This isn't funny anymore.. stop monkeying around with Monkey Island!

[Tanukitsune]

No-one's forcing you to play these games, you know. You can't seriously expect the last two to have no references to MI. Just to let you know, if you do play those two and then come back onto this forum and I see that you have bumped this thread to complain further, I will ruin your shit. Completely. I won't. I'm kidding.

I like that you feel comfortable enough here to rant about things that get on your nerves, it makes me feel comfortable enough to troll your rant

I have to play SOMETHING until the next Telltale game comes out! ;P

And I made a typo, it's not "Ghost Pirate or Vooju Island", it's "Ghost Pirate OF Vooju Island", made by former Lucasarts members, with pirates AND voodoo...

But at least Autumn Moon are funny people and they references will hopefully be more funny and witty than the So Blonde ones....

(Has anybody played So Blonde? Maybe I should make a post about it? It's so weird in concept when you think about it....)

[toblix]

I think I pirated So Blonde because I couldn't find a demo, and then it turned out not to be super great. There was something with a pirate ship I think. Should I feel bad? Does it get better later on? Should I buy it?

[Tanukitsune]

It's pretty mediocre, the graphics are subpar, (no face animations!), the humor is hit or miss, sometimes more miss than hit... And since it was also being made for the Wii it has a ton of minigames... some of them are a bit annoying.

The story was OK, but the weirdest part is the the main character is a... dumb blonde! She's supposed to be dumb, but at the same time she's solving riddles and complex puzzles? They even ask a bunch of complex questions to which she knows the answer to! And yet the whole premise of the game is that she's a dumb blonde... I can believe your character can develop can "wisen up", but gaining knowledge is just ludicrous!

The extra endings you get if you collect some certain items are nice, but I payed 19.99€ for this game, and I can't recommend it for this price, maybe for 10€, and for 5€ I'd try just about anything...

It's not as bad as Deck 13 game, if that is any indication?

[Hermie]

This is a good point, it reminds me of when comedy skits reference Monty Python. It's like they don't understand why the source material is so good.

Precisely where my mind went as well. Randall Munroe captures it pretty well.

I only played the first Tales so far, but I was happy to see it pretty much stand on its own legs in terms of writing.

I am still a sucker for a good pop culture reference, though. The differentiating element being, using an intertextual reference in order to make a joke, as opposed to "hey, remember when this other product said something funny?". I'm a huge sucker for the show Psych, who I think pull this off rather well (though I wouldn't be surprised if many disagree).

A simple nod to your past I find acceptable too, but most games seem to fly it straight in your face, with the expectation of it being funny. I was going to cite Longest Journey, but the more I think about it, that one was pretty brazen too. =/

Additional thought: References get dated. Fast. And while this will not happen to mediocre adventure games contra Monkey Island, when your product gets old and people don't know about Double Rainbow or Star Wars Kid anymore, your carefully crafted attempt at being "with it" just looks like gibberish. A well told joke, however, is timeless.

[Tanukitsune]

Precisely where my mind went as well. Randall Munroe captures it pretty well.

I only played the first Tales so far, but I was happy to see it pretty much stand on its own legs in terms of writing.

I am still a sucker for a good pop culture reference, though. The differentiating element being, using an intertextual reference in order to make a joke, as opposed to "hey, remember when this other product said something funny?". I'm a huge sucker for the show Psych, who I think pull this off rather well (though I wouldn't be surprised if many disagree).

A simple nod to your past I find acceptable too, but most games seem to fly it straight in your face, with the expectation of it being funny. I was going to cite Longest Journey, but the more I think about it, that one was pretty brazen too. =/

Additional thought: References get dated. Fast. And while this will not happen to mediocre adventure games contra Monkey Island, when your product gets old and people don't know about Double Rainbow or Star Wars Kid anymore, your carefully crafted attempt at being "with it" just looks like gibberish. A well told joke, however, is timeless.

I'm pretty sure The Longest Journey touted it's references to other adventure games on it's backcover....

[Nappi]

I'm pretty sure The Longest Journey touted it's references to other adventure games on it's backcover....

Not in my copy at least. It promises "over 50 hours of gameplay" though.

[brkl]

Bored me after about 4.

[syntheticgerbil]

This has annoyed me before. All new adventure games want to show how old school they are by referring to Monkey Island in some inane way, when they should be showing that by being good.

