The Secret of Monkey Island - it's just not for me

The Secret of Monkey Island is a point & click adventure game from 1990. It also launched a series of sequels. And it should be everything I'm looking for in this genre. It has pirates and it has ghost pirates, and that's all I should need. And yet, when I think about this genre, I'm drawn to the horror elements. I like the unique elements that sea monsters can bring to a story (as opposed to the "land" monsters of the Weird West genre). Unfortunately, this game leans into the comedy aspect and that's where it loses me. I'm not against point & click adventure games in general but this aesthetic is just too silly for me. Don't get me wrong, replacing sword combat with insult battles is a clever idea for a point & click adventure game, I'm just not here for the jokes.

The series is about a random person who starts the first game by declaring "I want to be a pirate!" and then proceeds to do just that. Along the way he crosses paths with a ghost pirate who kidnaps his girlfriend so he has to rescue her. The creators of this series have said their primary inspirations were the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland and the novel On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, so it should fit perfectly in this Lemmy community. And while I won't argue with anyone who loves this game or has fond memories of this series, it just isn't for me. So I felt obligated to include it here even though I've never played any of the games.

If you're curious about it though, you can play the game for free in your browser at archive.org (and plenty of less-reputable sites too).