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Everyone is different, indeed. I think I enjoy things whether spoilered or fresh, but in different ways. My play order was VGA Secret (1993 or 1994, I think), followed by Curse in 1997, and eventually Revenge in 1999 when I was in high school. And I think this contributed to Revenge being my favorite MI game for many years. To me, Curse of Monkey Island's manual and in-game dialogue hyped the everliving heck out of Revenge. I opened the instruction manual and saw the Guybrush I knew from Secret standing on one end, and I saw this new Guybrush (a cartoon version of Secret, almost) on the other end, and between them was the Guybrush I wanted to be - looking like he did in Secret, but with that cool successful pirate coat. Throughout the game I'd hear references to Big Whoop as this dark mysterious force... and Guybrush couldn't quite remember what had happened, just like I didn't quite know what happened. I was right with him in that bumper car when Curse began. Then I went on the internet, and it was filled with a similar reverence and respect for the ending of MI2, arguably at the height of fan obsession with the mystery of what "the true secret" of MI would have been. So I went into LeChuck's Revenge already knowing the premise, most of the in-jokes (because I went to these Lucasarts websites and checked the in-jokes for every game), Wally's and Largo's existence, the detailed fate of Marley's crew (I got joy from seeing the same stories in the library book that LeChuck had already told me in Curse, and in seeing Rapp Scallion's reanimation without the memory bubble) , a vague notion of the island names, and the knowledge that I was going to end the adventure standing in Mêlée's alleyway and, eventually, as a child trapped in an amusement park while possibly or possibly not being LeChuck's brother. I was spoilered to the major beats, but not the minor details, and that unique blend definitely left a positive impact.

I would love to get an artbook for this game, both to see the evolution of the designs and to get a good look at some full backgrounds.

WOW wild take. I love the island hopping. It is definitely less good on replays than it is when you first play the game, but on my first playthrough, which is my most memorable one, the world felt huge and full of places containing secrets. That fantasy erases once you know the whole locale, so I fully get this opinion, but I still like it!

Unpopular opinion: I like LeChuck's monologue in Part V and listen through it every time.

Also to me it's so great as a structural thing for adventure games because it's like a little mental break. It's like trying to do a crossword and getting stuck then going for a walk and coming back and sorting it out straight away. Whenever I get stuck it's great to think I can just go somewhere else and change how I'm thinking about the problem.

I envision it as an oversized coffee table book that merges official design with fan art, interspersed with the kind of walkthrough that LucasArts was putting out back in the day i.e. with extra official art, jokes, and behind the scenes stuff. I call it "Return to Monkey Island. A mostly failed attempt at a walkthrough." Oh, and you're going to do the layout.

Nah, you're good. I'm not without bias here, I understand that. It might be that I have an abundance of empathy for Rex because I've met him personally on a couple of occasions some years ago and we have some mutual friends, and he's always come across as very sweet and modest but also talks really intelligently about his approach to art. When Rex was announced I think a lot of people probably thought 'who?' but my reaction was just to totally relax. I remember just feeling a sense of calm wash over me and thinking 'it'll be fine' because it's so obvious to me he lives and breathes this stuff. When I see someone say 'see how this picture is such an improvement' I can't help but imagine him smiling slightly uncomfortably and talking about how they're really for different purposes and he still likes the original, but the new design enables them to do a lot more with it, etc etc. That's where I'm coming from

Fair enough if you like the old piece. It's not bad. And I'm sorry if my response was also aggressive. I don't want to be needlessly harsh on the art. I also won't be positive just for the sake of positivity. It just turns out I genuinely don't have much bad to say about the art. I'm one of the people who started off not hot on it, but I'm enjoying it more and more and keeping my mind open. A lot of people have compared this debacle to the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker art style debate. I wasn't Online at that time, so I cant speak to those flame wars. But I was also a tween who had loved Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I wanted Link to look badass, of course I did. To cut a long story short, I learned a life lesson about being wrong about art. And it really is a life lesson, if I'm still applying it twenty years later. Wowie.

And adventuregamers was the first website to get an exclusive interview ten days after the announcement. This shit must break Emily's heart. Anyway ... I couldn't resist and left those folks a note.

