Monkey Island: Were you fooled?

September 19, 2010 1:02 PM

Secret of Monkey Island: Was anyone actually fooled? (Spoilers inside)

In one of the more famous scenes in the classic adventure game The Secret of Monkey Island, Guybrush (the player character) is thrown off a pier, tied by a rope around his waist to a heavy idol to keep him from surfacing. There are various sharp implements (swords, etc) scattered around, which could presumably be used to cut the rope, but the rope limits his reach, and he can't get to them. The solution is to just pick up the idol and walk ashore. The sharp items are clearly there as a red herring to get you to ignore the more obvious solution, and the intended experience is that the player spends some time trying for them before having a flash of insight.

For me personally, this didn't work. When I played the game for the first time, I actually clicked on the idol before I even noticed the sharp items, because it was more visible and in a more prominent location on the screen. What I'm wondering is: Is my experience abnormal? Or is this a scene that actually never works as intended?

Obviously this is not a question that no one of you can answer, but your answers in aggregate will tell me what I want to know. If you have played this game, were you fooled? For how long?

posted by baf to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (20 answers total)

I was fooled for a while. Note that that scene is one of the few times Guybrush can die in a Monkey Island game. You do have to wait 10 minutes, since Guybrush can hold his breath that long, so most people figure it out before that happens.
posted by jedicus at 1:08 PM on September 19, 2010

I was fooled. I had to look it up, to my deep shame.
posted by Rinku at 1:17 PM on September 19, 2010

I tried picking up the idol first, but I wasn't expecting it to work. To my surprise, it did!
posted by pemberkins at 1:42 PM on September 19, 2010

I was definitely fooled. For reals.

What a great game. Why don't they make 'em like that anymore? At the same time, those games were frequently very frustrating. Glad they don't make 'em like that anymore.
posted by boghead at 1:44 PM on September 19, 2010

I was fooled. I don't remember how long.
posted by matt_arnold at 1:45 PM on September 19, 2010

It's been so long since I played it for the first time, but I still remember the Aha! moment from that one. One of my favourite old school adventure game puzzles actually!
posted by yellowbinder at 1:47 PM on September 19, 2010

I don't remember if I was fooled, but I do remember it as another element of the humor.
posted by freshwater at 1:47 PM on September 19, 2010

I was very fooled and I most definitely had to look it up. I think that I was 11 at the time, but it probably would still have tricked me today. Also: where else could you die? I remember leaving my game on for days in the cannibal village in hopes that they'd eat me, but they never did...
posted by 200burritos at 2:22 PM on September 19, 2010

You could die at a point where you're near a cliff and there's an unstable looking precipice. If you try to stand right on the edge, I think it asked you if you really wanted to do that, because it didn't look safe (or something along those lines). If you said yes, you fell to your death.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:39 PM on September 19, 2010

I was fooled!
posted by guybrush_threepwood at 3:06 PM on September 19, 2010 [10 favorites]

You could die at a point where you're near a cliff and there's an unstable looking precipice. If you try to stand right on the edge, I think it asked you if you really wanted to do that, because it didn't look safe (or something along those lines). If you said yes, you fell to your death.


From memory, when you clicked Yes, you fell off, and then a minute later popped back up onto the ledge. And he said something about a rubber tree.
posted by antiquark at 3:14 PM on September 19, 2010

I was fooled, but certainly not for long enough to ever realize you could die there.
posted by juv3nal at 3:38 PM on September 19, 2010

I don't know about fooled, because I didn't actually see the idol at first. After a couple of attempts with the sharp objects I assumed none of them would work and started looking for any other objects.

From memory, when you clicked Yes, you fell off, and then a minute later popped back up onto the ledge. And he said something about a rubber tree.

You get a little error message saying something like "Oh no! You've died! Restore, Restart, Quit?" and in the background Guybrush pops back up onto the cliff. He then just says "Rubber Tree".

where else could you die?

In MI2, there's a timed puzzle where Guybrush can die, but since the framing story is Guybrush recounting the adventure to Elaine, the game cuts back to Elaine, who points out that he obviously isn't dead and says "You want to try telling me what REALLY happened?" The game then cuts back to the start of the timed puzzle.
posted by Electric Dragon at 4:20 PM on September 19, 2010

That was one of my favourite moments in the game. I was puzzled for a minute or two. Like pemberkins I did not expect my attempt to pick up the idle to work and was amused when it did.
posted by PercussivePaul at 5:36 PM on September 19, 2010

Same here. I was fooled for a little while.

When I played the updated "special" edition last year (with updated graphics, available for 1 and 2), I made sure to stand there until I died, just because.
posted by gemmy at 6:13 PM on September 19, 2010

It fooled me for, I think, two attempts to get a sharp object. Then I realized the game was being cute, as usual, and figured out to pick up the idol. I'd guess I was stumped between thirty seconds and a minute, and I did think that scene worked very well.

I guess you're just a little smarter than we are. :)
posted by Malor at 7:49 PM on September 19, 2010

I was totally fooled and I was playing with another guy helping. Plus, MI is an old game and some of the tricks in MI were literally never-before-seen.

The thing about these sorts of games is you'll get stuck and it will be a different place for each person.

Also, you missed the cool easter egg where his face changes color as he stays under water. So phooey on you, Mr. Fancy Pants.
posted by chairface at 9:06 PM on September 19, 2010

My girlfriend and I clicked around and did other stuff first, were briefly puzzled, and before long tried picking up the idol because I knew it would be some silly solution like that.
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 9:58 PM on September 19, 2010

A little earlier on when Guybrush is listing his talents trying to impress some of the pirates at the SCUMM bar, he mentions that he can hold his breath for ten minutes.. and lo, after ten minutes he sort of turns blue-ish and drowns-ish.
posted by Philby at 7:03 AM on September 20, 2010

It definitely had me going. I was mad frustrated for a few minutes until I clicked on the Idol, more out of anger than anything else :)
posted by kryptonik at 11:26 AM on September 20, 2010