Notes for an essay about “Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s revenge”
or How to understand images in art and to win a videogame without walkthroughs.
and the proof that this game is really a piece of art.
One - A Game of Art.
When I saw Monkey Island 2 for the first time, I was a twelve year old boy, and I immediately thought that it was a masterpiece.
I used to play it in my friend’s house, because I didn’t have a pc - once upon a time there were people without computers. Sadly I never played the whole game, just a few scenarios, because my friend proceeded playing the game on his own when I was not with him. Of course I will never forgive this childish behaviour.
Now, twenty-eight years later, I’m playing that game on my mobile phone.
The boy I was in the first 90s was a boy who dreamt about a machine in the penny arcades with ALL the games and INFINITE credits. They told him it was just a dream. Ten years later, the M.A.M.E fulfilled this lifelong dream.
Now, it’s time to give this boy a new revenge: When he told that Monkey Island was ART they told him it was JUST A GAME featuring weird pirates. Twenty-eight years later, this boy works as an artist and he wants to proof to the world that he was right, and explain why.
For the uninitiated, the Monkey Island games are adventure/puzzlers following the story of the plucky wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood. After beating the ghost pirate LeChuck and winning over the lovely Governor Elaine Marley in the Secret of Monkey Island, Threepwood has fallen out of Elaine's good graces and decides to pursue the fabled treasure of Big Whoop in the second chapter of the saga.
My opinion is that Monkey Island, a part from being an excellent game and a funny pirate’s tale, is a smart mediation and a working metaphor of understanding images in art, and I will try to explain why.
