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Those are synonyms, professor.

As the guy who did the header image for that article, I think ReMI looks great! Its art feels very much like work of an accomplished and technically competent artist going for a particular style (and it is - looking at Rex Crowle's previous works they're jawdroppingly good. Knights and Bikes in particular, you can really tell it was his passion project). No one's wrong to dislike it or disagree with it stylistically, but half the fun in appreciating art is engaging with stuff you don't like, wouldn't you agree

Tangent: It was only last month that I first played EGA Secret of Monkey Island. Experiencing the Stump Joke for the very first time was almost magical... it's a crime that people entering the franchise from 1992 onward only knew ABOUT there being a stump joke, once upon a time. And it's a shame they didn't grab Dominic's voice for it in the special editions. I didn't even know about the Mêlée sunset until this year. Or that there's a comment for Turn On or Turn Off the grog machine. Or that, in any version, you can beg and receive 2 pieces of eight, if you learn about Otis's breath but have no money. I've learned... so many things about the Secret of Monkey Island games this year that I never would have if Return hadn't been announced. I learned about the bugged Porthole Defoggers that keep Stan from selling his ship for 2000 (so the best deal you can get is 3000, plus porthole defoggers and another extra of your choice). I learned about swordmaster multiresponses - that the true ultimate comeback is "I'm glad to hear you attended your family reunion" - and the mystery of her refusal to use "long sharp lesson" in the special edition. (LogicDeluxe seems to have fully dissected Stan, and the speedrunner community made multiresponses known, but apparently MI fan communication was so disconnected that neither of them learnex the other's discovery until this year.) I've recently seen deleted scenes that folks like you have probably known about for decades. I'm rambling and don't really have a cohesive point. But maybe I can end my thoughts with: 1) When you refer to "the memory of the original games", be aware there are probably other people like me who have had even STRONGER experiences replaying/rediscovering those games in the past few months than our memories remembered. Revenge was my favorite before Return was announced, but Secret has replaced it in the time since then. 2) It is amazing how Return has breathed life into so much of this saga by the simple fact of existing.

That is the problem with being a part of a journalistic, deep-diving, award-winning website like Mojo — with its integrity and grace we have to cover those teasers. For the people. Or we just have no willpower or restraint, who can really tell?

I just realized it hasn't even been 4 weeks since the trailer dropped. In less than a month, we got a trailer, a revamped and interactive website with Stan, new images, and a fairly in-depth summary, not to mention the reveal of the first title card and music, and two gameplay videos showcasing movements, environments, more music, and some dialogue and voice acting. They are really ramping up marketing and I don't think they'll want to reveal too much more. A September release is seeming more and more probable, especially with voice acting being done for over a month now and the credits all inputted. I'm seeing more and more positive comments on other channels saying they are really coming around to the art direction, so it's great to see more and more people getting excited as the release gets closer. Ron seems to really be enjoying doing the reveals too.

Sorry for engaging, also. In my defense, I haven't done it MUCH over the last few months, and I'm having a really rough week so I thought I'd indulge. As a little treat. Even though I know it's bad for me.

Oh okay. Guybrushes nose doesn't look like a penis, his body proportions are in keeping with kind of storybook/scrapbook feel the art style is going for, animation similarly, and it's also looking like it's going to be probably the most custom animation we've seen in any of the games including the 3d ones, colours are bright but well-chosen and in keeping with the style, backgrounds are heavily stylised and angular, but have a great sense of life especially while in motion, characters have very expressive faces in a way that we've never seen in a 2D Monkey Island before, even Curse where characters weren't very expressive outside of cutscenes. Look. Anyone can list a bunch of things and call them facts. Don't pretend you're taking the intellectual high road by doing so. Nah. What you're doing is not art criticism (if it were, you'd notice that the approaches between this and the MI1 special edition are EXTREMELY different and that this style is a lot more detailed and took a lot more effort), it's your own feelings about the art, which you've wrapped up in faux-critique in order to that you can act wounded whenever anyone refuses to engage with you on it. You know, I've talked to a lot of different people about this art style, and you know the ones I've talked to who are the MOST excited about it? Often, they're artists. By all means don't like the art. Just stop pretending that you have access to some higher level of critique that makes you 'correct' about it. Since you missed my sarcasm the first time round, let me be absolutely clear: I am not going to engage with this line of argument any more.

