Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Pirate Captain Greenbeard has a plan: he is going to rebel against Captain "King" Flint and takes over the Azurbbean Sea. His scheme is overheard by Flint's spy and swashbuckler, the impossibly shapely Jane Starling. Starling hijacks the row-boat of Blue Belly, Greenbeard's rotund, happy-go-lucky ship cook, and the two head for Vooju Island to inform Flint's ally Papa Doc Mystère, a renowned voodoo master. They find Flint himself at Papa Doc's temple, ostensibly summoned by the voodoo doctor himself. It is then revealed that the whole thing is a trap set by Papa's Doc's "loving" wife Queen Zimbi. Zimbi imprisons Flint and his crew, and magically rips the souls out of the bodies of Papa Doc, Blue Belly, and Jane Starling.

Obviously our heroes have to find a way to right the wrongs -- but first, they have to get their bodies back.

Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island is a point-and-click Adventure Game designed by Bill Tiller (visual artist of The Curse of Monkey Island and A Vampyre Story). An interesting mechanism in this game is that each of the three protagonists can communicate and see through the eyes of the other two, and often you have to turn to your comrades for advices.


Tropes used in Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island include:
  • Big Fun -- Blue Belly.
  • Bridezilla -- Muriel, bride of Governor Derrick of Merry Cay.
  • Captain Color Beard -- Greenbeard.
  • Dem Bones -- Grimjaw and his first mate; Captain Red Rum.
  • Did You Just Scam Cthulhu? -- Jane Starling's ploy with Old Roger and Xilbaba. Interesting as this involves setting one Cthulhu scamming against another.
  • Fat Bastard -- the treacherous Itzakoka, high priest of Emperor Pacal.
  • Ghost Pirates
  • God in Human Form -- I'Xel, who is powerless over the struggle of the protagonists, but does appear as a Dea Ex Machina at the end.
  • Guide Dang It -- most of the game's puzzles are easy, and can be solved with little or no guidance -- except the infamous "charades" puzzle, involving Blue Belly and a frightened prisoner. The player is advised to go straight to a walkthrough instead of wasting your time on the incomprehensible instructions.
    • Not really as hard as people make it to be. If you use the right gesture, the other character will nod. If you make a wrong one, he'll shake his head. That said, it's still trial and error, and probably not worth the effort.
  • Hook Hand -- Pirate cook Blue Belly has a spatula hand.
  • Hollywood Voodoo.
  • Mayincatec.
  • Ms. Fanservice -- Jane, full-stop.
  • My Name Is Not Durwood -- Papa Doc always gets Blue Belly's moniker wrong.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different -- most notably, the ghosts are still subjected to gravity: hence no levitation tricks. If they walk into quicksand they would sink.
  • Pirate Girl -- Jane Starling.
  • Psycho Ex-Girlfriend -- Xilbaba, former paramour of Old Roger. She even boiled his pet rabbit.
  • Royal Brat -- Young Emperor Pacal, at least he can be made to see reason.
  • Scenery Porn -- Tiller has outdone himself over A Vampyre Story; there are far more scenes, most of them absolutely gorgeous. While completely 3D-rendered adventure games are getting better and better graphically, there is still something about 2D, hand-painted graphics that is hard to replace.
  • Spiritual Successor to Monkey Island: a farical, anachronistic pirate story; the heavy helping of voodoo; the swirlly clouds; the breath-mints...
  • Straw Misogynist -- Papa Doc's mild misogyny is used for comic effects.
  • Talk Like a Pirate -- Yarr!
  • The Unintelligible -- Yamo the shrunken head. Papa Doc understands him just fine.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: Jane to King Flint, and for a comical version, Blue Belly to Jane.
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