Pure genius, you would be a doody head to ignore this game.
As always, Monkey Island plays on random humour much in the vein of an Americanised sequence of Monty Python skits (read: most of it should fall flat on its face, but it holds up surprisingly well). Expect insane characters, lush environments with silly names and obscure items that make for amusing inventory puzzles. All of which successfully helps LucasArts step up the series to the new generation of adventure gaming.
Curse Of Monkey Island begins with Guybrush floating in the sea in a dogem car, writing a letter to his beloved governor of Monkey Island, Elaine Marley. Typical humour soon follows as he lists food and drink he craves, only for them to pass him by without him noticing. Soon, however, Guybrush floats into a battle between Elaine Marley and LeChuck's undead army. LeChuck holds the same romantic feelings towards the Elaine, whose moral conscience is still on vacation when it comes to firing a shotgun at him. Anyway, Guybrush is captured by LeChuck's side and placed in a vault with Wally, the little mapmaker from the previous game whose monocle was stolen by none other than Mr Threepwood himself. Those who doubt the power of karma might find it a hard job explaining why Wally is pointing a gun at him.
The humour throughout is certainly commendable. With support characters ranging from a eerily spoken skull (Murray) who has been struck with the unfortune of being foiled by Guybrush (after he dismembered his body with a cannon) and the Welsh ghost boatman with no sense of direction, the script manages to be really funny. Like Rincewind from Mortality Bytes, Guybrush is destined to be the hapless fool; of course, this amasses immense empathy towards him. His sense of humour can be intellectual enough to enter the matrimony of cult classics such as The Life Of Brian but then renders itself into the more ridiculous, obvious trappings of Carry On and other modern day sitcoms. Despite a few minor gripes with the jokes, grins will become frequent throughout.
One of the most radical things in the gameplay in Curse Of Monkey Island is the control panel. It's farewell to the usual list of commands such as talking, using and examining for a gold coin depicting the commands. Your inventory is now held in a treasure chest. Not a moving one like in Mortality Bytes, but a screen showing the inside of the chest with all your items in there. Clicking and holding onto them brings up the same option box, which operates the same for environment interaction and characters.
Mini-games prove to be the biggest delight in the gameplay, and they're spread out nicely throughout COMI. There's a guitar duel, where your objective is to match the opponent's guitar notes, followed by the genius Insult Sword Fighting. A game where to win you have to match your opponent's insult with a rhyming insult. For example, when insulted, you select from a list of dialogue options that rhymes. Such would be: 'You look like a monkey in a negligee', to which the answer would be: 'I look that much like your fiancee?' It's arguably the funniest part of the game.
Guybrush's traverse of the islands is celebrated in vibrant 2D graphics, complete with fluid animation and flawless lip-syncing. The Carribean has never looked so beautiful. As you'd expect, being that if you've actually been or live in the Carribean, the locations are colourful and bright, boasting gorgeous beaches to romantic night time backdrops, in this case rendered sumptuously with moody colours. Sometimes you have a watercolour look going on, before it shifts into an animated cartoon look. Character designs are also impressive. Guybrush's waif-thin body (and blonde mullet) only add to the slapstick comedy he'll be performing. The best would be LeChuck, who now has a firebeard, making him seem to possess some evil powers with comical taste instead of an actual scary ghoul entity as he was in the previous games.
Voice acting has never been used more effectively in a video game, bar Metal Gear Solid perhaps. Dominic Armato manages to be sarcastic, aloof and lovable at the same time. The same praise can be given for the rest of the actors. The soundtrack is equally impressive, so ethnic that at times you may feel like you're wandering through the Carribbean. There is nice timpani music throughout, great variations from wind to percussion, and some mellow tunes also.
Curse Of Monkey Island is a perfect example of how fun adventure games are and how to capture a unique sense of humour. Arresting wit, gorgeous graphics, wonderful music, hilarious acting and bizarre charaters, Curse Of Monkey Island is by far the strongest game in the series and possibly the best LucasArts game yet. You would be a doody head to ignore this game.