I'd suggest that possibly this is less about experience and more about function. Rex was already a pretty experienced artist a decade ago, and around that time he was artistically leading projects like Tearaway and was already winning awards for his work. Of course, artists of all kinds are always developing and growing, but I'm still somewhat sceptical of an idea that he looked back on that old piece of art and decided to fix what he saw as issues. He clearly made the new version with reference to it, that much is obvious when you compare the colours and the hair shape and so on. But context is important. The portrait as you point out wasn't a commissioned piece of art, and nor was it something intended to work within a game. It was simply a piece of fan art, which he made out of love for the character. Clearly Ronzo thought that original portrait was good enough to call it the coolest guybrush he's ever seen, and while we're free to disagree (I think it's fine, but the portrait doesn't blow me away like it did Ron), there's no denying he's something of an authority on the subject of Guybrush. But yeah, anyway I guess what I want to say is that I think it's a bit unfair to compare the merit of the two images, similar in many ways though they are, and then attribute the differences in the second one to experience and artistic growth. They were both made for very different purposes, and I think that's the best explanation for why they hit different. (e.g. I suspect the reason that the portrait 'doesn't look like it could show a lot of different emotions' is that it doesn't need to, it's a static portrait, not because Rex figured out how to draw expressive-looking faces with 10 more years of art experience)

It was the worst! Wasn't even released on ST. I totally get the responses and can relate. I do love the different flavors and personalities of the islands. The crossword analogy is a good description of the feel for players not knowing the solution. My (what it looks like indeed!) unpopular opinion definitely comes from my POV of knowing the solutions by heart. What I meant was that I don't get the journey-flavor I crave, you know. Like, mainly, my brain travels between the islands in order to solve puzzle chains. But narratively, it is so fast it breaks the illusion for me. I can't imagine Guybrush having enough patience to spend ages on sea back to Scabb just to pick up a green drink. It's still better than Fate of Atlantis though . Casually flying back and forth between countries just pulls me out of the experience. I don't have that issue with the other Monkey Island games. Maybe it's another unpopular opinion, but I LOVE how much I have to walk in Mêlée Town in the first game. The place feels so real I don't mind the slow walking speed and the absence of fast travel.

Island hopping must’ve worked differently on the ST. 😉 When I first played MI2 (on a proper platform, the Amiga) it felt like an open world, jumping between different locations like that. It added a vastness reminiscent of the Indy movies. Not to say that feeling can’t be achieved on one single island, at least up to a point. Monkey in MI1 definitely had a similar vibe.

I also played CMI first. And I think for people new to MI today, CMI still is a very good, maybe the best, first game to get into the series (maybe an unpopular opinion?). Like @BaronGrackle I felt like I was in the same boat as Guybrush at the beginning. A great new adventure starts, with a mystery from the past – of which be both don’t know much about (anymore). If you look at it, CMI is kind of a soft reboot: It feels like a complete new story, which is funny, given the open ending of MI2. But it brings you into this world so smooth and elegantly that you never feel lost – even when you come across characters or events from 1 and 2. And on top of that, it’s just a really great game! One negative thing I only felt at my last replay is, that many of the dialogues are just not thaaat interesting or funny (not bad, but not amazing either). Most of them are a too long and too often I found myself skipping them, because I just didn’t care. There are highlights of course (e. g. Griswold Goodsoup) and often the voice over saves it for me, but in the end I enjoyed the dialogues much more in MI1, MI2 or TMI. But of course, the rest of the game is so great, that I don’t mind this thaaat much.

Ahh, the AdventureGamers Return to Monkey Island thread. It reminds me of what Stephen Fry once said: "Sometimes there just isn't enough vomit in the world.”

Not from what I can see. I wouldn't believe it unless we hear it from either Ron, Dave, or Devolver.

https://giphy.com/gifs/cbc-schittscreek-schitts-creek-vgtUfRstZNLyTLiJkP (If that was real I’d actually love that feature. 😄 Similar, I like to play Breath of the Wild without using teleporters.)

I don’t like the island hopping in Monkey 2. It’s so easy and quick that the world feels small to me. I like the puzzle sequences, but would’ve preferred Part 2 to take place on one island.

