Guybrush Threepwood, Escape from Monkey Island
Replaying Escape from Monkey Island is so much fun! I played this 20 years ago and I don’t remember much, but some puzzles are almost certainly easier because they are somewhere in the back of my mind. Nevertheless, I find myself frequently stumped.
I just finished Jambalaya island. The puzzles there are great and the characters are very funny. The previous part, on Lucre Island, was a bit difficult. I admit to consulting the excellent Universal Hint System on two occasions. One was about finding the nose and the other one dealing with spraying the platypus. I think I missed a clue about that last one.
The parts with the sponge on the hinges and the clock on the raft I could vaguely remember from 20 years ago. So those definitely were moments that were still present in the recesses of my mind.
I love how all the elements of previous Monkey Island games are here: The humor, the excellently voices characters with funny dialog, clever puzzles, and the fourth wall breaking, like when a tourist says he would spend hitpoints on something, and how Guybrush hopelessly laments that his life seems like a series of puzzles. Hilarious!
I can’t decide which parts of getting the parts of the Ultimate Insult are more fun. Marco de Pollo has me laughing out loud with his ridiculous accent. And the judges are hilarious also. The teacher lady is to die for, with her exclaiming “O, another fire!” and another, and another. The puzzle with the parrots and the puppets is sheer brilliance. Dealing with the tourists about the monkey mug had me grinning also. And then there’s Murray of course. Mwuhahahaa!
Now I’m on Monkey Island. Most people find the game goes downhill from here. We’ll see. I remember something about a lava river and of course Monkey Kombat. But I don’t remember not liking this part.
the other one dealing with spraying the platypus. I think I missed a clue about that last one.
It’s not well clued. Ozzie does talk about how one of the things he hates most about pirates is that they smell, and you can get some reaction from him if you try to mess around with his stuffed animals in other ways. You have to somehow make the connection that this is the way you can make him angry enough to break his walking stick so that he goes off and gets a replacement (and as for why you need to do that, I think it’s pretty obscure, too). The thing that’s perhaps most irritating about that particular puzzle is that you have to use the Eau de LeChuck you get from the perfume stand, and the Pegnose perfume you make doesn’t work even though you’d think logically it ought to if the point is to make something smell bad. The description of the Eau de LeChuck does say that it should not be used “on or near animals”, but that’s an awfully oblique hint, if it is one.
Yeah, it REALLY pays off if you pay VERY close attention to everything that’s being said. And take it literally. If only I had paid more attention to him saying that about hating that pirates smell. It would have helped if the platypus would have a decidedly nice odeur.
I had deducted that I had to make him angry enough to brake his walking stick, so that he would get another one that leaves a trail. I think Guybrush actually comments about how he could follow Ozzy if only he would leave a trail, or something like that. It’s most likely that I remembered that specific part from my previous playthrough 20 years ago. Or that it´s a common thing in adventure games.
It didn’t help that I hadn’t noticed the Eau de LeChuck on the perfume seller’s stand, although he did talk about it. Damned control scheme! It’s often hard to find all the things because of it. Although I can appreciate the 3D aesthetics of the game.