[Jake]

I remember Steve Purcell once told me that when painting the box art for Monkey Islands 1 and 2 he was at least somewhat instructed to make them a little more creepy/scary than the games actual contents, so that they wouldn't look like they were for little kids. The end result, though, I think, is that it just made them look even cooler for 10-15 year olds than it would have otherwise. I've never considered Monkey Island a "family game," though.

When I was much younger, playing Monkey Island 2 for the first time, it scared the pants off me when LeChuck came lurching into the underground tunnels, and then started torturing Guybrush with the voodoo doll. I was even more surprised when I used the voodoo doll on him and Guybrush ended up tearing his leg off, featuring exposed bone and muscle and stuff. Even though it was probably built out of like 24 pixels, it really grossed me out and shocked me. And I loved it!

Same goes for the corpse hanging from the tree in Monkey 1 - Herman Toothrot's old shipmate who was trapped on the island with him, and the ambiguity of how he got there, uncovering more as you read the notes and leaflets and ships log around the island. Did he commit suicide, or did Herman murder him, deliberately, or maybe accidentally in a delirious state? But really its not important, as you raise the water level and wash the corpse downriver, consequence free.

I think that's only one thing of many that Monkey Island is about, but I don't think occasional shocking and unsettling things shouldn't be there, nor do I think that sort of content should shy away from taking center stage now and then.