Yeah, I see what you mean. I think the chances of him reading this are preeetty low, honestly. I did mention to him in passing that we're generally pretty excited over here in Mojo land but I suspect right now he just wants to keep his head down and see the game out. Personally, and I think maybe part of it is to do with having various dev pals (and I promise this isn't a criticism of your approach, this is just the way I am), the older I get the more I find myself in a weird way both sharpening and mellowing out in the way I talk about stuff. I'm more specific than I used to be about why I like or dislike something, I spend more time talking about it and trying to unpack my feelings. But at the same time, while I don't always succeed, I try not to say anything in public about someone's work that I wouldn't be willing to say to their face as well. (in private forums, informally among small groups of friends though? Yeah, in those cases I might let loose a bit) This isn't really out of politeness - well, partially out of politeness, I guess, but I guess if I read something I said and realise 'I'd never say it that way to their face.' it helps me to be more specific and generous with my criticism, and get at what I'm really trying to say. Again, promise this isn't supposed to be a dig at you, I'm just try'na explain my angle on it. Really and truly you're good... don't mean to make a whole thing of it, was just trying to explain why it maybe hit me a bit different and I felt the need to respond to it.

Ending it with Guybrush and Elaine watching fireworks. Kind of sublime. EDIT: I'm going to choose to believe this influenced the final dialogue options in Tales, as you sailed into the sunset and had a few line choices that mirrored the ones at the end of Secret.

I played 2 before 1, so I had a similar experience to @BaronGrackle, where for me certain events were “foreshadowed” and made to seem hugely epic, or were alluded to in hushed tones and shrouded in mystery, or offered widows into relationships I only knew the end of. And of course the door to the alley, a place I’d never been but knew was important and eerie just from how it was treated. It made finally going back and playing 1 a totally different experience than I imagine it would have been if the order was flipped, but still a great and unforgettable one. Working on Tales in this context is something I’d probably need to sit down and think on to do properly, so I will wait before trying to write that up.

Ah, wow, cool. That must be really exciting. Yeah, I get it. This all isn't stuff I'd say to his face. I'm not directing these posts and comments personally at Rexbox at all. I couldn't, I don't think he's reading these posts (in the low chance he is: Hi). If I could talk to Rexbox personally about the art of ReMI, I wouldn't do it like that at all. The old fanart just came up and I gave my thoughts. That's it. He sounds like he would be really fun to talk about art with, from your description.

You have to have a unique perspective here too, being someone who for Tales had ALL the spoilers in advance, and created a good number of them. I often wonder, being on that side of the equation, how I would deal. Do you find that as time passes it feels less like a thing you were a part of and more like 'just another game in the series' or is it hard to untangle the general feelings you have about Monkey Island and the specific feelings you had about helping to make that specific Monkey Island? Anyway... to talk to myself for a little while... I suppose eventually we ALL know all the spoilers. I still play and enjoy the first two games every so often even though I know them almost beat for beat (admittedly I like waiting until I've forgotten a game a bit before I replay it but with MI that gets harder and harder). But you can never go back, right. Once you've played it the first time, that's done. The only way I've found to recapture some of that first-play feeling is to watch someone else do it for the first time. Just to get a little bit of a second-hand taste of that first-play feeling. So I totally get people having a desire to want to keep it as pure as possible, because you only get one shot. But to me it's a tradeoff. I trade a little bit of the joy of surprise for the luxury of not having to play a bullet hell game of spoilers with the internet, and for a little bit of a taste of what's to come, and for the enjoyable few months of pre-release speculation the promotional material lets me be involved in. For me that's a fair trade, but think I get why not everyone would want that.

Hi, just here to say that is an awesome post.

Ha, I remember that was one I had to get a hint on in 1997. Anyway, yeah, I think I've played all the Monkey Island I 'need' to play before ReMI. I'm intimately familiar with the first two as I tend to replay them every few years, and I've been watching parts of some plays on YouTube. CMI I'm almost as but not quite so familiar with, have also watch some plays of that. Escape I've watched bits and pieces but honestly I just don't really want to play it at the moment, I think it will annoy me. It deserves to be played when I'm more of a mind to give it a chance. I replayed Tales for the first time since it came out and mostly liked it, but my feelings about it have mellowed in both directions: the parts I liked most I not like less, and the parts I liked least I now like more. Over all I think it's 'good', and occasionally very good. I'm ready. Gimme ReMI.

