The Big LucasArts Playthrough

[Ben X]

The last puzzle still makes no god damn sense to me. Why does LeChuck crush Ozzie because of a draw? What?

 

You need to have noticed that

whenever you draw in Monkey Kombat the opponent slaps their own head in frustration

[syntheticgerbil]

The thing is, I looked for that on one playthrough and I seem to remember no monkey actually does that animation during a draw. Perhaps Guybrush does? I would be curious to see the range of animations during a draw but I can't seem to find a good video for that.

 

Either way, it's silly to me that giant LeChuck would carry out that exact action. Plus he keeps crushing him. It's so dumb.

EDIT: Found a video in fast forward with monkey draw animations and only two played. Once the monkey just kind of swung it's arms around and all of the rest of the times it kept doing that "come on" movement with one hand. Guybrush only went through two animations as well, one where he cracks his knuckles and one where he puts his thumbs up to his ears. Wish I could know conclusively if that animation did ever play. Maybe Jojo Jr. did it at some point. Gah, so obscure, what a bad puzzle. I am convinced you could go through the game and never see that animation ahead of time.

[Thrik]

I always assumed that being beaten in Monkey Kombat pissed LeChuck off and somehow broke through the spell of the ultimate insult, at which point he very consciously smashed the shit out of Ozzie.

 

By the way, did anyone notice just how overpowered LeChuck is in Escape from Monkey Island? God damn.

[Ben X]

Oh wait, is it if you draw three times in a row? The animation happens every time you do that?

[Udvarnoky]

Correct.  The final puzzle is based off an animation that happens when you draw three times with a monkey.  I did an interview with Stemmle and he admitted that in retrospect they probably should have threw in a line of dialog that better explained it.

 

Regarding the milk bottle you initially overlooked, there was supposed to have been a brief cutscene (I think when you first approach the church), where you come across a monkey who kicks the milk bottle to the lava maze.  Really a shame you ran into a showstopping bug regarding the Toothrot amnesia bit.

 

I think your assessment of EMI is fair.  It's a solid adventure game, but as the final outing from LucasArts (though not by intention) it's hardly representative of what they were doing at their best.  I was not too fond of the game when it first came out, but I've warmed to it over time.  The way Tales returned the series to a more genuine pirate-y atmosphere made it "safer" for me to appreciate what Escape was doing with the commentary stuff as a one-off thing.

 

I was always fond of the painterly 256-color close-ups for Monkey Island 1, although of course I grew up with the VGA version, so I'm biased.  Ron Gilbert's point, which is completely valid, is that they kind of break from the more stylized artwork of the rest of the game, which Purcell's original versions obviously shake hands with better.  I love both.

 

I'm glad you did this, too, Zeus.  I'd be hard pressed to think of a better saga to recommend to you than LEC's adventure catalog.  If I were you, I would proceed with Psychonauts (but have a PC gamepad), and the Telltale Games titles that most interest you in the order they were released (with Sam & Max and Monkey Island 5 being highlights).  I also recommend A Vampyre Story and Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, which are the two adventure games headed up by Bill Tiller (lead background artist on Monkey Island 3).  I'm personally waiting for Part 2 of Broken Age to get released so I can embark on Schafer's first straight-up adventure game since Grim...which we're getting a remastering of next year, woo!

 

Anyway, you have a lot of excellent games ahead of you that continue the spirit of the oldies.  I don't see why you shouldn't keep using this thread as you go forward, but that's your call. 

[Zeusthecat]

I'm glad you did this, too, Zeus.  I'd be hard pressed to think of a better saga to recommend to you than LEC's adventure catalog.  If I were you, I would proceed with Psychonauts (but have a PC gamepad), and the Telltale Games titles that most interest you in the order they were released (with Sam & Max and Monkey Island 5 being highlights).  I also recommend A Vampyre Story and Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, which are the two adventure games headed up by Bill Tiller (lead background artist on Monkey Island 3).  I'm personally waiting for Part 2 of Broken Age to get released so I can embark on Schafer's first straight-up adventure game since Grim...which we're getting a remastering of next year, woo!

 

Anyway, you have a lot of excellent games ahead of you that continue the spirit of the oldies.  I don't see why you shouldn't keep using this thread as you go forward, but that's your call. 

 

Thanks for the recommendations. I already started Walking Dead last night and will play through Psychonauts soon too since I already own it. I am definitely interested in playing Telltale's other games so after I clear a few things off my backlog that I've been meaning to play I'll probably start going through those. Maybe I will go ahead and post about that stuff here but probably not in the same detailed way. Do the Telltale games have any fairly difficult puzzles like what I've experienced with LucasArts or are they mostly all straightforward?

[Twig]

Now it's time for the Sierra playthrough. Show us how true of a gamer you REALLY are, Zeus!

