Roderick

Tales of Monkey Island

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The last third of the game was Monkey Kombat. (Or at least, it *felt* like the last third of the game.)

I feel like there's not much that can be said about why this is a bad idea.

There were some positive moments in MI4 - most notably the time paradox swamp puzzle where you meet yourself from the past and give yourself the same inventory items you received a few moments ago.

But really, it just felt weird and had some fairly hard puzzles with fairly little reward. (The damn thing shipped with a walkthrough, which is telling.)

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Yeah, the time travel puzzle was probably my favourite bit, too. My main other memories were collecting seemingly endless prosthetic body parts and giving up at a scene with a really high diving board or water slide or something. I don't know if that bit was particularly irritating or if I'd just had enough in general.

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It's weird how we all seem to remember the same bits!

I remember collecting all body parts and combining them into an "Unholy creation" (or something similar). I also vaguely remember Murray.

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It's weird how we all seem to remember the same bits!

I remember collecting all body parts and combining them into an "Unholy creation" (or something similar).

That was hilarious! I remember you could do some sort of prank with it, too.

Am I the only one who liked Monkey Kombat?

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I also vaguely remember Murray.

Someone at school kept referring to me as "Murray the talking skull" (guess why) at school before I'd played the game. It was pretty annoying. He was one of those people who's kind of boring and keeps saying the same things or making the same jokes to you over and over. I get a bit paranoid about being like that sometimes. SORRY IF I AM.

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Someone at school kept referring to me as "Murray the talking skull" (guess why) at school before I'd played the game. It was pretty annoying. He was one of those people who's kind of boring and keeps saying the same things or making the same jokes to you over and over. I get a bit paranoid about being like that sometimes. SORRY IF I AM.

How on earth are you like Murray?

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Am I the only one who liked Monkey Kombat?

Yes.

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I didn't hate it at the time, but it doesn't really stand out as a positive either. It was just something in the game, and it wasn't really memorable to me for good or bad reasons.

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That's what the M stands for.

Ah, it all makes sense now! I thought when you said...

I get a bit paranoid about being like that sometimes. SORRY IF I AM.

...you meant being like Murray the demonic skull!

I hope if that guy was older than 11, you kicked him square in the goolies.

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Monkey Kombat forced me to write shit down because I couldn't remember what stance beat what other stance, or whatever. Prior to that, no game had forced me to write things down since about 1986. For that reason alone, I hate Monkey Kombat.

(Also I hated the Monkey Kombat music. Also it was a funny Mortal Kombat parody the first time you did it, but the game made you sit through the same joke about a hundred times. Also that talking monkey who teaches it to you was annoying and unfunny. Also I hate that the end of the game consists entirely of Monkey Kombat, and yet after training you to fight one certain way, the game gives you no hint that you need to change your strategy, forcing me to sit through literally a half-hour of Monkey Kombat stalemate action!™ before finally figuring out what to do. Also fuck you Monkey Kombat.)

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Monkey Kombat forced me to write shit down because I couldn't remember what stance beat what other stance, or whatever. Prior to that, no game had forced me to write things down since about 1986. For that reason alone, I hate Monkey Kombat.

I remember a drawing a relatively simple table for this.

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That's a good chart. I've used it on subsequent playthroughs.

The first time I had to do monkey combat, I remember writing a copious amount of greater than and less than symbols next to stances on a yellow post it. It was jam packed, because for whatever reason I thought going into the puzzle that it was going to be much more simple than it turned out to be.

I didn't hate the puzzle and it wasn't that hard, but it wasn't enjoyable either, so I'm with Miffy. I first played EMI at a time when I in high school seeking out almost every adventure game I heard was slightly above mediocre (which I don't recommend), so the puzzle wasn't too obnoxious compared to some I was having to trudge through at the time.

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For some strange reason, this thread makes me want to replay Escape from Monkey Island. Surely it can't be as bad as I remember it?

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I first played EMI at a time when I in high school seeking out almost every adventure game I heard was slightly above mediocre (which I don't recommend), so the puzzle wasn't too obnoxious compared to some I was having to trudge through at the time.

I was in pretty much the same boat. Around 2000, I was in middle school and learned that that game my friend had lent me in the mid-90's (MI) had sequels, and actually an entire genre of similar games existed! So little 12 year old me played every adventure game I could get my hands on. This meant that while dealing with Monkey Kombat I was simultaneously confused as all hell by Gabriel Knight 2 and stuck about halfway through The Dig. Just seemed like another weird puzzle at the time.

I dug out my copy of EMI when Tales was announced as well, and am currently replaying all MIs in order for the first time in 3 years. Exciting!

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And just finished my playthrough of MI1. Took about 2 hours over a couple of nights. Scarily, I've now played that game so much that I think it's actually in my muscle memory. I haven't played the game since about 2005, so the puzzles were fresh again to me. Thing is, I was solving them without trying. I would go somewhere, do a thing, and then the puzzle would be solved and I'd think "Oh yeah! That was that puzzle!" Kind of a surreal experience to go through an entire game doing everything right but not knowing why you're doing something until after. Oh well, on to MI2, which I've beaten about half as many times and hopefully will not be able to do on auto-pilot.

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And just finished my playthrough of MI1. Took about 2 hours over a couple of nights. Scarily, I've now played that game so much that I think it's actually in my muscle memory. I haven't played the game since about 2005, so the puzzles were fresh again to me. Thing is, I was solving them without trying. I would go somewhere, do a thing, and then the puzzle would be solved and I'd think "Oh yeah! That was that puzzle!" Kind of a surreal experience to go through an entire game doing everything right but not knowing why you're doing something until after. Oh well, on to MI2, which I've beaten about half as many times and hopefully will not be able to do on auto-pilot.

Wow, your cerebellum knows MI... good lord. I have a feeling I'll have a similar experience with MI2 -- but I'm kind of hoping I'll be able to play it again, afresh, one day!

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