Devolver will be bringing a collection of games to Pax West from 3rd - 6th September. Pretty much guaranteed they’ll bring ReMI and we’ll see more promo/gameplay in action.

Jawa, is that you?!

Yeah, there really is a sense of some people creating for themselves a personal hell where they're being offered something that seemed vanishingly unlikely 6 months ago, but can't see past their own preconceptions and expectations to enjoy the moment, even cautiously. I mean even I approached the announcement with caution - not because of the art style, but because I haven't always felt excited by how Ron has talked about his wishes for a sequel in the past. But am I willing to put those doubts aside to be excited we're getting it at all? Obviously! I want to shake people and tell them 'look, maybe you'll end up liking it, maybe not, but let your preconceptions of what it should be go and just try to enjoy the ride, you'll be happier' but I don't feel like it'll get through. BUT, that said, that forum, just like this forum, isn't the whole story. I've seen so many twitter comments from people saying they're coming around on the art, and Ron himself has said that people who tested the game found the style shocking at first but tended to really like it by the end. We know some regulars here initially cool on the art are warming to the style, too. Even I who was fine with the art style from the start, find myself more impressed with it the more we see. I am a bit sad to hear about Adventure Gamers forum, I'd have hoped to have seen a bit more excitement over there, but what can you do.

Try using your mouth on that bottle.

👕 I beat #Mojole #128 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 3/6 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 💛🖤🖤💚🖤 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

I don't think it's a coincedence that next Monkey Island Monday is the 1st of August. Release date please!

I also think i remember Rex referring to it as a sketch. I'm an artist and my sketches can be night and day compared to the final drawing. I often might rework stuff in the final. I imagine Ron also gave feedback on things to change or tweak (make Guybrush look older etc) But yeah if i drew something 10 years ago, I would definitley rework it as I'm not the same person or artist i was 10 years ago.

Rexbox's old Guybrush design was fine as a piece of fanart, don't get me wrong. There's a lot to like about it. I don't want to be seen as going hard on fanartists. But - The expression is extremely zonked. He's got no chin, his eyes are too far apart. The face doesn't look like it could show a lot of different emotions, its built to show This extremely goofy One. Fine for a one-off artwork but not OK for a proper protagonist design. - The ponytail doesn't read as a ponytail. It looks like he's just got long hair in the back, like a mullet. - I know a focus on using simple shapes is a part of the art style, but many of the key shapes here are uninteresting squares. Square is a good shape, but maybe not when its this plain? Yet with a decade of experience and working in a professional capacity, all those issues were fixed! Its such a huge improvement. This is praise, but presented in such a critical way whoops.

Every time I've walked out of a cinema with my jaw on the floor. (And it's happened maybe three times in my life.) I went into a see a film I knew nothing about. Zero, zip, nada. And every time I've left been disappointed, it's because my expectations were too high going in. I remember when Jurassic Park came out. I was a HUGE Spielberg fan. There was no doubt I was going to LOVE this film. It was MADE for me! I devoured every morsel that the TV at the time could give me. Every behind the scene snippet Every interview. Every trailer. I've never felt so disappointed. I want back, again and again, trying to watch the film everyone else was seeing... but every time I saw a film that didn't meet my super-hyped expectations. (It was only decades later, during lockdown, that I finally enjoyed it.) Spoilers spoil. I don't give a frig what a study allegedly shows. Give me ignorance, or give me death.

I really like the expression Guybrush has. It conveys pretty well that he's been through a lot. Even Dominic's lines heard so far are a bit subdued, especially in the trailer, so I'm really interested to see what Guybrush's character is like in this. Even his walk/run seems a lot more focused.

I've got to say I loved #Mojole #127. I guess I can't post spoilers yet but I was so close and yet so far for so many guesses (see above). And when I finally got it... well. That was a huge part of Monkey Island, for me. The biggest part, actually.

They got rid of the hillbilly touch. He looked happier back then though. I wonder what happened.

