Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge is the 1991 sequel to the classic The Secret of Monkey Island and is arguably even better than its fondly-remembered predecessor.
Created by essentially the same team as the previous game, Monkey Island 2 once again follows the exploits of Guybrush Threepwood and his adventures into pirating and comedy. And once again he is up against his arch nemesis, LeChuck, only this time LeChuck is a rotting zombie due to him having been killed in the last game and brought back to life in this.
Like all LucasArts point-and-click adventures, Monkey Island 2 features beautiful graphics and laugh-out-loud dialogue. The solutions to many of the early puzzles are not too difficult to figure out, but some do take a leap in imagination to make the link between certain items and locations.
Monkey Island 2 was the first LucasArts game to use the iMUSE music system, which basically adapts depending on the situation, and it also opens with dancing monkeys! And everyone loves dancing monkeys… Well, digital ones, anyway.
A HD remake was released in 2010 and is currently available in various outlets. These grabs show the original 1991 DOS VGA version.
Monkey Island 2 really is a belly-laugh of an adventure and is arguably the high point of the series. It’s well worth playing.
More: Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge on Wikipedia
Steam: Monkey Island 2 Special Edition on Steam
GOG.com: Monkey Island 2 Special Edition on GOG.com
The King of Grabs 
Although the first Monkey Island was the first one I saw (at my aunty and uncles neighbours – they had an Amiga set up and put me on it to keep me occupied. Bizarrely it was up to the final fight, where you’re being punched about the island. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing), the second game was the one I was lent and had chance to properly play, and I loved it.
Something about this felt more charming to me. I got stuck in that first dock area for so very long… and loved every minute of it. It oozed charm, and I loved all the little ship houses and the personalities of the people in there. I honestly felt like I could’ve lived there.
While the first game deserves its rightful place in history, I think this trumps it in (almost) every way, the storytelling is brill and the settings are marvellous.
Such was the effect of this game that I avoided playing Curse for more than ten years out of the belief that it just wouldn’t be able to hold a candle and it might retroactively ruin Revenge.
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I just bought the Special Editions on GOG.com. Looking forward to checking them out!
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Actually, I decided to buy all four. I’ve not played the third one much (a little bit – not much), and never played the fourth one. The Special Editions are quite big – 2GB each. How times have changed!
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I wound up really enjoying the third one, thought it was a cracking entry.
I’ve never completed the fourth but made a decent start on it. The shonkiness of the 3D lets it down, but the writing kept it afloat a bit. Not as much of a disaster as others make it out to be, but easily the weakest.
Still haven’t played Tales.
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Curse was a PC Zone cover when I was there. Issue 51. I never played it much though. Can’t remember who did the review.
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