I personally would have to say tales, i just think it capture the essence of the caribbean, and the depth of field blur and bright texture really give it life.
SMI. Loved it. Perfect art direction as far as I'm concerned. MI2 was good but just a little bit too cartoony for my taste. Not to say cartoony is bad, I just preferred SMI.
Gotta laugh at SMI:SE and EMI not getting any votes at all.
I voted for Le Chuck's Revenge for the beautiful scenery, and the funny and expressive characters sprites. But I also love the art of Tales of MI, especially Guybrush's face and expressions (and his big blue eyes...)
My favourite part of Spinner Cay was when LeChuck is trying to fight off those pirates and Guybrush tries to fool them by giving them his pyrite parrot:
Pirates: "That's not an ancient artifact! What kind of idiot would be stupid enough to think that would fool us!?"
Pyrite Parrot: "SQUACK It's me! Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate!"
Watching Guybrush's proud expression slowly turn into an embarrassed look as the pyrite parrot squacks away was absolutely priceless.
It's a tough choice for me, because I enjoy the different styles of SMI/LCR, CMI, and TMI...but TMI get some points for being the first time the characters have really been expressive, facially.
not surprised that the Special Edition is trailing with zero votes (at the moment).
The Adobe Illustrator vector graphics are nasty.
I voted for Curse, but have to say, at the time, The Secret Of Monkey Island's graphics just oozed atmosphere (especially the dark forested Melee) in an almost intangible way that the others (just quite) didn't.
Would have loved to have seen the new Monkey Island games following the art direction of Curse.
It's one of those things that I really don't want to rate, just because every game has its own beauty and style. But I can tell what I like and what I hate about them:
1. Secret - The game is old, so old the art really suffers from it. I still like it, but is just so umm... basic. The thing that really amends for that are the close-up screens of the characters. If only they used that for more characters it would have been great. It really gave guys like Estevan and Carla the unique look tiny pixels just can't show.
2. Revenge - great, but maybe they could have used close-up screens of the characters, like in SMI. Also, the backgrounds are awesome.
3. Curse - had the most beautiful backgounds so far, but some characters like Kenny and Guybrush just seemed too cartoony for me.
4. Escape -The thing I dislike here is Guybrush. They just made him too childish for me. I didn't mind the 3D, but the backgrounds, though pretty, are not piraty at all. If you walk around the towns of Lucre and Jambalaya it's pretty hard to feel any pirate atmosphere from the buildings.
5. Tales - One huge plus of the 3D is the freedom of animation. Man, these characters really have a personality and alot of that comes from the facial expresions and the great lip-sync. Plus the great models and backgrounds.
6. Secret's Special Edition - Man, people who made this had never seen the other games. Guybrush looks mentaly retarded and some of the backgrounds are just sketchy and unpolished.
1: Curse. I love the cartoony look. It fits the game.
2: MI2. Beautifull backgrounds and character animation.
3: Tales. Everything looks great, but I am still getting used to Guybrush, and there appears to be some repeat charactermodels.
4: MI1: Everything looks nice, nice atmosphere and all, but the close-ups are out of place with the rest of the game.
5: EMI. It is good for its time, but it has dated terribly.
6: SMI:SE. The characters are poorly animated, as if they just painted over the sprites of MI1, and they appear to just glide over the ground. The backgrounds are really nice, though.
1. Curse - its art style is one of the reasons I got interested in the Monkey Island franchise. And I love Guybrush's look, and the look of the whole game. I'm a big fan of the Tim Burton/Edward Gorey style of artwork, and I love Bill Tiller's artwork, even if it's been put to bad use lately. This gets the top for being the most original art style(possibly in adventure games). This style spawned a ton of copycats. Even Bill Tiller is copycatting himself now with Ghost Pirates.
2. Monkey Island 2 - Lechuck's Revenge - This game has the most atmosphere in the whole series. It's inspired, unique, and memorable. The sharp contrast of blues, greens, and oranges really set it apart. It's the sort of lighting style I, as an artist, wish I could learn. The animations were so expressive.
3. The Secret of Monkey Island - I'm going against the flow with this one. Those Deluxe Paint pixels created a beautiful landscape backed by a night sky filled with bright lovely stars. It might not be the most advanced graphics you've ever seen, but it did it's job of drawing you into a magical interesting world. It did it even better than LOOM. I don't think any of the sequels have quite pulled off the atmosphere of nighttime and that nightsky quite like this one did. LeChucks Revenge had better atmosphere, but it was a different kind of atmosphere; a creepy atmosphere. Secret had a magical atmosphere.
