[migviper]

I'm thinking this topic may have been adressed before but I'm new here and I was just wondering. I'd say my favorite is the first one. Not sure why but I guess it is.

[mag]

I think MI2 was the best. It really had the best of everything...puzzles, story, humor. And the ending was just sheer brilliance. I love it.

mag

[remixor]

I'm with Mag on this one.

[Toefur]

Secret of Monkey Island.

[RemiO]

MI2 for reasons stated numerous times.

[Deshrill]

With the poll, I was initially going to choose the original MI game, but I decided to vote on MI 2 after thinking about it for a bit. MI 2 had a more involved plot, harder puzzles, and more of the same Ron Gilbert magic the original had.

MI 3 was very good though, despite not being designed by Ron Gilbert. It had a similar comic tone to the first two, although it was a bit short. The art style worked quite well though, with lots of surreal touches.

MI 4... I was pretty dissapointed with the game. The jokes didn't seem quite as funny and some of the characters were a bit not Monkey-Island-ish-- especially the Australian bad guy (can't remember the name, it's been a while since I've played it). The graphics were a turn off for me-- they kept in the Monkey Island style, but everything looked so distorted and squashed looking that it was a bit jarring. Still, the 3-D look worked better for me in MI 4 than in GK 3.

[tabacco]

CMI for me... partly because of the awesome art (yeah, I know, it doesn't have much bearing on the gameplay or anything but it's so good it really boosts the atmosphere), partly because it has one of my favorite characters (Murray!), and partly because Dom rules as Guybrush

(I have other reasons, but I'm too lazy to type them up)



(Although the dancing monkeys are pretty darn cool)

[Amiguero]

I liked the origanility of the first one the most.

[Valynis]

Curse is definitely the best of the 4 MI games in my opinion. Everything it does, it does better than the others.

MI1 was like a rough diamond: plenty of good stuff and good ideas but weakly held together by a paper-thin structure and hardly any subtleties. It also has several "boring as hell" moments that prevents me to want to play it again.

MI2 is not much better for me. When I think of this game, there's one word that pops up: "messy". Thinking back on it, I don't really remember any great moments. It felt just like chores after chores after chores. I suspect the reason to that is because there was barely any story in this one and story is my number one reason why I play AGs. I guess I don't see where the whole "Ron Gilbert worship" comes from. Then again, he made the first one, so he ain't all bad in my book. Oh, and I don't like the ending. The only thing worse than this ending is the famous theory about how a "Ron Gilbert MI3" would have looked like. Yuck!

MI4 was just too derivative of the formula set by its predecessors (in a "follow the recipe" kinda way), too repetitive in its gameplay and too complex for its own good. I'm not one to say that keyboard movement is evil but, as in Grim Fandango, it was abyssimally implemented (Rule #1: when the character hits a wall, don't make it turn on its own. Look at any 3D Final Fantasy for an exemple of how to do it right.)

MI3, now, is a great accomplishment. This one I never mind replaying it. The story is neat, the humor is efficient and plenty, the cast of characters is superb, the puzzles are just perfect, the music is delightful, the graphics never grow old and there's a lot of subtleties here and there. It has the best musical number. Voices are top notch. It's also one of the sequels to make the best use of its predecessors.

And there's the blunder-repairing of MI2's ending, which might be the rescue of the past century.

And there's Murray.

Of course, MI3 is not perfect. I wish it had a more climatic final confrontation. I also wish they would have made the whole canon battle part optional. Still, of the whole bunch, it is the best by far. So, for me, MI3 then MI1 then, way far behind, MI2 and MI4.

These were my personal opinions. No disrespect is meant toward Ron Gilbert, nor toward his fans. He probably deserves all the success he's had. He's for sure a better game designer than I ever will be. But there's better out there who don't get as much recognition and it pains me.

[DustCropper]

1,3,2,4. That's the order I rank 'em.

[eriq]

Gosh, all of the Monkey games are great in their own right. Since we have to choose, I would pick The Curse of Monkey Island followed by Monkey Island 2 which had excellent puzzles.

I already gushed about how much I loved Curse of Monkey Island's atmosphere. You can't beat it! It's so much fun to play. A cartoon come to life.

[Kingzjester]

2, 1, 3, 7, 6, 5, 9, 8, 13, 4... the others are not worth mentioning.

[michael1123]

4 is worth mentioning?

2, 1, 3 ........................ 4 is my order as well. I think Curse of Monkey Island is a tad bit overrated, but its still a great game.

[Kingzjester]

Originally Posted by michael1123

4 is worth mentioning?

2, 1, 3 ........................ 4 is my order as well. I think Curse of Monkey Island is a tad bit overrated, but its still a great game.

I was being kind.

[Manta]

In my opinion, Curse of Monkey Island followed by Monkey Island 2.

[mycroft]

The Curse of Monkey Island

[Kolzig]

The Secret of Monkey Island is my favourite.

I think everything is just perfect in that one.

The second one is also quite good, and the third one is beautiful and has good voice actors.

But third one suffers from stupid plot thingies in the end part of the game.

And the fourth one is just plain bad.

so the ranking is 1,2,3,............................................ 4

[karel y2k4]

I tought the 4th one wasn't bad at all.I don't know why, but I think I just like the atmosphere, even with the 3d graphics. It's the Monkey Island game I replayed the most. But I still voted for the 3rd one just because the drawed graphics are more fitting for the theme.
1 and 2 were great games too but I guess I rate them in order of atmospere and with graphics in those days it was a little hard to get that point good. My 'all time list of the greatness that the Monkey Island games are, created with or without Ron Gilbert' is: 3, 4, 2, 1

[RLacey]

I still don't understand why so many people dislike Escape from Monkey Island. Sure, it wasn't the best Monkey Game, but it wasn't nearly as bad as most people are implying - it was fun, had some good puzzles, was funny and was also well made.

In my opinion the order is 2, 1, 3, 4 - but forget about all those dots before the '4'. It's only just behind...

[Pappapisshu]

Curse of Monkey Island, for reasons Valynis partly mentioned. Anyway, it's kickass.

I don't really understand why most of you dislike EMI so much. I'm replaying it at the moment, and I really enjoy it. I think the atmosphere, composed mainly by the graphics and the music, and the puzzles are excellent. Sure, it's got its boring moments. The whole Monkey Kombat thing is just plain boring. Most of the last act is not very exciting, actually. But, overall, it's a great adventure game.

Oh, and needless to say, I love the first two games.