Monkey Island Remakes - Curse and Escape
Personally, I'm thrilled we're getting Monkey Island sequels. It's one of the best things and happiest moments of my life - it's like a nostalgia trip for me. I think the first remake will do well considering it coincides with the "Tales of Monkey Island" release - I could see both helping fuel the other. And I think Monkey Island 2: Special Edition is a foregone conclusion.
And I think this'll be highly profitable for LucasArts and Telltale.
But what about Curse and Escape? Curse has some of the most beautiful graphics due to its hand drawn style. Escape is...well, Escape is Escape - it has those nasty clunky 3d graphics but the voice overs and funny content.
There's less to update for Curse and Escape. Would you bother changing much beyond graphics? Many would argue the graphics for Curse shouldn't be altered.
Personally I think the best way to handle this situation would be to do both Curse and Escape as a package. It requires the least amount of work - there's no need for voice overs or major score updates. Due to Curse's amazing hand drawn style, you would want to keep the switch functionality.
It'd also be handy to have remakes as older PC games become less and less usable on newer computers - it makes it more accessible for people who don't know stuff like ScummVM is.
And I think this'll be highly profitable for LucasArts and Telltale.
But what about Curse and Escape? Curse has some of the most beautiful graphics due to its hand drawn style. Escape is...well, Escape is Escape - it has those nasty clunky 3d graphics but the voice overs and funny content.
There's less to update for Curse and Escape. Would you bother changing much beyond graphics? Many would argue the graphics for Curse shouldn't be altered.
Personally I think the best way to handle this situation would be to do both Curse and Escape as a package. It requires the least amount of work - there's no need for voice overs or major score updates. Due to Curse's amazing hand drawn style, you would want to keep the switch functionality.
It'd also be handy to have remakes as older PC games become less and less usable on newer computers - it makes it more accessible for people who don't know stuff like ScummVM is.
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Comments
i reckon lets just move on to MI5
And nobody really cares about Escape
Im with Hamzie, lets just move on
I do hope they make Lechucks Revenge special edition though
I can see them probably updating the graphics a bit but it has to be profitable
I don't like the idea of new voice acting over the old.
Basically the existence of 4's ugly graphics offends me and I wish they'd update it to be bearable.
And i HATE Elaines voice, she sounds like something off them old Harry Potter PS1 Games
Times have changed though. For many, the low-resolution, pixelated graphics, MIDI music...it's just too much for some people. Sure, some will look and say, "Hey, it's retro!", but others will look and say "Hey, I barfed! Can WoW now?"
Not to say I have anything against WoW (which I do
So when you ask if there will be a CMI:SE or EFMI:SE, I'd say the answer is no, and frankly I don't see why there should be one. The graphics in CMI were of high enough quality that the graphics alone are not going to turn away a significant portion of potential players. The pixelated graphics of SMI/LCR would. Hmm...actually the minimalistic, "let's-use-as-few-polygons-as-possible" EFMI models might too...:rolleyes:...
But I think you get what I'm saying. If LA thinks it would be a profitable endeavour, sure, I'll bite. I'll go ahead and buy a copy. Realistically speaking though, even in light that they are now bringing the MI series back after 9 years (noting that the entire series ran in a course of 10 years prior to that), I don't think CMI or EFMI will be getting SEs. Of course it wasn't all that long ago that I was telling some MI fans that "it simply won't happen" for LA to release SMI just to update the graphics and do voice-overs. Shows how much I know!
EMI? True, it looks extremely ugly, but this is only partly due to technological limitations. In my opinion, although the art direction is atrocious and the pre-rendered backgrounds are overly simplistic, sterile and lacking in atmosphere, the visuals are the very least of its problems. The plot and story are ill-conceived and the balance between the "historical" setting and contemporary references was off kilter.
The game felt like a product that had been forced upon writers/artists who had no real interest in or understanding of Monkey Island. When I played it, I couldn't help thinking that the Lucasarts suits at the time must have forced their last remaining adventure game development team to make the game, regardless of whether the staff actually wanted to - or were suited to - do so. This is not a criticism of the developers, of course - they were/are obviously a talented bunch - but perhaps they should have created something of their own choosing rather than being burdened with creating EMI.
No, to adequately remake EMI, you'd need to completely rethink the art style, theme, plot, and characterisation to make it work. You'd be better off making a new game!
Hell. You could do Escape from Monkey Island: Director's Cut and not include a switch feature. Have people who know the series better fix up part, bring back the voice actors to do a few lines while you're doing these new ones and spruce up the game a bit.
And you could improve CMI with HD and improved rending - that outline on Guybrush is kinda iffy.
It'd be cheap and easy because you're not really writing up a new game or programming brand new material. You're slapping on new graphics and art.
And Luke, I can definitely understand and respect your points, but I think trying to replace the plot of EFMI with a new MI4 would be a bad idea. Although we may not feel that EFMI really filled the shoes provided to it, I still think it did a good enough job that just trying to pretend it didn't happen would only cause more problems...IMO anyway.
Thats awesome news, ill just switch to old graphics for every Elaine scene :P
That's kind of my point, although we perhaps disagree about how effective EMI was. What we both agree on is that EMI should be left as it is. It's - regrettably, in my opinion - a part of the series, and we should accept this and move on rather than hope for it to be improved or fixed.
Yes, its graphics have aged atrociously, there were some bizarre designs such as Monkey Kombat, the control system was awkward, it has plot holes and the ending was rather rubbish, but these aren't reasons to dismiss the game in its entirety. The majority of the puzzle design was good, the voice acting and delivery of the characters was still first-rate, the art direction for the most part was well thought out for what they were trying to convey (with a few exceptions) with visual backgrounds of a similar quality to Grim Fandango. The story itself is also more indepth than the one in CoMI, although the commentary on the spread of commercialism understandably got varied results.
Do we have a top-notch Monkey Island adventure game? No. Do we have one that meets up to a similar standard as the other games? No. But we still do have a reasonable and fun Monkey Island game.
It's not a good Monkey Island game.
I just have to say...am i the ONLY person in existance who actually LIKED EMI?
There were two of you
In MI1 they're simply replacing all the assets with the new stuff (at higher resolution), but they don't change the number of animation frames on the sprites or anything, which makes things a lot easier, I guess. And if that's possible with all Scumm-games, I'd love to see CMI get that treatment as well.
That's what I was thinking. Just an upgrade would be awesome.
Nope, it reverts to pure original coloured text a nd no speach.
But leave CMI and EMI as they are.
Remake status'll make us all buy it again too...
Just imagining the MI2- and MI3-background paintings at high-res makes my mouth watery...
Yeah, high resolution scans of the original MI2 background drawings would be fantastic.
http://www.scummbar.com/imageviewer/imageviewer.php?useimage=/games/screenshots/mi2/concept/5.jpg
http://www.scummbar.com/imageviewer/imageviewer.php?useimage=/games/screenshots/mi2/concept/4.jpg