Only now I realize that his front piece of hair has the exact same shape as in that old art by Rex. Like 100% identical.

I really prefer the new design 🥰

Thank you! Oh man. Making this film made me want to make more animations again. I have ideas for Curse! And other films: I'd love to make an Escape one, and a film for Maniac Mansion. But it's hard to say if I have time at all. Monkey 2 was a exception, fueled by the ReMI hype I was ok with spending a ton of free time on it. We will see!

Update: Apparently this is not the original but is still rare, even if it’s just a print: It was a large format print made for Telltale’s office lobby. I don’t know that it’s worth 1-5000 dollars though. Anyone could blow up a print for their house and it would be functionally the same. You’d have to really care that it’s telltale office ephemera.

quick Guylead pencilsketch And a dead YTMND fad, with new ReMI visuals: https://stansells2022.ytmnd.com/

NEWS! More news coming... soon!

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.

Charles L. Charles reading this with a tear in his eye. Zombie Guybrush from the end of Tales reading this with a tear in his eye.

Monkey 2 has a mix of styles in its close up moments. The campfire near the beach and the fisherman both veer towards cartoony, but Rapp Scallion is quite realistic and is a pretty close match to the box art. The mismatch in styles never bothered me, and still doesn't - they just went with what was right for each moment. They tended to treat the horror aspects with a bit more realism, which I always liked. It was fun horror that still felt a bit dangerous - it trod its tonal tightrope very well.

I think something that is getting overlooked in the art discussion is not just the art from the original games, but the art used to sell them. While pixel art may leave a lot to the imagination, Steve Purcell's box art painted a pretty clear picture of how those worlds and characters were supposed to look. And I think we can agree that those paintings are seminal works amongst Monkey Island fans. Nostalgia for the childhoods of the 80s and 90s has been sweeping the world for several years now, across numerous properties, so I don't disagree that it's part of it. I've read about it for other reasons and it's seen as a symptom of troubled times, so take from that what you will. Yes there was a shift in art style between MI1 and 2, but it was hedged. The backgrounds were more surreal but the characters were similar, or in some cases exactly the same. And the promotional artwork was consistent in style across both games. The full shift in art didn't happen until Ron left the series. When taken as a totality - box art and game art, and the original creator responsible for both coming back - the choice to go in this direction is like expecting a sequel to the Mona Lisa and instead getting Picasso. Brilliant in its own right perhaps, but also confounding for many who were expecting something like the original Ron Gilbert game style.

I actually want to pick up on a point of discussion from earlier in the thread about the difference in art styles between MI1 and MI2. I can see the difference now, but at the time it did not register to me as a ‘new style’. I played the CD-ROM version of MI1, so the interface was the same, the character’s models looked basically the same, and I was a kid so I didn’t really think about it. The jump in style with MI3 was obviously a much larger one, and I think a lot of fans were wary about it before they played the game. It was hard to know what to expect, and I think there was a general sense of relief that it still felt like an adventure game despite the animated style. Curse threw down a gauntlet that the subsequent games struggled with. It was popular, so you couldn’t ignore it, but it’s hard to think of a character design that would be more challenging to translate to low-poly 3D animation. EMI tried, but I think in that game it was the technology that changed, rather than the overall visual approach to the world. It probably wasn’t as drastic enough of a change to my mind. Tales was a more successful adaptation of the Curse style, but feels like it’s set in the same visual world as MI3 and 4. In that sense, I think we have three main visual ‘eras’: -the original EGA Secret, the VGA remake, and Revenge. -Curse, Escape and Tales. -Return to Monkey Island! Both Curse and Return show a big reimagining of what the visual world of Monkey Island is, in ways that actually manage to cast the previous games in a new light. They aren’t total ruptures, of course, and they remain rooted in aspects of the earlier games, but the approach is different enough that it feels like a radical change.

With the new gameplay I thought I'd check the Adventure Gamers forums to see if peoples opinions might soften on the art style. That was a mistake 😔 Every comment i read felt like it was going out of its way to be negative and on the hunt to find something to complain about. I understand people have different opinions but it just saddens me as i feel like people are determined to hate it. A new Monkey Island should be a celebration, its a rare treat. I feel like people are doing themselves a diservice.