The Curse of Monkey Island

The Curse of Monkey Island is one of the great comic adventure games of the late 1990s, combining pirates, absurd puzzles, memorable characters, and enough terrible puns to sink a respectable ship. As Guybrush Threepwood, you once again stumble through an adventure involving curses, romance, rival pirates, and problems that would probably be solved in five minutes if everyone simply talked to each other. The hand-drawn cartoon presentation remains gorgeous, while the writing is packed with jokes that reward paying attention rather than merely clicking through conversations. The puzzles are generally more approachable than those of earlier adventures, although Monkey Island logic occasionally requires the kind of imagination that should probably not be encouraged in real life. Charming, funny, and endlessly quotable, it remains an excellent example of how comedy and adventure can work together without one getting in the way of the other.