Curse of Monkey Island, the third game in the series and the first with voice acting. Really good voice acting as well. I played this game so much that many lines I still remember and especially how they were annunciated. Who can forget lines like "Damn you saucy female, what do you mean?", "You have been struck with the hair demon", "Beware the horrors of... SKULL ISLAND! It's a Duck!" and everyones favorite skeleton "I am MURRAY, evil demonic skull, turn back, turn back, darkness will envelop you! Bwahahahaha!!!". Many fond memories. They also reintroduced insult sword fighting, but this time on the high seas which meant you had to rhyme. Rather fun gathering insults. Also, the graphics in this game I believe is hand drawn animation and it looks fantastic. Compare to say King's Quest VII or Leisure Suit Larry 7 which also was in "cartoon form", but it wasn't as fluent as in this game. At least in my opinion.

Story then, probably due to the original creators leaving Lucasarts before the start of the game, we jump forward in time and Guybrush Threepwodd has escaped the carnival of the damned and is a drift the caribbean seas. He stumbles upon LeChuck laying siege to Elaines fort at Puerto Pullo and is captured and thrown in the hold. He manages to escape and by doing so causes LeChuck's FLAMING VOODOO CANNON BALL to backfire destroying LeChuck. At the beach at dawn he proposes to Elaine with a giant diamond ring Guybrush found in LeChuck's treasure hold. Of course it contains a "gastly, disfiguring voodoo curse on it" so it turns Elaine into a solid golden statue. So you have to free her from the curse. 

I love this game, maybe for nostalgia, but replaying the games in order I notice so many throwbacks to the first two games and it makes me crack a smile. The only boring part I feel is when you return to the Carnival of the damned. It's set up as the final confrontation, but before that you have to undo a similar curse from the end of the second game and then you have to figure out a way to destroy LeChuck once again. It just dragged on for me and stupid me got stuck until I checked a walkthrough to understand that I was supposed to make another hangover remedy. Again, since that is the closest we had for a voodoo spell I guess it makes sense, but still.

I feel you buddy!

Since I bought the trilogy pack I didn't start with this game so I could get the whole story, but when I got stuck in the others I usually changed game and I came the furthest with this before a walkthrough I believe. If that is due to being easier or greater design I can't say, but my guess would be easier. Then again, while I think about it, I think I got stuck in finding the Voodoo lady, since I needed to pull the alligator tongue and I seem to recall a memory when looking that up.... how embarrassing, that is like the third puzzle of the game. I seem quite lousy with these kind of games.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: Special Edition

LeChuck's Revenge, the sequel that delivered on the wackiness and difficulty. More timed events and more wordplay that means that a non-english speaking native keeps you busy for days... or years if it wasn't for the internet. I'm especially referring to the Monkey wrench puzzle. The monkey wrench puzzle is that to open a secret tunnel behind a waterfall you need to get a banana to hypnotise a monkey and take him to the pump and use him as a wrench, aka a monkey wrench. Well good for you that gets that witty word pun, but for a non-english native that is almost complete gibberish. There's a reason why the safest strategy is to use everything on everything.

The Swedish version of this trolling is to utter the phrase "Får får får? Nej, får får inte får, får får lamm" (The joke being is that is says "Does sheep get sheep? No, sheep doesn't get sheep, sheep gets lamb"

Of course the biggest puzzle that stopped me from progressing the longest time was after escaping Phat Island jail. I couldn't leave since they had taken my map I needed to show the boat captain and it was gone. I restarted several times as a kid until I figured out how to get my stuff back. I just opened the envelopes that was in the prison with my name on it. How was I supposed to know that? Or I might just be that stupid. The special edition then, nice looks, great music and the voice cast superb. Problem is that they changed the control scheme again meaning I have yet to learn it again and the timing on certain puzzle makes me prefer the old graphics since I at least can pull that off. Especially at the end of the game as LeChuck hunts you in the tunnels.

Story, after besting LeChuck and losing Elaine Guybrush is searching for the treasure of Big Woop. This hunt takes him to Scabb Island were he encounters LeChuck's right hand man Largo Lagrande which sets up the return of LeChuck and a race to find Big Woop to escape his terrible revenge. He meets old friends like the Voodoo Lady, pirates of low moral fiber and Elaine while encountering new ones like Wally. Poor Wally. You steal his glasses, spits at him, get him captured and so forth. Poor guy indeed. Also, the ending is a real twist that puts the whole series upside down. A pity the original creators left after this, but the game following this was in my opinion the greatest of the original three games.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

The Secret of Monkey Island. I remembered when I got this game back in the late 90's or early 2000's at a sale for the Monkey Island Bounty pack containing at the time the whole trilogy. And how I played it. This time I played the Special edition version I got for my playstation 3 since it got the voice acting and really nice graphics if I must say so. It looks almost enchanting and the voice acting is superb with most of the cast returning from the third game which introduced voices to the series. Same Guybrush, same LeChuck and Voodoo Lady and even the return of the original Elaine Marley. And if you dislike the graphics you can with a push of a button return it to its original looks. Only unnerving thing is that it is really made for a computer since the controls aren't as optimal as a mouse. Especially when its demanded fast finger action that really could have used quick commands. At least I was able to still play the games, compared to getting it for my computer which hardly work anymore.

