Also, this *might* not be the conclusion. After I put this post up a “friend” gifted me Escape From Monkey Island on Steam, so now I feel an obligation to play through both that and Grim Fandango. Dealing with the tank controls will take a long mental run-up though, so it’ll probably be a couple of months before I get around to it.

“ I don’t think we’ll ever see a 2D adventure game with these production values ever again, because the modern genre is the preserve of small indie studios who don’t have anywhere near the resources required to pull it off.”
I’ve been wondering if perhaps Netflix, with their recently stated push into interactive content could pursue this. Because they have the economy of scale, they could certainly provide the resources to make it happen.

Re: the many voiced lines, even lines that weren’t explicit hints often at least suggested you were on the right track for something. Murray doesn’t provide you any information about what to do with the glued arm (“Get that thing away from me, you sick freak!”) but that he says anything at all suggests that it’s important.

It would be years before I was able to play the first two games, but it’s incredible how much damage the ending of LeChuck’s Revenge did. Both Curse and Escape devote a lot of flailing energy to try to make sense of it when both would have been better not having to even think about it.

I’m looking forward to your thoughts on Grim Fandango and the somewhat unfairly maligned Escape from Monkey Island.