4. Tales of Monkey Island - I love the characters, dialog, story, music, puzzles. I absolutely love the game. And I admit that the toybox look of Tales has a sweet charm, and that it's very expressive. Whereas Secret is magical, and Revenge is creepy, Tales is fantasy. But until I've played the whole game I can't rate it any higher. So for now this is where it sits.
I'm not doing Escape or Special Edition in my ranking. SE is the same as Secret anyway and Escape. Yeah.
I can't say I see a lot in the style of Curse. I thought MI2 was absolutely sumptuous - as far as you can with 320x200 and 256 colors ...
If it's about the artistic quality, I'd still go with MI2, but if we're comparing games on an equal playing field, of course the older ones can't keep up with the newer editions. In that case, I'd go with Tales, which I think is absolutely fantastic in the cinematic qualities offered by the 3D environment.
6: SMI:SE. The characters are poorly animated, as if they just painted over the sprites of MI1, and they appear to just glide over the ground. The backgrounds are really nice, though.
Actually, that's exactly what they did. They matched the old animations frame for frame. The reason they did that was so that the version switch would be seamless.
1. Curse - The good: first appearance of curly clouds gives it first place on my list. Blood Island is beautiest location in whole series. The bad: none.
2. MI2 - The good: backgrounds (esp. Woodtick and LeChuck Fortress); nice characters (esp. new Guybrush and Zombie LeChuck). The bad: none.
3. Tales - nice facial expresion of characters; Spinner Cay as a location; proves that Monkey Island can be good in 3D. The bad: too many similar jungle sceneries. Reused models.
4. SMI - nice locations (Melee Town, Scumm Bar). The bad: ugly closeups.
5. EMI - The good: some locations aren't that bad (Ozzie's house, Church of LeChuck, Myst o'Tyme). The bad: ugly characters with poor facial expresion.
6. SMI:SE - The good: backgroudns (esp. the dock), option to make it old SMI. The bad: Terrible (no, really, TERRIBLE) characters design.
I agree with others that TOMI is almost as good as Curse but I've only played the demo and I couldn't run it on my mother's old computer too well. I know 3D isn't usually prefered to the cartoon look but in its own right I think TOMI really looks great from the screen shots I see it looks like an epic movie. I can't wait to play it, it might become my favorite in the series but it looks like it is more cinematic than the previous 4 games. It looks pretty awesome really. Though CMI does a good job feeling cinematic too but to be fair back in the days of 1 and 2 they didn't have much beyond stilled images for cut scenes. I think it all depends on what function your considering to the graphics from a movie stand point 3 and 4 are epic but from a painted back ground stand point I'd go with 1,2...it's really sort of a hard question to answer because you have to define what you mean by art work and to make a fair comparrison you need to figure out some sort of common ground or something.
1 - MI2, by far my favourite. Just perfect.
2 - MI1, also pretty, but with some dull moments, e.g. the map of monkey island or the church.
3 - Tales, a bit too cartoony, but quite pretty overall, best Guybrush since MI2.
4 - Curse, pretty backgrounds, but too cartoony, especially the characters.
5 - MI4, dreadful backgrounds, especially the smurf city of Lucre and the shops of Jambalaya. Only the characters redeem it somewhat. Its not just the technology, it just looked plain bad.
6 - MI1:SE, no comment. Urrrrrrrgh.
1. Curse- simply beautiful, full of style and charm. Lovely animation also.
2. Tales- a masterfull move in full 3d. Here it's hard to talk only about "graphics", since half of the Tales's charm comes from great cinematic feel and expresive animation (some of the best I've seen in a game yet).
3. MI2- pixelated but still gorgeous. Though, after seeing original hi-res marker illustrations, I wish it would all look like this.
My favourite is Curse, but I like Tales too.
I just prefer the cartoony feel of Curse, and I prefer 2D Painting-like backgrounds and characters to the 3D ones.
well all the monkey games got a lovely artwork/graphic style.
But Curse of Monkey Island did an excellent job in characters art specially the LeChuck demon form was amazing.
And we aren't done with Tales yet so it is a bit unfair to include it in the poll yet.
It's more fair than NOT including it. And anyway, this poll doesn't ever close, so there's plenty of time for Tales to catch up in the votes after the series... ya scurvy lubber!
I chose Curse of Monkey Island, the game just has it all, fun and fluid animations, great backgrounds and superb cutscenes. It still holds its ground with it's cartoony look.
but other games in the series deserve a mention:
Monkey Island 2 - Most elaborate backgrounds (especially for that time), the age is string to show on the game though.
Tales of Monkey Island - same atmosphere as MI2 and CoMI combined and fun design... the engine needs alot of tweaking though.
Actually, that's exactly what they did. They matched the old animations frame for frame. The reason they did that was so that the version switch would be seamless.