I personally think very slim for a quick sequel. If we do get one I think he'll be torn between sticking with this art style out of stubbornness in response to the abuse, and going with a fresh one because that's always been the way that MI sequels have worked. We know the backgrounds of MI1 and MI2 are rather different in style, but even the sprite styles of MI1 and 2, while similar, aren't identical. They are similarly proportioned but it looks like effort has been made to make them more detailed around the face, more shaded around the hair, etc. Compare how much depth guybrush's face and head has in MI2 vs MI1, for example: 4 pixels to define the eyes vs 2, it looks like 3 shades of colour for the hair, and so on. It's subtle stuff but they were clearly thinking about how they could add detail while still being restricted by the technological requirements. (Stan seems to be pretty much identical aside from some palette swaps, but I guess that's understandable.) All of which is to say, I think where Ron is at right now his instincts would tell him to keep on tweaking, refining, pushing forward if he did go on to make ANOTHER Monkey Island - and Rex might well want to move onto other projects anyway. I, too, can make declarative statements: The art and animation looks wonderful and detailed. See, isn't this wonderful? What a great and edifying discussion we're having. How the discourse has been enriched by this back-and-forth we're engaged in.

Yeah that makes sense. I guess we just interpret those scenes differently. I’m starting to think I’m misremembering revenge. I play through 1-5 every couple of years but always hurry through 2 as it’s my least favourite (I’ll desperately try and justify myself on that another time 😂) But the way i read it is that elaine is clearly very into guybrush in secret. She’s holding those feelings back in revenge because of the way he’s acted but is ready to run back to him when he’s ready to grow up. Then in curse she’s relieved he’s alive and that’s what spurs her on to put up with his nonsense if it means she can be with him. Luckily in the intervening time guybrush has grown up somewhat and is less arrogant than he was meaning that they are finally a perfect fit. The only problem is he then proceeds to turn her into solid gold. That’s perfectly serviceable to me as a love story. It would have been nice if most of the important parts weren’t in curse’s opening cutscene alone but i can get over that because that particular game isn’t trying to be a love story as much as it’s trying to be an adventure story. That being said, if i am misremembering revenge all of that falls apart 😂

Agreed that that would be a better story. Not trying to say curse was a perfect love story. Obviously it’s far from it as that’s not the stories primary goal. But it just feels somewhat disingenuous to see her and guybrush instantly show strong feelings for each other in secret, then see her mask slip in revenge revealing that she clearly STILL feels strongly about him but then to act like her love for him in curse came out of nowhere. It’s pretty clearly shown in the opening of curse that she thinks, or at least fears guybrush is dead. Finding out the person you love has effectively come back from the dead, found you only to instantly “die” in a capsizing ship only to repeat the process would be pretty powerful. I’m a straight man but i’d have said yes too. Again though i’m not saying it’s amazing. Just that it seems to get a disproportionate amount of commentary considering most of the games are equally or more guilty of mishandling her and the relationship as a whole.

That seems like a wild intepretation of that scene in MI2 to me. After Guybrush tries to bring her round with honeyed words, she has a moment of weakness, and one that is immediately and completely dispelled as soon as she realises that Guybrush still cares more about his little adventure. When they catch up again, on Dinky Island, before she'll agree to help him out he has to tell her the whole story of how he got into the mess, and seems only vaguely concerned when he falls into the pit. On the other hand in Curse she instantly professes her love for him, which she seems to have re-developed by him... not being around, and then after he nearly gets killed by LeChuck instantly agrees to marry him and not even being turned into a gold statue and delivered back into LeChuck's clutches does anything to give her pause on that, a single punch aside. I agree that the creators of CMI might have been expected to do the Guybrush-Elaine romance, but I think the main failing of it wasn't that that romance happened, but that it seemed to make very little effort to take us on a journey of understanding of how Elaine has arrived in this place emotionally and mentally (and by turning her into a statue for most of the game, robs itself of any opportunity to do so). Now, a game where Guybrush and Elaine start about where they left off in MI2, but over the course of it re-discover a way to be happy together, where there's character growth on Elaine's part to realise she can't fight Guybrush's adventurous spirit, and Guybrush's part to realise that he can't let his thirst for adventures get in the way of the people he loves... now that would be nice to see.

