Mintopia

It's ok, it's on the third repeat of everything, so you've only missed one!

Monkey Island Heardle #286 🔊🟩⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ #MonkeyIslandHeardle

I really didn't care for KotCS (I will however defend it against any criticism for aliens being involved), but this just worked for me. Enjoyable, at no point was I checking my watch or thinking it had run too long. Some parts were pure nostalgia bait but that's OK by me. I'm unsure whether to rate this higher or lower than Temple of Doom, definitely needs a further watch to clarify. Last Crusade Raiders of the Lost Ark Temple of Doom / Dial of Destiny A long way behind: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I've been listening to this music since the midi days back on IRC 25 years ago, I think some of the Escape music may have been given their names by me back then - so I recognise a lot of the music first time through. Today's however, is a classic I have always loved, a highlight of the game's soundtrack.

I've fixed it Also: Monkey Island Heardle #285 🔊🟩⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ #MonkeyIslandHeardle Although this is my third time through this 😛 I always planned to rewrite it to make it better, but for something I copied from somewhere else and threw together in about 2 hours, I don't want to put more time in - but as long as everyone is enjoying it, I'm happy! (and yes, I fixed in the worst way possible, but since I didn't write the Javascript, I don't care too much). Since people are playing it, I'll need to edit some of the tracks - Pirate I was Meant To Be is not obvious enough. Something for me to do when bored at work tomorrow!

There's an interview with Creative Director Mike Chapman, where he goes into more detail. Timeline-wise, it's set after the end of Curse of Monkey Island: So could be an interesting 'what if'. Maybe these aren't the 'real' Melee Island/Monkey Island and instead are versions within the Sea of Thieves. Either way I am hyped and here for this.

So a week later and my reflections/thoughts on the endings and how I see it. So we'll start with the secret. I love how it's handled - what the secret is isn't important, and it was never going to be revealed, it could be anything, it could be a lame T-shirt, we don't know as we have an unreliable narrator. Is Guybrush really a flooring inspector? No. Is it all the delusions of someone obsessed with pirates/theme parks? No. I see it that he's legitimately telling the story of Return to Monkey Island and how he *maybe* found the secret to his son, but everything from stepping through the door is just him making up that part for his son - either to help teach him the lesson that obsessing over something like the secret is bad - and that it doesn't really matter; or to make a fun story. The ending of MI2 as featured in MI2/the start of the prologue? What we see in MI2 is Chuckie + Boybrush playing out the ending of an adventure Guybrush had where he found Big Whoop. Again - we never see the real ending, but we know from CMI Guybrush ended up cursed and in a carnival - so this is why the boys pretend and play around that they're in this carnival but don't really know the details or are embellishing it. When the player gets control in the prologue - it's not the Big Whoop carnival. There's no rides, no Steamin' Weenie shack, no costume shop, etc, it's a park with some shops. As I see it, MI1, most of MI2 except the bit in the Tunnels, CMI, EMI, Tales, and Return until he steps through the door *mostly* happened as we saw. Along with any number of unknown tales, adventures, etc. that we haven't seen. At some point they had a child, Boybrush, and this is years later and his Dad is telling him stories of the adventures he went on. Everything is real except the endings of MI2 and Return; and only Guybrush possibly knows what the secret is - or he gave up on finding it out. Maybe it was a T-Shirt, maybe it was gold, maybe it was the friends we made, maybe he never found out. We don't know. As a player, still find it slightly frustrating the main inner plotline didn't get a resolution, but I can live with that. The game was enjoyable. It's a brilliant part of the book and a nice callback to Jack's origins. The books was really done a disservice by the terrible movie adaptation. I also picked up on the Terror Island aspects of it too.

The chat on the speedrun discord is being quite secretive about routing, tips, etc. I've done a hard-mode speedrun and grabbed the achievement as part of it. My advice would be: Use Easy Mode - it's a lot quicker (20-25 minutes). Double click to run places quickly. In chapter 4, press M or use the map in inventory to jump straight to it. In chapter 3, you don't need to steal LeChuck's theme, just play it - it doesn't change. The 'alternate' ending by heading back into the caves is probably quicker.

This is a reference that completely passed me by until I finally made a pilgrimage this year to Disneyland (something I've wanted to do for 24 years now) and rode the original Pirates of the Caribbean and realised how similar the banjo/bayou opening was. It's something you don't get at the Walt Disney World or Disneyland Paris versions. I have a lot of Monkey Island swag already... ... and it's not enough! I want that t-shirt!

Speed Runner is an interesting one for me - as I'm planning on speedrunning the game properly. Playing it on Writer's Cut, Hard Mode with some pretty good routing, it took about 1hr 35m, so there's not that much headroom in it for people speedrunning it more casually. Also, the achievement was awarded on the fade to credits after talking to Boybrush at the end. It might be quicker to do the alternate ending of running out through the caves.

So I know how to do the Save Wally achievement, I just haven't done it yet. The one I'm completely puzzled about is Cogg Island. I know it's on the concept art map, and Google says someone found it, but I have no idea.

Yep, this game really opens things up for other Monkey Island games now - you can frame anything as one of Guybrush's adventures that he's telling Boybrush about and it works, the bold move is writing the story of this quest for the treasure that Elaine mentions at the end of Return - as that would be new continuity.

So I've been talking to people on reddit, discord, etc. about my thoughts on the game: Absolutely loved it. The framing device/the explanation of the end of MI2 was just genius. Michael Land's score is brilliant, although it's missing some catchy themes of its own. The highlights of it being the points I recognised themes from the other games (Scabb Island cemetary as part of the LeShip music; the map music being Woodtick from MI2). The puzzles seemed a bit easier than maybe Curse, Escape or MI2. The chapter 5 puzzles and the codewheel reminded me a lot of Fate of Atlantis. So the ending. Like many people it seems, the ending made me go 'huh'. In fact I think I uttered a "Really..." when stepping out into Melee Alley at the end. It left me initially feeling cold and dissapointed. Reflecting on it after sleep and 23 hours later, I appreciate and quite like the ending - with everything Ron and Dave were trying to say throughout the game about the persuit of the secret; their letter in the scrapbook about their thoughts. They could never deliver a secret that would satisfy the fanbase, and on reflection what they have delivered with this game in regards to the secret is perfect. My only downside to the ending is that I would have liked to have seen some sort of real confrontation between LeChuck, Guybrush and Lila. Even in an Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade style "Leave the secret Guybrush, you don't need it" type of resolution. I think my initial "huh" at the ending would have been tempered somewhat by that. Absolutely amazing game overall and Ron and the team really delivered something special. I think my favourite is still MI2 then Curse, but this is up there for me below those two. Now to just work out how to find Cogg Island. I've seen it in the concept art in the credits and I know it's one of the achievements.