The story then is that you are Guybrush Threepwood who wants to be a pirate so he set out on the three trials, sword fighting, thieving and treasure hunting. His quest will take him all over the Caribbean facing of against the Ghost Pirate LeChuck and his undead crew while finding the love of his life, Governor Elaine Marley. I used to play the original all the time as a kid. Especially the Melee Island part since that was the Insult Sword fight. Playing through I also realise that I for the most part skipped the Voodoo Lady since I never realised you could go another frame in her house. This of course made it a bit hard to follow her character in the other games when she referred back to this game. All in all I remember that it was fairly easy to get to the sea and set sail for Monkey Island, but I got caught on the ship since I didn't get how to leave it. So I looked up a walkthrough for that. Today I can see the ingenious game design in letting the cannon be a necessity to get money at the circus and then reuse it to get to Monkey Island. This series were fairly good at introducing a concept early and then reuse it for a puzzle later. Sad thing is that if you like me took your sweet time you mostly had forgotten how this things worked. Rather different today when I was able to play through the whole game from memory.  

The Dig

This game I remembered watching comercials and discussion about when it came out, but it didn't interest me so now I just had to try it. It has Robert Patrick in the main role, playing a character that does it so much better than his cameo in the Stargate: Atlantis intro even though they feel rather the same, although Commander Boston Low doesn't come out as a bastard... at least in the beginning. The story is rather interesting and it was pitched by Steven Spielburg, the dialog was co-written by Orson Scott Card and noticable for a Lucasart game, feels rather different. Instead of the wacky humor that is in games like Monkey Island it's actually rather serious. The game begins with the asteroid Attila on a collision course to earth so NASA sends a five man team to blow it up. Sounds rather familiar. So Commander Boston Low, archeologist Luddgar Brinks and journalist Maggie Robbins are the once doing the job of planting the nuclear charges on the asteroid, but when they blow it open they discover that it's hollow and contains alien remnants. New orders happens and you explore the rock, but set off the asteroid that takes you and your crew back to its points of origin, a distant planet filled with ruins and relics of an ancient civilisation. Your mission is to get back home.

Fantastic setting and atmosphere as you explore this alien and rather dangerous world. Reminds me very much of Riven: The sequel to Myst, especially in the underwater tram sequences, As Riven some parts is hard as hell. Really, first puzzle that stopped me and made me look up a walkthrough is the damn fixing lens puzzle below the Nexus. The thing is that there is two consoles. One is just a rectangular button, the other has a lot more.buttons, five of them creates different colours on a board next to you, one takes away one dot and the last clears the whole board. Really, the puzzle is that the colours signifies an action to a little helper robot. Would be fine if the start button wasn't on the other console. Yes, I might be stupid, but I didn't know that and there is no hint that it works like that. I thought it was a colour combination that you had to find later. Another puzzle is the reconstruction of a turtle bone structure. You have at least a fossil on the screen prior so you get the geist on how it should look like, but every time you bring it back it gets eaten by the same monster. You should know that you have a bomb in your inventory and have seen the function in the museum and put it in, but the second time I tried it I had to redo the bone puzzle... several times. Now, if I used the bomb it tells me when it clears, but shifting around several bones and put them correct is rather bullshit.

So what happened here? Apparently the alien race created another dimension that took them into another plane off existence, unfortunately they couldn't go back. The same race created something called life crystals that returned anything dead back to life, but with the side effect of a huge addiction to them. The alien race seemed fine with the one you reanimate to get this story so I don't know, the only one that shown effects of it was Brink (who fell down a hole, led their by an apparition which I guess was the alien race in their other dimension. Brinks becomes more and more paranoid and begins to hoard the crystals and start working on a machine to creates more. Now, I know it's more logical and all that, but Boston Low really provoked Brink to his second death (this one isn't permanent either by the way). The story is that Low has the final piece to Brink machines as its also work for the machine to get the alien race back, but they need two life crystals to power it. Unfortunately Brinks takes all your's and you make a deal of 50/50 of the created crystals. It spawns two. Low takes them all and bring out the machine part so he can start his own machine. This sends Brink into a rage and in the struggle he tumbles down the cliff. Really Boston, you couldn't have been more diplomatic in that situation? I see your logic, but you are talking to a clearly deranged man who made you cut his hand to free him as he was trapped. I know your're military, but damn man.

Also the ending was a bit abrupt. Everyones back to life, the alien race returned and just by that creates a starship for you to get back home. Rather unfullfilling. Couldn't it have ended on a press conference back on earth where they reveal that there is intelligent life out there? That your other two crew members got back and so on? Otherwise a good game, no doubt, but the ending is as stated rather lacking.