The Curse of Monkey Island™

This is one of the best games I've played ever. Great music, voice acting, characters, environments and puzzles. I never get tired of replaying it. A 90s classic that remains untouched by the years.

The Curse Of Monkey Island has long been my favorite in the MI series and one of my favorite point n click adventure games in the genre. It helps to have played the previous two but this title stands on its own pretty well. The writing and acting are fantastic and Dominic Armato was the perfect choice to voice guybrush in his first talkie, He really understood the character and I cant imagine guybrush without his voice. The characters you meet are varied and a delight and the game never slows down and becomes boring, the puzzles are quite challenging, requiring you to think outside the box a bit at times, and there are precious few that suffer from 'Try everything in your inventory with everything on screen'. The music fits every scene greatly and dialogue options will have you playing the game several times trying to get all of it. And the visuals, wow, when they advertise movie quality I'd say they hit their mark! To make this point, consider this Windows 95 era game didnt need a remaster: It's THAT good. Truly one of LucasArts finest games.

I have no problem giving this a 5. For me, this is one of the best in the Monkey Island series, which automatically makes it one of the best graphical adventures of all time. The graphics are perfect; the music and voice acting wonderful; the game is full of quirky, funny characters and great humor. There are a lot of laughs to be had here. In terms of challenge, some of the puzzles are pretty tough, but not impossible. They usually make sense and give a good feeling of achievement once you figure them out. There are a few fun red herrings thrown in there too, which I like - items that are laying around just for the sake of distraction, to try to put you off the scent. I like that, the game does a great job of staying fresh and mostly avoiding the 'usual' point & click cliches. I think my only criticism would be the ending is very short and abrupt, but that doesn't detract enough to pull it down from a 5. Graphic adventure fans shouldn't miss this!

First off: I'm hella biased when it comes to CMI. I discovered this game when I was 12 or 13, having never played any Monkey Island game before, or any mature point 'n click-adventure for that matter, and it blew me away. The art style is (still) one of the best you'll ever see in a game: the characters look cartoony, expressive and appealing and the backgrounds are gorgeous while still retaining a pinch of humour in their visual style, with lopsided buildings and mountainous jungles full of exaggerated shapes. Then there's the voice-acting (a first for the series) which is also top-notch, as is the writing. Even though I've played through this game on many occasions, I'm still constantly grinning and occasionally LOL'ing whenever I revisit it. Perhaps the very best quality of the game is the soundtrack: it's a terrific mix of Caribbean-influenced reggae, R&B and funk that never gets old and really merits listening to on its own accord. Really, the only drawback to me is that the game isn't any longer than it is. Hardcore Monkey Island fans often argue that only the first two games in the series are true classics; co-creator Ron Gilbert even considers the other games non-canon. However, I would say that this one is an absolute masterpiece of adventure gaming that will stand the test of time for decades to come. It has two difficulty levels, so if you're new to adventure games it can be an accessible introduction. Just buy it and play it, and throw in the rest of the Monkey Island series while you're at it!

Works great on Apple Silicon / M1 (or greater). Played on a M1 Mac Mini (macOS Ventura 13.0.1). Just to clarify and save you some time: Grant access to the file system, when the app PopUp appears and press (fn +) F1 to load the ScummVM main menu to load/save. As for the game: Have fun! Who needs another review here? ;)