Your favorite Monkey Island game

[karmo]

3 hours ago, BaronGrackle said:

And using this criteria, can we call King's Quest a parody game? Defeating a dragon with a bucket of water, and all that?

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.

[BaronGrackle]

39 minutes ago, karmo said:

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 haven't played the games, but I've watched most of the King's Quest ones... and I'd argue that they're "sending up fairy tale tropes" a lot of the time.

 

Defeat a dragon with a bucket of water (twist on ordinary dragon slaying). Get by a troll by bringing a goat (because Three Billy Goats Gruff is a story). Follow the witch to her cottage and push her in the pot (because Hansel and Gretel is a story). Guess the little man's name, and it's NOT Rumplestiltskin but a word puzzle based on Rumplestiltskin (that we probably can't pronounce). I'm not as well versed on the sequels, but I know KQ3 lets you steal porridge from the Three Bears' house again and again, as they take walks again and again, because Goldilocks is a story. These stories are dark fantasy comedies (apparent from the funny death scenes, even) that strongly reference fairy tales. So when you play/watch a King's Quest game, you often find yourself thinking, "Oh, this is the thing from that other famous story, but they changed it in a funny way!"

Edited October 25, 2022 by BaronGrackle

[Jake]

Something being a satire or self aware doesn’t mean you as the audience shouldn’t or can’t feel genuine attachment to the characters. (I can’t tell if that is being argued or not but it’s sort of implied by @karmo. Apologies if I’m misreading what you were implying. This is more of a side thought than a direct response to anything!) I think Monkey Island 1 is definitely a send up of a bunch of pirate and adventure tropes, but it’s also a story where (for many players) the stakes end up feeling like they matter. You want guybrush to succeed and beat lechuck, for Guybrush and Elaine to get together (especially if you see their scene on the docks). The game being a send-up doesn’t mean you have to keep an ironic detachment from the characters; their wants and needs are genuine, they don’t know they’re in a send-up.*

 

The Princess Bride is probably the cleanest example of this - even though the kid knows he’s being told a story, and even though the characters themselves seem to occasionally know they’re existing in a trope filled adventure story, everyone in all layers of the story and meta story are rooting for them to succeed in the end. 
 

*though Roger Rabbit rules do apply: they occasionally know they’re in a game but “only when it’s funny.”

[BaronGrackle]

The best Monkey Island tabletop game is The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game, where you play different characters in key scenes of the film, but you're basically playing as the grandfather trying to keep his grandson's interest.

 

If anyone is aware of a more Monkey Island tabletop game, please let me know.

[Gins]

1 hour ago, Jake said:

The Princess Bride is probably the cleanest example of this - even though the kid knows he’s being told a story, and even though the characters themselves seem to occasionally know they’re existing in a trope filled adventure story, everyone in all layers of the story and meta story are rooting for them to succeed in the end. 

As I read your post I was getting ready to post "Yeah! Like, just look at Princess Bride!" and then you mention it yourself.

 

Although, being on Monkey Island board and thinking of Princess Bride isn't inconceivable. It could even be considered one of the classic blunders not to!

 

 

On the topic of a parody, I don't think it's a parody in the classic sense. I'd put it rather as a comedy adventure, more like maybe Last Crusade, less like Airplane! which is a spoof of a specific film and similar works.

 

SMI is to me (now literally) a theme park coming alive in the imagination of a child, full of wonder and simplified, romantizised pirate stuff.

Edited October 25, 2022 by Gins

[ThunderPeel2001]

On 10/25/2022 at 5:52 PM, Jake said:

The Princess Bride is probably the cleanest example of this - even though the kid knows he’s being told a story, and even though the characters themselves seem to occasionally know they’re existing in a trope filled adventure story, everyone in all layers of the story and meta story are rooting for them to succeed in the end. 

 

I'd argue that you can go further into spoof territory and still have the audience care: Blazing Saddles and much of Mel Brooks's output falls into this category if you ask me.

[Speedo7]

Secret will always be too special for me. The atmosphere and the night are amazing. I also think it has the most balanced story.

 

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Want to add https://datasn.io for those who interested in any kind of data available on the web.

Edited February 10, 2023 by Speedo7