Escape from Monkey Island
Yes, yes, 'Isn't the adventure game dead?' you ask?  Apparently not.  While Sierra has long abandoned the genre that put it on the map, LucasArts has continued to stay true to its roots by bringing out a new adventure game every few years.  In 1998 we played Grim Fandango.  This year, LucasArts will take us back to the Monkey Island universe for the fourth installment in this classic gaming series.

The biggest change for Monkey Island 4 is the move to 3D, with an underlying engine based on the one used for Grim Fandango.  While Monkey Island 3 joked about 3D accelerator support with a fake control switch in the options menu, Monkey 4 actually requires 3D acceleration.  Skeptics doubted whether LucasArts would be able to transition from a 2D cel-animated look to full 3D, but all one needs to do is take a look at the screenshots to see that Guybrush Threepwood never looked better.

The story for Escape from Monkey Island involves Guybrush Threepwood and his new wife, Elaine.  Husband and wife return to Melee Island (you'll remember it from the first two games), but there's a problem: Elaine has been gone so long that no one remembers her and most forsook her for dead!  Mind you, the biggest problem faced by Guybrush is a rogue Australian capitalist named Ozzie Mandrill who is pulling a Donald Trump and trying to convert all the Caribbean into a theme park, complete with restaurants such as Planet Threepwood.  Once Guybrush gets wind of this, he has to fight back and protect the integrity of the pirate race…or so he thinks.

Monkey Island 4 easily makes our list of anticipated games because it's bound to make us laugh.  And let's be honest: when was the last time you played a funny game?

More Monkey Island 4 on GameSlice:
E3 2000 Impressions