Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge and the Ending Everyone Argued About

The first Secret of Monkey Island was a charming comedy about a young man who wanted to be a pirate. Its sequel, released by LucasArts in 1991, took that charm and made it larger, sillier and considerably more ambitious. It also ended in a way that people were still arguing about long after the credits.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge was created by Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman, the same core team that made the original, and it was built on the company’s SCUMM adventure engine. It starts with Guybrush Threepwood, now a self-proclaimed mighty pirate, searching for the legendary treasure of Big Whoop, and it sends him across several islands, including the small, gloomy Scabb Island and the tourist-friendly Booty Island. Each island has its own tone, cast and puzzle chains, which gives the game a feeling of scale that the first one only hinted at.

Two features are worth noting. The first is the humor, which is arguably sharper than in the original. The first game’s Insult Swordfighting was one of the best comic ideas in adventure gaming, and the sequel offered a variation in the form of insult arm-wrestling, with the same combination of memorization and wordplay. The dialogue is quick, self-aware and full of asides that reward attention.

The second is the sound. LucasArts’ iMUSE system, developed by Michael Land and Peter McConnell, allowed the music to change dynamically and transition smoothly as Guybrush moved between locations and scenes rather than looping abruptly. That may sound like a technical footnote, but it changed how the game felt to play: the score responded to you. It was one of the more influential pieces of audio design in adventure games of that era.

The game also shipped with two difficulty modes. A “Lite” mode had simplified puzzles, so that beginners could still reach the ending, while the full version offered the complete challenge. It is a small design decision that reflects a real awareness that adventure games could be punishing, and it is a courtesy that many later games have not extended.

Then there is the ending. Without spoiling more than necessary, the game’s final scenes recast what the player has been through, in a way that many fans found either brilliant or baffling. Ron Gilbert left LucasArts not long afterward, and for years the ending was treated as a loose thread, with later official sequels taking the story in other directions. That changed in 2022, when Gilbert returned to the series with Return to Monkey Island, developed by his own studio, Terrible Toybox, and published by Devolver Digital. It picked up from the sequel’s ending and gave it a long-awaited answer. That is a remarkable arc for a decades-old cliffhanger.

For those who want to play the original, there are a few paths. The 1991 game has been sold in different forms over the years, and a Special Edition with redrawn art and voice acting appeared in 2010. Availability on storefronts has changed over time, so check current listings, and note that the ScummVM project can run the original data files on modern systems.

The opinion part: LeChuck’s Revenge may be the high point of the classic LucasArts formula. It has the tightest jokes, the most confident puzzle design and a genuine sense of adventure. The ending is a matter of taste, but it gave the series something that its cheerier entries did not: a reason to argue.