Nanner Split said:

I've started to look at Ron Gilbert as almost George Lucas-esque these days. It's not like he was the only person involved (Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman were just as instrumental to the development as he was), and what few things he's done ever since haven't been that great (do you know anyone who's played Deathspank?). I'm starting to thing that he's just been holding the whole "What IS the real secret of Monkey Island? I'll NEVER TELL " thing over people's heads over the years just to make sure people still care.

Monkey Island 4 wasn't that great (seriously, FUCK Monkey Kombat), but the Tales series was awesome.

I agree with you about Gilbert being Lucas-esque, I played the Deathspank demo, and was overwhelmingly underwhelmed. Its humor was very forced, and none of it was in the least bit funny. Ron's the real secret of monkey island is just a running joke. I know it wasn't Ron Gilbert alone that made the first two games so great, but to me there is still a very distinct difference between the first two and the third one. Personally, I think it would have been great to have had a third game along the same lines as the first two.

Since we are on the topic, anybody else have the Monkey Island 2 Special Edition? When the first one was re-released, I played through it in just a few days. But I have been having a really hard time getting into the second one, even though that has always been my favorite. Maybe I just haven't been in the mood. I remember the voice acting in the first one being fairly decent, but so far in MI2 I have just found it to be annoying and horribly done.