karmo

Additional thought about EMI. When Curse didn't use Whole commerialization plot in EMI made anachronisms again relevant for world of Monkey Island.

Since Phatt is similar to governor Fat, i wonder did Ron originally plan to use him and more ideas from Mutiny in MI3a. If so there would have been additional reasons for Ron to make Return instead of MI3a -not only did Curse already use hellfire turning living into undead idea but Escape already used rich man tries to take control of Caribbean with supernatural means idea.

I have not thought about it before, but maybe Curse team felt that lack ship battles was weakness of Ron's games. (It is interesting that ship battles are part of means to

I used to think that EMI version was there for grander finale, but now i realised that pop culture aware guys like Clark and Stemmle probably got King Kong reference and built on it.

Giant monkey head in MI is reference to King Kong. Regarding EMI

EMI has story with comedy mystery elements with all those things Guybrush has to investigate Maybe it would have been better game if it had game play of mystery game also? I mean, maybe it should had individual locations open up during investigation instead of each chapter having locations to explore from start and maybe it should had dialog system with new topics constantly opening up when Guybrush uncovers new info? (Stemmle and Clark used those game play devices successfully in Hit the Road after all.)

Maybe there are old threads suggesting games, but anyway... Simon the Sorcerer 1,2 -English equivalent of humor of MI, especially Simon the Sorcerer 2. Freddy Pharkas -parody of westerns. (Beware, there are deaths and tedious copy protection.) I would also suggest Touché: The Adventures of the Fifth Musketeer but i don't know if it sold anywhere.

Mentioning KQ games made me think. Have you ever played first two Simon Sorcerer games? To me they are more similar of Ron's MI games than any other adventure game including LucasArts ones. And they are sending up fairy tale tropes unlike KQ games that use fairy tale elements mostly sincerely.

I have feeling we both write in adventuregamers.com forum and do it under different usernames than we use here. Anyway, wannabe pirate going to trials etc. is subversion of stereotype of pirate like afro-american sheriff in Blazing Saddles is subversion of stereotype of sheriff in westerns. Circus that pirates visit subverts pirates as tough people stereotype. Monetizing pirate theme is satire on very same thing that inspired this games, Disney parks. (Meathook having hooks for both hands and way he lost them is itself another joke this time about stereotypical pirate handicaps. Jokes about those handicaps keep popping up in future games, both Ron's and other designers').

I am not going to rate 'em but this seems to be good place to discuss them. SOMI is parody game to me (strength of grog and role of insults in swrodfight are exaggerated, and i have hard time to understand how anyone can see it as swashbuckling adventure and not as send up of one. LeChuck's Revenge added darker comedy but still made fun of looking for treasure cliche. (Classic swashbuckling stories are done from point of view of heroic guy so despite wanting to be pirate Guybrush often ends up following footsteps of Jim Hawkins.) Like its genre (is it parody or just comedy?) its ending is ambiguous. My main problem with Curse is that to me its links to previous games seem weak. Escape has more biting humor than Curse to me but is more flawed as whole. (Its plot can almost be seen as jab on Curse for sanitizing MI series.) Tales heart is in good place but i think developers felt restricted by MI franchise and had to make up new mythology that isn't very convincing.

My memory is little muddy on details but i think i played LeChuck's Revenge first time few years later than it came out.

I don't know how seriously i should take my own thought, but i can't un-think it now.