The Curse of Monkey Island is the third in a successful series of games by LucasArts. The success of the original Secret of Monkey Island forced LucasArts into making a sequel. Following the semi-success of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, LucasArts decided to make a state-of-the-art title that could be their flagship as they moved into the future of adventure gaming. I am happy to say that The Curse of Monkey Island is one of the best adventure games I have ever played, and it's clean of all the gore and dirty humor that plague games like Duke Nukem and Quake.

Back in the early 90's, LucasArts began to take a powerful position in the adventure game arena with Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island, and Loom. For the most part, LucasArts was meant to be a company that would handle movie tie-in games for George Lucas' films. First, Maniac Mansion broke new ground with its humor driven plotline. Tom Holland, creator of Maniac Mansion (and the soon to be released Grim Fandango), handled the task of combining a pirate plot line with distinctive humor in his next title, The Secret of Monkey Island. What the world received was a game featuring a character named Guybrush Threepwood, the most un-pirate like kid you could think of. He was skinny, naive, passive to violence, apologetic, and spineless. Next thing we know, he's fighting the feared ghost pirate, LeChuck.

The Curse of Monkey Island picks up just after Monkey Island II left off. Guybrush is still looking for the legendary treasure of Big Whoop. The only problem is that he gets stuck in the middle of a battle between the ghost pirate LeChuck and his girlfriend, Governor Marely, who's firing cannon balls at the evil ghost's ship. You get LeChuck out of the picture (or so you think), but Guybrush needs an engagement ring for Governor Marely. He just happens to choose a cursed ring that turns her in to a gold statue. He leaves to find help, but when he comes back to find that she's been stolen. (Being that she's a solid gold statue, who wouldn't?). From there, you move from task to task, from silly joke to silly joke, on your quest to turn your girlfriend back to normal. LeChuck eventually comes back into the picture, and the plot moves from there.

The graphics in the game are excellent. The animation's flow is just like a professional movie, without all the cutesy characters of Disney and Don Bluth that could have turned this game into a corny experience. You feel like you're in a real, but cartoonish, world of pirates, ghosts, and treasure. The characters' mouths move perfectly with the dialogue and they interact seamlessly with their assorted environments. The characters' in-game animations are also interesting, with some jumping and various assortments of amusing motions, while others just stand still or loop through the same action over and over again.

I have always loved the music in the original Secret of Monkey Island. I even played the CD audio enhanced version that was released with the first CD-ROM drives. The same musical themes are brought back from the original, but they have been enhanced and re-worked. Not only do they enhance the moods of the strange locations, but they also add a depth to the story that is rare in most adventure games today. Many games never let the music play an important part of the plot, action, or mood of the surroundings, opting for simple sound effects of wind and water (à la Myst and Riven). The dialogue is also top of the line. The actors seem well-cast for each of the odd-ball characters. This title is based on pure interaction. Bad voice talents could sink it like a rock.

I really like this game. Some games by other developers have funny moments, but never take on a full comedy feel. LucasArts has done this type of game for many years and their experience shows in this game. Even with the loss of Tom Holland's input, the game retains its quality. At first, the game may catch the fans of the original two games off-guard with its different style, but any apprehension evaporates after meeting some of the excellently acted and scripted characters that inhabit the twisted world of The Curse of Monkey Island.

System Requirements: Pentium 90, 16 MB RAM, 4X CD-ROM, 40 MB of disk space, 100% Windows 95 Compatible 16-Bit sound card, 100% Microsoft-compatible Mouse, PCI Graphics Card, DirectX 5 Compatible, and 1.2 Megs minimal hard drive space.

Tested on a: Intel Pentium 166, 32 MB RAM, 8X CD-ROM, Sound Blaster AWE64, ATI Mach 64 videocard, a Microsoft mouse, and Windows 95.