Escape from Monkey Island underrated?
 

I remember playing EMI back when it first game out. I got it for Christmas that year, and didn't think the game was terrible, but was quite disappointed. My main point of contention was with the horrible keyboard controls. I have recently been playing through the series again before I play Tales of Monkey Island, and I have to say that the game seems highly underrated. It works much better with a gamepad, and I think the game is quite funny with tough but mostly logical puzzles. Does anyone else feel the same?

it wasn't really bad as such, but compared to the previous three games it just really stood out as a disappointment. there was humour but I didn't find it as funny as the previous games, also the glaring inconsistencies were very difficult to ignore. some of the worst examples;
the insides of the Monkey Head
Herman Toothrot
the MI1 crew (contradicts Herman from MI2)

I can live with the ugly 3D characters and the needlessly-awkward controls, but the story of EMI was just awful. The first three games were not afraid to break the fourth wall from time to time, but EMI just continually smashed through it, ending up in self-parody-land. Which I don't think worked for a MI game. At the end of the day, the previous MI games were full of fun and adventure, but they also had heart — EMI didn't, not in the least. I played it when it was first released, and have replayed it a few times since, and I don't think I'll ever like it.

(Thankfully, ToMI managed to recapture what made the first games great — and then some.)

It wasn't the controls that ruined it for me (Grim Fandango, which has the same control scheme, is my favorite adventure), nor was it the bad graphics (I've never complained about graphics in the past). The story was kind of weird, but I accepted it with little difficulty.

What made me hate EFMI was the lack of atmosphere. Every MI game featured scenes with so many intense moods, some scary, some pleasant, almost all of them memorable. EFMI didn't offer the same feel of any previous game. Even though SOMI, LR and COMI all were somewhat cartoonish, none of them ended up feeling like a silly Saturday morning cartoon (like EFMI did). They were lighthearted, but still managed to be rather dark. Not the case with EFMI.

(Case in point: I love revisiting Melee Island every time I start up SOMI. And although I was looking forward to revisiting the locale in EFMI, I was completely disappointed with the "cartoony caricature" the game presented.)

I kind of liked EFMI. Sure, it's my least favorite from the series, but still enjoyable.

The only thing that really bothered me about the game was the Monkey Combat. Going through the Insult Swordfighting of SOMI was a bit tedious, but still amusing, while the Monkey Combat was just tedious.

And beating LeChuck at the end was annoying the first time I played.

It also helps if you consider the "cartoony caricature" art style to be part of the parody of the commercialization of the pirate image. This may or may not have been the designers' intent, but it helps a little bit to pretend it was their intent.

I've played EFMI back in 1999. or 2000., and it was the first MI game I've ever played, so I'm kind of attached to it. I agree that it's probably the weakest MI game, comparing to the first two (I haven't played the originals, just SE versions), COMI, and maybe even the Tales. However, it still has pretty much all of the MI ingredients, which was the reason why the whole series caught my attention in the first place, and in time, become one of my favourite game series. :)

Thought it was a nice coincidence that John Walker's Eurogamer retrospective of CoMI wherein he revises his opinion that it's the most overrated game in the series, was posted today.

I'v played it on the Ps2 (thus control wasn't really an issue), but never finished it. Also got it for the pc a few months ago, installed it, but never had the urge to get passed the 1st chapter. thing that annoyed me the most was basically the engine. why bother upgrading to grimE engine, then modify the hell out of it just so it can badly imitate scumm? Combining items became a chore. at the end, for me, the game just isn't fun.