Issue #75: Legendary Once Again
Or at least soon enough. Just need to finish that “Sea of Thieves” thing.
Let’s just jump straight into it, shall we?
Once upon a time, many moons ago, I wrote three short articles on Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island (commonly abbreviated to SeMI).
23 Years Ago, I Would Have Written an Article Called “Not MY Monkey Island”
Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island: The Journey to Mêlée Island (first impressions)
Some may say that was three articles more than the game deserved. I am, however, not a quitter – just a procrastinator – and this summer I picked up the DLC again.
I’ll write up a full-on review later (only two years too late; “not a quitter,” remember), but, for the benefit of being an Adventurer subscriber, I present to you a few short thoughts:
I get why Sea of Thieves utilizes checkpoints as opposed to save games, but Jesus Christ… Getting back to a checkpoint – few and far between as they are – after you’ve left a game takes conservatively ten (10) minutes. Even back in the early nineties, it was a thirty-second process when using floppy disks. I know, old man yells at cloud and all that, but come on…
On a more positive note, the best episode is the second entry, “The Quest for Guybrush,” in which insult swordfighting works surprisingly well. Also, the circus music is excellent. (And Stan’s pronunciation of “je ne sais quoi” is one of SeMI’s few funny moments.)
Using the underrated jungle music from Tales in the third episode is (as I also noted in my first impressions) a good choice. I’m not entirely sold on SeMI’s music in general – the takes are incredibly generic — but when it pops, it pops.
Stay tuned for more, hopefully soon.
El Poll Diablo
We asked, “What are your thoughts on the Special Edition of Monkey Island 2?”, to which 51% answered correctly: “Liked it but you can’t beat the OG.”
21% of you thought it was OK, while 5% couldn’t stand it. As for the 23% of you who said “Loved it, better than the original!”… I don’t even know. In fact, that number was disturbing enough that we fixed Mojo Proper’s poll feature and asked the same question there.
Predictably, the answers skewed away from the Special Edition, albeit with fewer respondents (go old school and sign up for a Mojo account, damn it). 65% of you preferred the OG, while 17% of you thought it was only OK. 4% couldn’t stand it, and 13% said it was better than the original. Seeing that the latter was merely picked by trolls (you know who you are), we didn’t take it too seriously.
Today’s poll:
To clarify, “Yes, anything MI can be canon.” – Substack only allows a limited amount of characters in polls – comes back to Return to Monkey Island, which kind of concluded that all these stories are tall tales (and not in the Sea of Thieves definition). While not Monkey Island proper, SeMI still can be seen as just another story from a nostalgic Guybrush Threepwood. Makes sense? If not, don’t vote for that option. 🤷
Full News Roundup
31 Jul: And another one: The next video installment of DF25, Happy Action Theatre
30 Jul: New DF25 Interview Drops: Continuing Double Fine's 25th anniversary celebrations... this time Psychonauts 2
Last Week’s Mojole Results
After more than three years, it was time to retire Mojole. However, for the hardcore fans, we decided to loop around and restart it.
It’s the game that sweeps the nation! Can you beat Mojole, our fiendishly difficult daily puzzler? Only hardcore LucasArts aficionados need apply.
28 Jul: “spaff##” – Mojo’s founder and de facto CEO of Double Fine, Spaff has the honor of being Mojole’s first solution.
29 Jul: “ronzo##” – Also known by his alias, Ron Gilbert, Ronzo has created many of Mojo’s favorite titles, like Blue’s Treasure Hunt and Word Spiral. His next game, A Little Something, is reportedly an RPG.
30 Jul: “brink##” – Ludger Brink was a character in The Dig, voiced by Steven Blum.
31 Jul: “elTee##” – elTee, aka Tones, was the proprietor of the erstwhile LucasTones which was hosted by Mojo. The site shut down in 2005 which is the same year elTee got his current laptop.
01 Aug: “largo##” – A character in LeChuck’s Revenge. His good name was since sullied by Trump’s Florida motel.
02 Aug: “melee##” – An island in The Secret of Monkey Island. What was left of it after a nuclear strike appeared in Escape from Monkey Island.
03 Aug: “benzo##” – Aka Ben, Benny, Bennyboy, or bgbennyboy. The man behind Quick & Easy and many other LucasArts hacking tools.
And for the competitive amongst you, the Mojole forum thread has gone strong for more than two years. The two juggernauts to beat: Sushi and Huz.
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