One of the most clever twists of ReMI's announcement was to "declare" CMI, EMI and Tales canon in the Gilbert-Grossman-verse. Because it keeps us wondering how they're going to treat past lore, what they are going to explicitly honor and what they are going to ignore. What characters besides Murray might be coming back. What places we might re-visit, what history they might reference or even re-stage to bring the newbies up to speed with the lore. Judging from my "WAIT IS THAT MORGAN" moment in the trailer, a whole lot of non-puzzle-adjacent detective work is coming up, and I'll find that quite delicious.

You’re in the wrong part of town, boy. Yeah I’m loving it. I quickly grew to appreciate what the artist was going for anyway, but seeing actual gameplay in motion really has just breathed life into it. I really love how alive that snowy scene feels. It just oozes atmosphere, which I’m sure the audio and music design will only enhance further. I also really like this idea that the scene zooms in when talking to characters. It’s a nice compromise between making costly close-ups for all the characters and having cinematic framing more often.

That’s awesome! I wish I had your strength. I’d love to do the same, but it’s impossible 😄

NEWS! More news coming... soon!

Huh. Remember also Guybrush in the new game looks like he's a speedy boy. If they do want island hopping in this game I think they'll have tried to address it by making navigation between locations easy and quick. (I definitely felt the pain of having to do a lot of hopping and backtracking between locations recently in Tales in the final chapter with all the portals, but for some reason it just never bothered me with MI2*. I see the point, though.) *OR DID IT? I first played it on an Amiga, with its 11 disks I had to swap regularly. I wonder if I cared back then. I don't remember being bothered by it, but if disk swapping slowed things down so much back then, maybe by the time I got to play the PC version it seemed positively fast paced in comparison.

Yeah, I had the pretty strong feeling he chose the map over her. That doesn't mean I found that all too great, because it felt a bit like Guybrush would have to give up all the pirating fun to really commit to Elaine. To me, that's kind of a bachelor's idea of senseless dedication/investment to a relationship, sacrificing all your life and identity to practically merge with another person. It's clear how both what Guybrush does in LCR as well as what he would have had to do to win Elaine in that moment were "wrong" steps in the coming of age narrative's perspective. Escape and Tales tried to fix their differences by making a pirate out of the governor – the couple shared that interest henceforth, which justified their relationship. In my opinion, absolutely not what Ron would have wanted, but he'll just have to deal with that idea now. If Ron had done "his" Monkey Island 3 in the 90s, who knows how these two characters would have ended up. Maybe Ron had a genius plan to strike a balance and reunite them, maybe he just hated the idea of Guybrush and Elaine being together and they'd sail away in opposite directions in the very last scene. Maybe I would have loved it, maybe I would have hated it. I'll never know. But it seems like for the first time in six games, we'll be playing Elaine in Return. And that's not just "shaking things up", I think it also means that she's growing to be more of a protagonist, more of Guybrush's equal (not necessarily in the piracy sense). I'd love for them to work together in that scene/those scenes, maybe even in a dayofthetentacly kind of way. That wouldn't just be something that I'd love to have back as a game mechanic, but would mean the world for their relationship to each other as well.

Fair enough! I don't know how much stock I put in the strong feeling in MI1 though as an establishment of a relationship, though hear me out: In MI1, Guybrush and Elaine develop feelings for each other very quickly. After a single conversation there's romantic tension and another conversation (that doesn't even occur if you do the idol trial last) that develops into full on pet-name calling. It's not like they actually have any real basis for a relationship by the end, aside from Guybrush's somewhat botched and unnecessary attempt at a rescue. By the end of MI1 they were heavily attracted to each other, and had had a maximum of 2 proper conversations. There was no 'relationship', to speak of. So to me, it seems that most of Elaine and Guybrush's relationship, such as it was, happens off-screen, and on screen what we see is an initial attraction, in MI1, and then a faint and fleeting echo of that initial attraction in MI2, manifesting as a single moment of weakness in Elaine, which she shuts down instantly as soon as she gets the slightest inkling it's all a play to get the map. I just don't see that as a mishandling at all, in MI2. Hope that makes sense. By the way, I really like CMI as a game, I will defend it as getting SO much impressively 'right' as far as I'm concerned about the writing and tone of Monkey Island. And I often actually find myself disagreeing with Ron Gilbert's takes on things in interviews and such, so I'm not automatically trying to side with him here - but this just happens to be one area where I fully understand why he found CMI's treatment of the relationship weird. That and I thought that MI2 not being a story about winning the day and getting the girl was one of the coolest things about it.