That seems so pointless. Why would you want to be able to switch back and forth like that in the first place
My favorite is about HALF of Curse, the background art is absolutely stunning. But the character art throws it SO off that it's tied for last with Escape for the least visually pleasing game.
LeChuck's Revenge oozes atmosphere. The art is incredibly consistent, even though I do miss the profile shots from Secret. I don't care what Ron Gilbert says, I still think the close-up shots from the first game are visually stunning, and the best-looking part of that game.
I don't care what Ron Gilbert says, I still think the close-up shots from the first game are visually stunning, and the best-looking part of that game.
They were kinda cool for the endings, but they have dated the most. The game looks better without the closeups, although this was bound to be different at their time of release.
SMI:SE had some good characters, but I think they stuffed up Herman Toothrot amongst others.
As much as TOMI is better than I thought (only played the demo at the time), graphically I would put it to the second to last position, after the 4th episode (which was awful in every single way).
Lechuck's Revenge. Always loved especially how Scabb Island feels. If I ever strike it rich, I'm buying an island and building Woodtick. You're all invited to visit, of course.
Love the way Curse looks, but there's just something about the MI2 graphics that makes me want to pick that. Probably nostalgia - but I still like to look at it.
My favourite is Tales, with Curse being a close second. A lot of old MI fans I heard from actually despise the cartoony style from Curse and the following games though.
The MI 1 Special Edition on the other hand looks absolutely horrible.
Comments
Gotta laugh at SMI:SE and EMI not getting any votes at all.
Pirates: "That's not an ancient artifact! What kind of idiot would be stupid enough to think that would fool us!?"
Pyrite Parrot: "SQUACK It's me! Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate!"
Watching Guybrush's proud expression slowly turn into an embarrassed look as the pyrite parrot squacks away was absolutely priceless.
Guybrush: "Why must you always ruin everything?"
Lol classic. Funniest moment in TMI so far.
1. Curse
2. MI2
3. Tales
4. SOMI
5.EMI
6. SOMI:SE
The Adobe Illustrator vector graphics are nasty.
I voted for Curse, but have to say, at the time, The Secret Of Monkey Island's graphics just oozed atmosphere (especially the dark forested Melee) in an almost intangible way that the others (just quite) didn't.
Would have loved to have seen the new Monkey Island games following the art direction of Curse.
1. Curse (flawless except the characters, though not saying I prefer it that cartoony)
2. Secret
3. Lechuck's
4. tie EMI/Tales
6. SOMI SE
1. Secret - The game is old, so old the art really suffers from it. I still like it, but is just so umm... basic. The thing that really amends for that are the close-up screens of the characters. If only they used that for more characters it would have been great. It really gave guys like Estevan and Carla the unique look tiny pixels just can't show.
2. Revenge - great, but maybe they could have used close-up screens of the characters, like in SMI. Also, the backgrounds are awesome.
3. Curse - had the most beautiful backgounds so far, but some characters like Kenny and Guybrush just seemed too cartoony for me.
4. Escape -The thing I dislike here is Guybrush. They just made him too childish for me. I didn't mind the 3D, but the backgrounds, though pretty, are not piraty at all. If you walk around the towns of Lucre and Jambalaya it's pretty hard to feel any pirate atmosphere from the buildings.
5. Tales - One huge plus of the 3D is the freedom of animation. Man, these characters really have a personality and alot of that comes from the facial expresions and the great lip-sync. Plus the great models and backgrounds.
6. Secret's Special Edition - Man, people who made this had never seen the other games. Guybrush looks mentaly retarded and some of the backgrounds are just sketchy and unpolished.
2: MI2. Beautifull backgrounds and character animation.
3: Tales. Everything looks great, but I am still getting used to Guybrush, and there appears to be some repeat charactermodels.
4: MI1: Everything looks nice, nice atmosphere and all, but the close-ups are out of place with the rest of the game.
5: EMI. It is good for its time, but it has dated terribly.
6: SMI:SE. The characters are poorly animated, as if they just painted over the sprites of MI1, and they appear to just glide over the ground. The backgrounds are really nice, though.
2. Monkey Island 2 - Lechuck's Revenge - This game has the most atmosphere in the whole series. It's inspired, unique, and memorable. The sharp contrast of blues, greens, and oranges really set it apart. It's the sort of lighting style I, as an artist, wish I could learn. The animations were so expressive.
