In fact we all know that the series is one of the most famous and appreciated for PC: every instalment founds its success on the large number of fans affectionated to the characters and the irresistible humor of LucasArts masterpiece. How could you forget Guybrush, the ghost pirate LeChuck, Stan or the little cartographer Wally? And also all those characters only limited to an episode, the quips, the genial gimmicks and the Caribbean atmosphere that smells of grog and improbable buccaneers!

The quality of Monkey Island as the best series of graphic adventures (together with other famous graphic adventures by Lucas that someone still remember with nostalgia, as Sam & Max, Day of the Tentacles, Indiana Jones etc… and also the recent Grim Fandango, from whose premises Monkey Island 4 is born) has also been confirmed in 2001 by the prizes obtained at the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science (equivalent of the Oscars for videogames) among which the prize as best graphic adventure of the year.

The Story
Our hero Guybrush Threepwood and the Governor Elaine Marley-Threepwood, finally his wife, after the honeymoon, return to Melee Island looking for peace and relaxation after the adventures of Monkey Island 3: The Curse of Monkey Island. The hope to finally live a pacific life is immediately broken : Elaine has officially been declared dead and her house is going to be demolished. At the same time the greedy and slimy Charles L. Charles is intentioned to take the place of the Governor. Elaine has to reconquer the power and the lost authority winning the new elections against her rival. All this is planned by the land developer Ozzie Mandrill, an Australian, who strongly wants to transform the tri-island area in an enormous amusement park for rich tourists. At this point it's up to Guybrush to free the Caribbean area from the threat of Mandrill, being involved in a new adventure where piratical spirit, voodoo, quips and curious puzzles are strictly tied up . Besides, the resolution of a new treasure hunt will be decisive: in fact to save the islands from the capitalistic menace could be necessary the recovery of a precious artifact, the Ultimate Insult.

The gameplay is nearly identical to the one of others Monkey Island, composed essentially by puzzles to be resolved, hilarious dialogues with a great number of characters, tools to be used in the most unexpected and various ways etc…etc… Anyway, LucasArts created a walkthrough available online, useful to overcome the most difficult points of the game. The most important innovation regards the new 3D graphics for the characters, animated on 2D pre-rendered backgrounds. The preceding game in this sense is Grim Fandango, from which this type of graphics (that also means the dropping of the old point-and-click interface) is derived. Cameras are fixed too, according to the cartoon style that Monkey Island wants to offer of itself and the result is amazing. Irresistible are Insult Arm Wrestling and Monkey Kombat, that will make happy above all Guybrush's lovers, but they will also surprise for their great irony those who approach for the first time to the piratical adventures of Monkey Island.

Many will say that Monkey Island is a series limited to the group of fans, considering the recurring characters, the quotations from old episodes and also from other LucasArts games, often subtle and incomprehensible to new players. If from a certain point of view these considerations are exact, and this means that to new players some quips and references will be absolutely not clear, anyway it is also true that fun will be granted in every case, and it is unbelievable indeed that someone will be disappointed. Ahoy!