Considering that one of their first scenes in SMI features Guybrush and Elaine calling each other "love muffin" "sugar boots" "honey pumpkin" "plunder bunny" etc. and ends with them looking lovingly into the night sky together, I don't think it's a giant leap in logic for Ackley and Ahern to presume that Ron would've put them together in the third game (after resolving their differences brought about in MI2 of course.) Even if that wasn't Ron's plan, I don't blame Curse for putting them together when it is/was very common for couples in movies, etc. to fight/argue in the middle of the story, and get back together at the end. Hell, even in MI2, she briefly begins to fall for Guybrush's "weakness and ineptitude" again, until she finds out that he just wants the map, of course! I just find it difficult to imagine MI now that doesn't feature Guybrush and Elaine together, and it's not as if the implication isn't there at all in the first two games. I'm just curious to the direction that their relationship would've taken in Ron's presumably 1992 version of MI3. This will be something that I'd imagine he'll be working around in ReMI.

I know Ron wasn't a fan of Guybrush and Elaine getting married, but I hope he still embraces that plot point. The whole ring mythology is one of my favorite aspects of the series.

Yeah, and there was so much, for lack of a better word, backstory, in the way that Griswold delivered his dialogue. Even when the dialogue didn't necessarily call for it, you could tell that the character had lived a full life, you felt the immense respect that he had for his family, yet there was a sadness in his voice of being the last of his line, and feeling like he's letting the family down with the family hotel business drying up. (Until Guybrush saves the day of course!) On another note... is LeChuck's stress toy La Esponja Grande?... 👀

Many of them were just unearthed recently for the fireside chat with Ron and the Video Game Historical Foundation! (Though a few people on this forum helped with that excavation work!)

Griswold was my favorite supporting character in Curse. A common complaint of that game was how underutilized the supporting cast was. While I largely agree with, especially for Guybrush's crew, Griswold was a real standout. He was also actually pretty integral to the series lore.

Bless you, old friend.

I do think despite misgivings there have been some advantages to Disney. I might not like everything they've done with Star Wars, say, but it IS cool that they're doing stuff with Star Wars, and seem open to exploring different kinds of shows with different vibes in that same universe. I don't think Lucas would have taken this approach on its own. I mean, Disney is the last company that needs defending but I can't lie and say I haven't enjoyed watching some of the stuff that's come out over the last few years... similar with some of the Marvel stuff too. And so I have to say I kind of enjoy their approach of scattergun greenlighting a lot of projects and seeing what sticks. Maybe if they start taking a similar approach with games projects, we might actually end up seeing some more stuff down the road, you never know. It sucks that it's all at their mercy. But eh, it was all at LucasArts' mercy before that, which wasn't honestly working out much better. Okay, now you say it, I recognise it.

It was the originally written villain for MI2. You can read more about him plus some general MI2 draft story here: I decided to have a look at the trailer again. Ah man…

Some people cite that study where people enjoyed a film more when they were spoiled on it and... I find a lot of what it claims to be a bit dubious but there is one area where I think there's probably some truth in it... And that's when dealing with the problem sequels have which is the weight of nostalgia and expectations. You can be the most open minded person in the world, the brain is still really good at conjuring up a blurry, ill-defined but somehow absolutely perfect version of the game you want, which it then will pit in a completely unfair contest with the reality that can never match that. When I go into stuff truly unseen, I find I'm always fighting that part of my brain a little bit more, because it's constantly shouting for attention, saying 'hey, this isn't familiar! This thing's out of place. This voice isn't what I expected! This location looks weeiiirrd and that's wrong!' The brain isn't necessarily right here. These might be things I grow to love, but the brain is notoriously suspicious of the unfamiliar. So I think what seeing a bit of the art style, interface, some dialogue and locations out of context, what it does for me is to help my brain dip its little brain-toes in the water, get used to the temperature, so that when it's time to submerge fully, it's less of a shock to the system and I can just enjoy it for what it is. Anyway, carry on. Unpopular opinions.

