It's not hard to be cynical about remasters. The games industry seems obsessed right now with re-releasing games from just a few years ago with slightly improved resolutions and little else. But fighting the good fight are the LucasArts updates.
The trend of exceptional LucasArts remasters started back with The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition in 2009, and with the first two games in the pirate comedy series given such great treatment (followed by Day of The Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango) it seems only fitting that the next project be the third game (and last of the great SCUMM adventures): The Curse of Monkey Island. But is it the prime candidate for remaster work?
The Curse of Monkey Island is 20 years old (I'll give you a moment to have an ageing crisis). But unlike it's older siblings and Day of the Tentacle, it wasn't rendered in old-school pixel graphics. The SCUMM system was pushed to its limits, with Monkey Island's characters and colourful Caribbean world hand-painted and animated with a distinctly Disney-like approach. It's a style that, in my head, has never aged a day, and not in need of a remaster. But it's been over a decade since I last played, so surely that's nostalgia? Surely.
Well, erm, no, actually. The Curse of Monkey Island really does look that good. That's not to say it hasn't aged. The game needs to be played in ScummVM because it screams at 64-bit operating systems like a crazed gibbon. It's all designed to be played on 4:3 ratio monitors, so the image is squashed a bit. The edges of characters look a bit rough, and they're all animated at about four frames per second, making the action fairly choppy. But boy, is this a good-looking game.
And so here comes the call for a remaster. The LucasArts efforts so far certainly add a level of modern shine to these games, with beautifully smooth scrolling scenes and added animation in the backdrops that help increase the atmosphere and sense of life. Monkey Island 3 requires comparatively less work: the backdrops just need up-scaling to HD resolutions, although characters would potentially need re-drawing in order to animate at much higher frame rates. Perhaps the addition of some dynamic lighting to make that Caribbean sun feel even warmer. But it's hardly the overhaul that LeChuck's Revenge required.
But above all technical reasons, the appetite for a Curse of Monkey Island remaster is down to it being an easy-to-love, highly memorable adventure that was a key part of many a player's childhood. A remaster, as Day of the Tentacle proved, allows us to re-experience that joy and revisit a moment in time when things were perhaps a little more comfortable.
Not only that, but - like The Godfather remastered in 4K - they're proof that, in an industry that moves so quickly, there are the odd gems that endure forever. Curse of Monkey Island is certainly one of those games, and I think it certainly deserves a little update magic. If not, well, I'm certainly not throwing away the double CD set from my childhood any day soon.
The trend of exceptional LucasArts remasters started back with The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition in 2009, and with the first two games in the pirate comedy series given such great treatment (followed by Day of The Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango) it seems only fitting that the next project be the third game (and last of the great SCUMM adventures): The Curse of Monkey Island. But is it the prime candidate for remaster work?
The Curse of Monkey Island is 20 years old (I'll give you a moment to have an ageing crisis). But unlike it's older siblings and Day of the Tentacle, it wasn't rendered in old-school pixel graphics. The SCUMM system was pushed to its limits, with Monkey Island's characters and colourful Caribbean world hand-painted and animated with a distinctly Disney-like approach. It's a style that, in my head, has never aged a day, and not in need of a remaster. But it's been over a decade since I last played, so surely that's nostalgia? Surely.
Well, erm, no, actually. The Curse of Monkey Island really does look that good. That's not to say it hasn't aged. The game needs to be played in ScummVM because it screams at 64-bit operating systems like a crazed gibbon. It's all designed to be played on 4:3 ratio monitors, so the image is squashed a bit. The edges of characters look a bit rough, and they're all animated at about four frames per second, making the action fairly choppy. But boy, is this a good-looking game.
And so here comes the call for a remaster. The LucasArts efforts so far certainly add a level of modern shine to these games, with beautifully smooth scrolling scenes and added animation in the backdrops that help increase the atmosphere and sense of life. Monkey Island 3 requires comparatively less work: the backdrops just need up-scaling to HD resolutions, although characters would potentially need re-drawing in order to animate at much higher frame rates. Perhaps the addition of some dynamic lighting to make that Caribbean sun feel even warmer. But it's hardly the overhaul that LeChuck's Revenge required.
But above all technical reasons, the appetite for a Curse of Monkey Island remaster is down to it being an easy-to-love, highly memorable adventure that was a key part of many a player's childhood. A remaster, as Day of the Tentacle proved, allows us to re-experience that joy and revisit a moment in time when things were perhaps a little more comfortable.
Not only that, but - like The Godfather remastered in 4K - they're proof that, in an industry that moves so quickly, there are the odd gems that endure forever. Curse of Monkey Island is certainly one of those games, and I think it certainly deserves a little update magic. If not, well, I'm certainly not throwing away the double CD set from my childhood any day soon.