3. The Secret of Monkey Island - I'm going against the flow with this one. Those Deluxe Paint pixels created a beautiful landscape backed by a night sky filled with bright lovely stars. It might not be the most advanced graphics you've ever seen, but it did it's job of drawing you into a magical interesting world. It did it even better than LOOM. I don't think any of the sequels have quite pulled off the atmosphere of nighttime and that nightsky quite like this one did. LeChucks Revenge had better atmosphere, but it was a different kind of atmosphere; a creepy atmosphere. Secret had a magical atmosphere.
4. Tales of Monkey Island - I love the characters, dialog, story, music, puzzles. I absolutely love the game. And I admit that the toybox look of Tales has a sweet charm, and that it's very expressive. Whereas Secret is magical, and Revenge is creepy, Tales is fantasy. But until I've played the whole game I can't rate it any higher. So for now this is where it sits.
I'm not doing Escape or Special Edition in my ranking. SE is the same as Secret anyway and Escape. Yeah.
If it's about the artistic quality, I'd still go with MI2, but if we're comparing games on an equal playing field, of course the older ones can't keep up with the newer editions. In that case, I'd go with Tales, which I think is absolutely fantastic in the cinematic qualities offered by the 3D environment.
Actually, that's exactly what they did. They matched the old animations frame for frame. The reason they did that was so that the version switch would be seamless.
1. Curse
2. Telltale
3. Secret:SE
4. Secret/Revenge
5. Escape
I do like the SE background graphics. The SE character art is so-so however...
I also do not dislike Escape. The game itself is fine, the character graphics and the controls are just as MAJOR downer.
2. MI2 - The good: backgrounds (esp. Woodtick and LeChuck Fortress); nice characters (esp. new Guybrush and Zombie LeChuck). The bad: none.
3. Tales - nice facial expresion of characters; Spinner Cay as a location; proves that Monkey Island can be good in 3D. The bad: too many similar jungle sceneries. Reused models.
4. SMI - nice locations (Melee Town, Scumm Bar). The bad: ugly closeups.
5. EMI - The good: some locations aren't that bad (Ozzie's house, Church of LeChuck, Myst o'Tyme). The bad: ugly characters with poor facial expresion.
6. SMI:SE - The good: backgroudns (esp. the dock), option to make it old SMI. The bad: Terrible (no, really, TERRIBLE) characters design.
2 - MI1, also pretty, but with some dull moments, e.g. the map of monkey island or the church.
3 - Tales, a bit too cartoony, but quite pretty overall, best Guybrush since MI2.
4 - Curse, pretty backgrounds, but too cartoony, especially the characters.
5 - MI4, dreadful backgrounds, especially the smurf city of Lucre and the shops of Jambalaya. Only the characters redeem it somewhat. Its not just the technology, it just looked plain bad.
6 - MI1:SE, no comment. Urrrrrrrgh.
If I'd really have to (top3
1. Curse- simply beautiful, full of style and charm. Lovely animation also.
2. Tales- a masterfull move in full 3d. Here it's hard to talk only about "graphics", since half of the Tales's charm comes from great cinematic feel and expresive animation (some of the best I've seen in a game yet).
3. MI2- pixelated but still gorgeous. Though, after seeing original hi-res marker illustrations, I wish it would all look like this.
So...
1. SOMI
2. LCR
3. CMI
4. TMI
5. SOMI:SE
6. EMI
I just prefer the cartoony feel of Curse, and I prefer 2D Painting-like backgrounds and characters to the 3D ones.
But Curse of Monkey Island did an excellent job in characters art specially the LeChuck demon form was amazing.
And we aren't done with Tales yet so it is a bit unfair to include it in the poll yet.
It's more fair than NOT including it. And anyway, this poll doesn't ever close, so there's plenty of time for Tales to catch up in the votes after the series... ya scurvy lubber!
but other games in the series deserve a mention:
Monkey Island 2 - Most elaborate backgrounds (especially for that time), the age is string to show on the game though.
Tales of Monkey Island - same atmosphere as MI2 and CoMI combined and fun design... the engine needs alot of tweaking though.
LeChuck's Revenge oozes atmosphere. The art is incredibly consistent, even though I do miss the profile shots from Secret. I don't care what Ron Gilbert says, I still think the close-up shots from the first game are visually stunning, and the best-looking part of that game.
They were kinda cool for the endings, but they have dated the most. The game looks better without the closeups, although this was bound to be different at their time of release.
SMI:SE had some good characters, but I think they stuffed up Herman Toothrot amongst others.
As much as TOMI is better than I thought (only played the demo at the time), graphically I would put it to the second to last position, after the 4th episode (which was awful in every single way).
The MI 1 Special Edition on the other hand looks absolutely horrible.
I love the moody nighttime graphics in the first game (well, I like all the locations), but I also love the handpainted backdrops of the second game.
I can't pick, but I voted MI2.