What a twist if we found out that this mute zombified pirate we’ve been seeing in all the promotional material is actually El Carlo?!

Although it doesn’t particularly change what you’re saying, it’s worth noting that the sprites reused in MI2 we’re the updated VGA sprites that were made closer to/concurrently with MI2’s development. The original EGA sprites wouldn’t fit in quite so seamlessly.

Yeah, I'm happy with this being the final game (provided the ending delivers, of course!) I'd rather have an ending now that leaves the series on a good note, ties up as many loose ends as it deems necessary, and features as much of the returning cast and crew as possible, than launch a story-arc that lasts many, many games in which the original talent gradually disappears, reviews and overall appreciation of the series begins to dwindle, the music wanes after the original composers depart, eventually Guybrush has to be recast, etc. My one lament with ReMI happening now rather than ten years earlier is that Boen can't be part of it (unless they've worked something out behind the scenes, and that's the big surprise!) But Ron most likely wouldn't have been able to work on the game ten years earlier either, so it's really a "pick your poison" of either recasting LeChuck, or not having Ron's third game at all.

I'd be fine with it if this were the last MI game Ron works on I'd be fine with it if this were just the last MI game, as long as the conclusion is satisfying I'd also be fine with it if the ending left it open for other people to tell their own stories in the same world, and my biggest hope for this installment is it might free creators from having to over-worry about canon.

Don't know if this is an unpopular stance or not, but I stopped following the news (and the RtMI thread) shortly after the trailer hit. I don't want to know anything more about it before the game hits! (Except where I can order my boxed copy!)

I didn't know that, but then I Googled and found this amazing Live Tweet of Tim playing MI2 (which I'd totally missed)... https://scummbar.com/games/index.php?game=2&sub=info&todo=21 What a swanky website. I can't believe I didn't know about it! You could what?! I was joking about not knowing about The Scumm Bar... I really didn't know about this. Damn, I suffered for nothing.

Another mysterious package in the mail, courtesy of late-night Etsy purchases... Pictured: Substitute "Manny". I was hoping that the pins by CanvasQuestArt would be the appropriate sizes for this model. They're close, but as of right now they are too heavy to stand on their own. I'll get some standees if I'm feeling it. "Do you have a reserva.... Madre Dios! That's not the correct 'Blondebeard'!" You can get your own Blondebeards Chicken Shack Book Nook on Etsy.

😲😲😲 I'd be interested to read why since it's my favourite! I generally feel the same as you about the relationship (but my perception of it might be coloured by the fact that I first played when I was quite young and didn't really 'get' the romantic stuff). Definitely think Elaine was hoping Guybrush would say what she wanted/needed to hear in Revenge and was hurt when he asked about the map like a dope.

Not sure how much i agree with this interpretation of curse elaine. People often talk about curse as the moment she stopped being an independent character and started being a damsel in distress archetype but I don’t really think that’s quite fair. Her victimhood in the game isn’t the result of weakness or incompetence but just the natural result of being in the orbit of the bumbling guybrush. It effects everyone eventually lol. Once freed she’s instantly heavily outnumbered so her subsequent capture also can’t be put down to incompetence and she practically instantly escapes and sets about fixing everything like she always has (off screen, but that was a buget thing not a story telling thing.) I think if we’re looking for poor depictions of elaine there are better games to choose. Revenge depicts her as a stereotypical bitchy ex who, despite being angry at guybrush, is ready to run back to him as soon as he clicks his fingers. I don’t think it’s fair to say that before curse elaine wouldn’t have wanted to marry guybrush when its made clear in 2 that he sort of has her wrapped around his little finger. Then in tales we’re frequently told how competent elaine is but we never see it. She starts the game tied up, goes onto instantly believe lechucks a good guy now just because he told her he was, then she gets the pox and goes on to become hyper jealous, a little rapey and very toxic. Finally she submits to being lechucks voodoo bride and end the game by saying that everything that happened across the five episodes was all a part of her plan because after all of her incompetence we’re now expected to believe she’s actually so competent it boarders on precognition. My point is that I don’t think elaine’s been done justice since the original but, at least to me, curse isn’t an especially egregious example of this.

No. That actor passed away almost twenty years ago. Goodsoup and Velasco are forever, though.

