Monkey Island - Why I can't Live Without this Particular Piece of Junk 30 Years on

30 years on, we still don’t know what the titular secret that Monkey Island holds actually is. Original co-creator Ron Gilbert suggested in a Reddit AMA back in 2017 that it is “Guybrush is a banana”, but some have suggested that he might not have been being serious. It’s unclear why they think this. Either way, with the game stuck in copyright limbo since Disney’s purchase of everything that wasn’t nailed down, it might be some time before we learn. But after all this time, why do we still care so much?

The Secret of Monkey Island wasn’t the first point-and-click adventure, nor was it the first to be released by the now-legendary Lucasfilm Games. It was, however, the first from the combined minds of Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman, and Tim Schafer. Whilst the first two Monkey Island games were the only titles on which all three of these great adventure creators worked together, they would go on to create many games working together in various permutations over the years and all three have gone down in history as pioneers of the industry. 

The genre was just starting to take off at the time of the first game’s release, and indeed at the time, it was only a moderate success, selling in the region of around 100k copies eventually, a large number of which were in Europe rather than the company’s US homeland. Had the second title not been in development before the release of the first, we might never have even had multiple games, so thank Sherman for Lucasfilm’s dedication to sequels. Despite critical acclaim, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (the first title released under the LucasArts banner) sold even worse, with only around 25,000 copies, although a number of extra units were shipped later on with the release of an enhanced CD-ROM version.

With all of that in mind, how did this game earn such a fondness compared to some of LucasArts’ higher-selling titles? Full Throttle went on to sell a million copies for example, but it’s The Secret of Monkey Island that has had the most cultural impact by a long way. With multiple re-releases across three decades, what is it that makes this game such a legendary piece of art?

It’s worth considering the things that The Curse of Monkey Island brought to the table that other games did not, such as one of the most memorable combat mechanics that you’ll ever see in gaming. The actual sword-fighting when you came across other pirates was secondary to the cutting insults and retorts. “You fight like a dairy farmer” came the famous utterance of your opponents, and the response “How appropriate, you fight like a cow” is etched in the minds of so many gamers now. It was unlike anything else that had been seen before and players loved it. The LucasFilm Games ethos of encouraging exploration and not allowing characters to die was established over the last few titles already, so you were free to keep fighting more pirates until you finally learnt all of the responses that you would need. 

Whilst it wasn’t the first game to include pop-culture references, the first Monkey Island game took it to another level. There were references to other George Lucas properties, pastiches of popular tropes like used-car salesmen and a general lampooning of the whole pirate ethos, and even a not-particularly-subtle sales pitch for the company’s last game, Loom, inserted with a cheeky knowing wink into proceedings. Much like how TV shows such as Family Guy and The Simpsons would go on to woo audiences with references to other beloved entertainment works, The Curse of Monkey Island played to its audience wonderfully, knowing exactly what they liked. 

In addition, some of the most creative puzzles in gaming and some frankly bizarre objects have earnt legendary status. The rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle for example has become so famous that even people who’ve never played one of the games have often heard of it. Then there’s the puzzle where Guybrush is underwater, tied to a stone idol unable to reach half a dozen different sharp objects that would help. The solution? Pick up the idol itself and walk out of the water of course! It’s a solution that was so head-slappingly obvious and hidden in plain sight that very few people ever forget that sudden “oh, that’s how you do it!” moment when they finally got it. The game is full of puzzles like this where a little bit of lateral thinking goes a long way. It’s an oft-mentioned trope that point-and-click adventures often require rubbing your inventory together until you stumble on the right answer, but with The Curse of Monkey Island, you never came away wondering exactly why any given solution worked; just why you didn’t think of it in the first place.

Guybrush himself is another strong reason why the game has stood the test of time so well. He’s our plucky adventurer who shouldn’t be. This might explain why the game sold so well in Europe, as it’s well known that we love an underdog. Sure, he’s lanky and weak, and lacks the constitution and strength to be a pirate, but Guybrush is never going to let that stop him. A mighty pirate he wants to be, and a mighty pirate he shall be. Throughout, he never seems to even realise that he’s probably not particularly cut out for this, and that refusal to recognise his limitations is just so very endearing. He’s up there with characters like Rincewind, Arthur Dent and Mr Bean in the category of “lovably inept”. He's not some mighty hero like in King’s Quest or Flight of the Amazon Queen, but an ordinary person with ambition. We can relate to him, and it’s absolutely wonderful. 

Even little things like the copy-protection have attained legendary status, with the “dial a pirate” wheel being one of the most satisfying ways to input a code ever created. The game could have just come with a list of codes in the manual, but it’s little details like this which are indicative of the love and care with which it was all crafted. This was a game that was clearly a labour of love, and I think this is the crux of why it’s still so important despite the passing of time. Gilbert, Grossman and Schafer put their hearts into The Curse of Monkey Island, and in turn, they won ours.