Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge

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Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Developer(s)	Lucas Arts
Publisher(s)	Lucas Arts
Designer(s)	Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman
Engine	SCUMM
Release date(s)	1991
Genre(s)	Adventure game
Mode(s)	Single player
Platform(s)	PC CD-ROM (MS-DOS), PC Floppy (VGA), Macintosh, FM-Towns, ScummVM, Amiga
Media	Floppy disk / CD-ROM
Input	Mouse

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge (MI2), was the second game of the Monkey Island series and the sixth by LucasArts to use the SCUMM engine. It was also the first game to use the iMUSE sound system.

The development team for the game was largely the same as the first with the project being lead by Ron Gilbert. He was once more joined by Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman. Gilbert parted ways with LucasArts after Monkey Island 2 while Grossman would go on to co-design Day of the Tentacle. Schafer's future projects would include Full Throttle and Grim Fandango.

Michael Land was again responsible for producing the music for the game. The game's graphic interface would later be adapted for the CD-ROM release of The Secret of Monkey Island.

[edit] Story

After the successful victory of the first game, we don't know what happened between Guybrush Threepwood and Elaine Marley. The sequel involves Guybrush's attempts to both find the mysterious treasure, Big Whoop, and win back Elaine's love.

At the beginning of the game, we see Elaine and Guybrush, both hanging from two separate ropes. Elaine asks Guybrush to tell his story.

Guybrush' story begins with him talking to two pirates and telling them about the time he blew up LeChuck into pieces. He further tells them that he's looking for "Big Whoop", and is looking for a ship to take him there. The Pirates tell Guybrush that Largo LaGrande, LeChuck's ex-henchman, is having an embargo on the island. Guybrush, with the voodoo-doll that Voodoo Lady gave to him, defeats Largo. However Largo steals the beard that Guybrush keeps, and resurrects his old patron.

After Voodoo Lady telling Guybrush that "the only way to stop LeChuck now lies only in the secret of Big Whoop", Guybrush continues his quest to search the said treasure.

After a lengthy quest involving everything from library research to a spitting contest, Guybrush finds the long-hidden map of Dinky Island, pinpointing the location of Big Whoop. He loses the map to LeChuck, but lands on Dinky anyway, where he discovers Herman Toothrot teaching philosophy. Herman is typically unhelpful, but his parrot remembers the conversation between the sailors who originally discovered Big Whoop and guides Guybrush to the treasure's burial site in exchange for crackers. Guybrush excavates the site and slides into the ground on a rope.

At this point, we come back to the scene where we saw in the overture, Elaine and Guybrush talking. Unfortunately for Guybrush, his rope snaps and he falls into a series of artificial tunnels. LeChuck confronts Guybrush, claiming to be the mighty pirate's brother, and stalks him through the tunnels, tormenting him with a voodoo doll. Running from LeChuck, Guybrush makes a number of surprising (more so for us than him) discoveries, including the skeletal remains of his parents, an elevator to Mêlée Island, and the infrastructure to an amusement park.

By taking advantage of his surroundings, Guybrush is able to construct a voodoo doll of LeChuck, and maims the zombie pirate. LeChuck begs Guybrush to take his mask off; Guybrush acquiesces, revealing the face of his brother, "Chuckie." The reunion of the two "brothers" is interrupted by a man in brown coveralls, not unlike the delivery crew in Acts II and III, telling them that kids are not allowed "down here." The two brothers, now both appearing as children, exit the tunnels together and meet their parents aboveground in the "Big Whoop" amusement park. As the family leaves to ride the Madly Rotating Buccaneer, Chuckie turns towards the screen and grins, voodoo magic playing over his eyes.

The last in-game screen shows Elaine standing outside Big Whoop excavation site, wondering, "What could be keeping Guybrush? I hope LeChuck hasn't put some sort of SPELL over him .... "

[edit] Details

MI2 is considered by many fans and critics to be among the best of LucasArts' adventure games. Despite its popularity, its ambiguous and surrealistic ending drew criticism.

It was also the first adventure game that in the beginning offered 2 levels of puzzle difficulty. The easy level had several puzzles and minor plot elements trimmed.

The game was released on floppy disks for the PC (with VGA graphics), Macintosh and Amiga (with standard 32-color graphics) in 1991, and was later included on a CD-ROM compilation of Monkey Island games. In 1994, the game was released on the FM Towns, the last title LucasArts ever published on that system. The project leader and designer was Ron Gilbert.

[edit] Trivia

• In the game, the gull from LOOM makes an appearance once again and is mentioned in the credits.
• In a reference to Indiana Jones, the subject of another LucasArts adventure game, Guybrush mentions how he hates snakes upon climbing out of the crate he hides in to get to LeChuck's fortress.
• In another faux-death easter egg, Guybrush can supposedly die by being lowered into a pit of acid. This results in a logical impossibility since (as we are then reminded) he is relating the story to Elaine, obviously very alive. Elaine points out this paradox and Guybrush backtracks, subsequently bringing the player back to the beginning of the acid pit scene.
• In more of a continuity error, Guybrush temporarily loses his facial hair when he is sitting on the stump on the beach on Scabb Island.
• Monkey Island 2 contains two difficulty settings, of sorts. In some versions, before starting the game, the player is prompted to choose between regular MI2 and "Monkey 2 Lite", a relatively stripped-down experience which bypasses many puzzles entirely. On the back of the game's packaging, it is (jokingly) stated that this mode is intended for video game reviewers. (This choice of difficulty returned in The Curse of Monkey Island, but its alternative option, "Mega-Monkey", is the opposite of "Monkey 2 Lite", offering some additional puzzles, dialog and items over the normal game.)

• Plans to release Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge for the Sega CD were scrapped after the Sega CD edition of Monkey Island 1 did not sell well.
• The Monkey Island series was partially inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and Monkey Island 2 features a number of tributes to it, particularly a scene with a guard dog in a prison being lured by a bone and Disneyland style underground tunnels and "E Tickets" in the closing scenes.
• Ron Gilbert has also mentioned though how much of the inspiration came from the 1988 Tim Powers book On Stranger Tides.