So "El Carlo" is just the Spanish version of the French "Le Chuck", right?

Ok imma level with you I keep on seeing El Carlo get mentioned and I've no idea where it's from.

I didn't call them facts, I said they were true. Which they are to most people I know, and according to the internet, a whole lot of people I don't know as well. And I said compared to MI2 and MI3, not compared to the special editions. But if you feel the need to twist words to put others down, feel free. Is what you are doing art criticism? Is it you who defines what that is? I have a bachelors in art history, and also know a lot (too many) artists. I don't pretend to hold some kind of higher standard because of it, but I am used to engage in discourse over technique and style. Something I can tell the people in this forum is not. I'm not wounded anyone refuses to engage with me, I'm just pointing out that you are chasing away anyone who disagrees with your rose tinted view of what this is, and then parading around thinking you have changed peoples mind. Which you haven't. They just don't engage with you anymore, because you are gatekeeping and being aggressive towards them. And I did not miss your sarcasm. I just don't engage with passive aggressiveness in the same manner you opt to do when my world view is challenged.

Thanks for the concern, I'm just enjoying my spritzer in the sun, watching the beautiful people passe me by I'm not really interested in your article, but the art on the header image is great! Wish they had done something like that for ReMI!

Oh yeah, absolutely I mean... I think that general kind of sprite proportion/level of detail lasted LucasArts through several games, MI1, MI2, Indy 3, Indy 4, arguably The Dig, too are definetely 'of a piece' in a lot of ways, I just think in MI2 if they'd been able to create higher detailed sprites to match the more hand-drawn look of the artwork, they probably would have. Ah. I don't think any of those things.

And Elaine looks virtually unchanged, to my casual eyes. I think Voodoo Lady is just wearing a different dress, but I could be off. I get it when people say that Secret and Revenge were completely different artstyles and put some backgrounds alongside each other, and I understand the assertion that "we aren't having the same conversation" if I can't see that. But amidst that, I look at Elaine. And during the dream sequence, I look at MI2 Guybrush facing MI1 Guybrush, and they feel like they're in the same reality... as opposed to Curse Guybrush standing alongside drowned Secret Guybrush, which can only feel like a break in the fourth wall. So instead of saying things like "MI1 and MI2 look like the same art style", I should shift it to something like "MI1 and MI2 have comparable character art for the main cast", and acknowledge it doesn't extend to closeups or minor characters. (Though I think Rapp Scallion's depiction is closer to the ones in Secret.)

It is, truly. I tried to not watch this latest snippet, but I could not resist.

Thanks for proving my point. I'm not a boy, btw.

Oh man, Guybrush daring to shout "Guilty!" at a judge just to brag about being a might pirate sounds a lot like Monkey 2 Guybrush.

That made me curious actually, and so I searched the game script. How many mighty pirate references? MI1: 4 MI2: 1 (in the end sequence. That sort of surprised me) CMI: 12 Wasn't able to find the others... Perhaps it was CMI that started the trend of overusing this one. As for the new one, I imagine they cherry picked this for the tease, hopefully it's not overdone.

I don't mind the comparison but I don't know that I'm yet sold on Brrr Muda as a concept. Obviously we don't know much about it yet but between the pun name, the very video gamey conceit of 'what haven't we done before? Ah, an ice level!' it still seems a bit odd to me, almost too on-the-nose as a kind of location MI hasn't done before, but it might make perfect sense in the context of the story. Come to think of it, why DID the ride in CMI have that snow section? All the others were scenes to do with events of the previous games (or their lore) - why snow and yetis suddenly. It would be fun if Brrr Muda retroactively justified the existence of that scene on the ride....

In the case of MI2 I'd actually prefer someone played through with the remastered graphics - I think the sprites are pretty good, for the most part, and the backgrounds are pretty faithful to the spirit of the original game, and given the problems with both translating iMUSE to pre-recorded tracks and the botched instrumentation of the MT-32 recordings, I think the MI2:SE music is much better in special mode than old mode. The voices I could take or leave. I like most of them okay, but dislike Largo's voice, think Guybrush's parents are way overdone in a way that sort of ruins the song, and think Elaine needed better direction to get her attitude in this game right.

Now that’s something I haven’t seen before! It looks like it’d lend itself to some painting if that were one’s interest.