My real reply is that I completely agree with what brkl said here, but I guess I didn't want to complain with you Tankitsune, because I've stopped playing most adventures, especially anything faintly mediocre, so I don't really feel annoyed with constant LucasArts references like I was for a while there 6-8 years back.

That and I guess it doesn't make me too mad to remember to be mad about it.

[Ben X]

Some people here should deffo not play Ben There, Dan That! or Time Gentlemen Please! then...

[elmuerte]

Not in my copy at least. It promises "over 50 hours of gameplay" though.

Oo

I must have taken a shortcut.

[Jake]

Some people here should deffo not play Ben There, Dan That! or Time Gentlemen Please! then...

Those games aren't all fucking winkey about it though. The series opens with a huge Sam and Max poster up on the wall, doesn't it? That's the opposite of a coy wink, it's a punch in the face, which is much preferred by me when it comes to this stuff.

That's completely different from a horribly voiced, poorly translated character, in the middle of a taking-itself-slightly-too-seriously adventure, saying to himself "I wish i had a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle of it around now!" and then basically looking around expectantly for audience applause or something.

[syntheticgerbil]

That's completely different from a horribly voiced, poorly translated character, in the middle of a taking-itself-slightly-too-seriously adventure, saying to himself "I wish i had a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle of it around now!" and then basically looking around expectantly for audience applause or something.

Or, "I'd be peeing my pants if I wore any."

[Twig]

Ben There, Dan That and Time Gentlemen, Please! are fantastic.

I'm a huge sucker for the show Psych, who I think pull this off rather well (though I wouldn't be surprised if many disagree).

Psych is fucking wonderful if you love well-done pop culture references/jokes. I would love it if games (hah!) had writing that good.

[Ben X]

Those games aren't all fucking winkey about it though. The series opens with a huge Sam and Max poster up on the wall, doesn't it? That's the opposite of a coy wink, it's a punch in the face, which is much preferred by me when it comes to this stuff.

Ah, good, that was my thinking too.

[Forbin]

In Cataclysm you have to free some prisoners from cages, and there's a wolf walking around with the keys in his mouth. I'm not sure if it's a monkey island reference, a Pirates of the Caribbean the ride reference, or a reference to PotC the movie made with work for the monkey island movie referencing the ride.

[Jayel]

In one of the mythbusters episodes, Adam Savage exclaims "that's the second biggest [something] I've ever seen!"

Not sure if it was a reference to Monkey Island

[thorn]

In one of the mythbusters episodes, Adam Savage exclaims "that's the second biggest [something] I've ever seen!"

Not sure if it was a reference to Monkey Island

Monkey Island was actually referencing Get Smart with that one, so he might have been quoting the original source.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Monkey Island was actually referencing Get Smart with that one, so he might have been quoting the original source.

You're kidding! I can't believe I never knew that. Don't suppose you know of a clip?

[syntheticgerbil]

That's the second biggest shoe phone I've ever seen? That's the second longest hallway of doors I've ever been in?

[thorn]

You're kidding! I can't believe I never knew that. Don't suppose you know of a clip?

Sadly, I only found out about it from the MI Wikipedia page. A quick Google has confirmed that it's true, but I haven't been able to find a clip.

EDIT: Try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=fkRBzpiTSPI#t=315s

Edited December 13, 2010 by thorn

[Kolzig]

(Has anybody played So Blonde? Maybe I should make a post about it? It's so weird in concept when you think about it....)

Not played it, but it kind of jumped in my radar when I heard some years ago that Steve Ince (Broken Sword, Beneath a Steel Sky) was writing the script, but apparently even the dialogue is bad. I knew the plot was bad just by hearing the early storyline stuff about a Britney Spears style teenager blonde stuck on some island. Not interesting start for a story at all.

[Tanukitsune]

Not played it, but it kind of jumped in my radar when I heard some years ago that Steve Ince (Broken Sword, Beneath a Steel Sky) was writing the script, but apparently even the dialogue is bad. I knew the plot was bad just by hearing the early storyline stuff about a Britney Spears style teenager blonde stuck on some island. Not interesting start for a story at all.

I still can't get over the fact that they made an adventure game starring a "dumb blonde", in some shooters you can actually be a pacifist and in some platform games your character can't really jump, but you can't take the thinking out of an adventure game!

And this game somehow got a sequel?