 

(I'd say the Telltale games are on the whole far easier than classic LucasArts games.)

[Zeusthecat]

Now it's time for the Sierra playthrough. Show us how true of a gamer you REALLY are, Zeus!

 

I don't think I'm ready for that jelly.

[Dewar]

Each Sam and Max episode generally has 1 or 2 difficult puzzles, with the rest being fairly logical and easy. If and when you decide to play them, I'd love to see complete posts like you did for the Lucas Arts games. I'd love to relive those but I'm not sure I'm up for actually playing them again.

[syntheticgerbil]

Correct.  The final puzzle is based off an animation that happens when you draw three times with a monkey.  I did an interview with Stemmle and he admitted that in retrospect they probably should have threw in a line of dialog that better explained it.

Oh that would explain why I don't think I've ever seen that animation. There's pretty much no reason to ever create a draw three times in a row in any of the regular monkey fights, since you want to get that move you learn and try it out.

[BigJKO]

This might as well be the official LucasArts thread now, right?

 

Several hints suggest that GOG.com's new publisher, announcing in 1 hour 30 minutes, is none other than LucasArts (or rather, Disney's LucasArts archive)

 

First 6 games are, supposedly:

 

• The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
• Sam & Max Hit The Road
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• Star Wars: Tie Fighter Special Edition
• Star Wars: X-Wing Special Edition

Do with that info what you please. It's kinda weird that they'd release these on GOG and not on Steam, though. (who knows, maybe they will too)

[Udvarnoky]

Just that somebody has licensed the catalogue is squee-worthy news, though the fact that four of those six games are already on Steam kinda blunts the impact.  Still, Hit the Road and TIE Fighter being back in circulation is a big deal.  Let's hope all 14 adventure games make the cut.

[syntheticgerbil]

I think I would be thrilled about this news if game development had some kind of royalty system. But it never will, and so the Mouse collects more money. I guess people can buy them legit.

[Udvarnoky]

The creators will never see a dime, but at least when someone in your life asks a perfectly reasonable question like, "Where can I buy this seminal adventure game?" you might have something less mortifying to point them to than eBay.

[SecretAsianMan]

What I would love is that this is a precursor to new games being made.  A revival, a remake, a reboot, whatever.  I very much doubt that it will happen, but I'd love to see it.

 

Really I just want another Dig game.

[Dewar]

Oooh, I never got to play TIE fighter, just X-Wing.

[Ben X]

Really I just want another Dig game.

 

So they can make a good one this time? [burn emoticon]

[Twig]

So they can make a good one this time? [burn emoticon]

YES!

 

I loooooooooove the setting and atmosphere of The Dig but it's sort of a garbage game, compared to the rest of the LA classics. ):

[SecretAsianMan]

So they can make a good one this time? [burn emoticon]

 

Well actually... yes exactly.  Basically what Twig said.

[dium]

I quite liked The Dig, but I think I liked it as much as I did because I played it recently and not back when it came out (or when I was playing a lot of Adventure Games, which was a period shortly after the release of CMI). 

 

It's not a top, or even middle-tier Lucasarts adventure. But put into the landscape of post-lucasarts adventure games and it makes a really good impression. And now that I put that into words, it's a bit depressing.

[Badfinger]

AHHHH I CAN PLAY X-WING AND TIE FIGHTER AGAIN

 

 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Ben X]

Well actually... yes exactly.  Basically what Twig said.

 

Oh. Well, then [burn emoticon] rescinded and replaced with [head nodding in vigorous agreement emoticon]

[Dewar]

No longer hints, those 6 games are up to purchase right now.

 

For those that have played both, what does TIE Fighter have that X-Wing doesn't? Is it just basically a different set of missions and ships, or are there other gameplay differences?

[Badfinger]

I'm not going to suggest they're wildly different games. They're both flight sims from the same company released within 18 months of each other, after all.

 

I remember the progression structure being different, though. In X-Wing, if you got shot down or failed a mission, you lost rank (I never made it past Lt). In Tie Fighter you just retried the mission, which allowed me to actually finish the game. Tie Fighter was also much longer. The graphics and AI were both improved, and the mission structure (from what I remember?) had a lot more secondary objectives.

 

X-Wing is an awesome and groundbreaking game. TIE Fighter is legit in the running for my GOAT game. It's an objectively better game that I like subjectively more. If you're only spending $10 and you don't care (or are actively intrigued) that you play as the Empire, get TIE.

[miffy495]

When classic LA games got re-released on Steam... no DOTT. Among the announced games for GoG... no DOTT. Fuck. This is the ONLY Lucasarts adventure that I have never owned legally and I'd really like to, but even when re-releases happen I still can't seem to be able to do it. Fingers crossed it's in the unannounced ones.