Big Whoop
Guybrush Threepwood, having defeated LeChuck, has become famous — but has spent his treasure and is now mooching off other pirates with tales of his exploits. He learns of Big Whoop, a legendary treasure hidden across four map pieces, and sets out to claim it. LeChuck, resurrected as a zombie pirate, hunts him across the archipelago.
The game spans Scabb Island, Booty Island, Phatt Island, and the climactic Dinky Island — each with its own ecosystem of puzzles, characters, and running jokes. The puzzle design is longer and more complex than the original, demanding more careful inventory management.
What Did It Mean?
LeChuck's Revenge ends with Guybrush confronting LeChuck in a series of underground tunnels beneath Dinky Island — only for the environment to transform into a childhood amusement park. LeChuck removes his mask to reveal a face suggesting he and Guybrush are brothers. Elaine appears above, watching from the park entrance, and mutters that she'd hoped Guybrush wouldn't get "mixed up in that voodoo stuff."
The ending is deliberately ambiguous. Ron Gilbert has stated in interviews that he knew exactly what the Secret of Monkey Island was, and that MI2's ending was the beginning of that revelation — not a narrative trick. He left LucasArts before he could explain it in a third game.
For thirty years, the ending was gaming's great unresolved mystery. It was finally addressed — in Gilbert's own terms — in Return to Monkey Island (2022).
iMUSE at Its Peak
Michael Land's score for LeChuck's Revenge is widely considered the peak of his Monkey Island work — and one of the finest Amiga MOD soundtracks ever written. Each island has a distinct musical palette: Scabb Island's melancholy calypso, Booty Island's festive brass, Phatt Island's swamp blues.
The iMUSE system is more sophisticated here than in MI1: transitions between areas and states are handled more smoothly, with longer crossfade points and more complex branching. The underground catacombs sequence — where LeChuck pursues Guybrush — uses iMUSE to ratchet up tension through musical acceleration.