It was the first game in the series to be released on CD-ROM, allowing for a full musical score, fully animated cutscenes, and the introduction of voice acting for the characters.

The hand typically corresponds to physical actions such as picking something up, using an item, or operating a mechanism; the skull is usually used to look at something; and the parrot to talk to someone or eat something.

Similarly, during the game's third chapter, a choice is offered to either have Guybrush's crew assist with ship-to-ship sea combat, or for the player to have full control during these battles.

Following the events of Monkey Island 2, Guybrush Threepwood has regained his adult form and escaped from the zombie pirate LeChuck's "Carnival of the Damned".

By engaging in sea battles with other pirates, Guybrush acquires treasure to upgrade his ship's cannons, and learns enough barbs and retorts to defeat Rottingham in rhyming insult sword fighting.

Guybrush's quests on the island involve a hotel, nacho cheese, a hangover cure, tofu, crypts, a talking skull named Murray, a broken lighthouse, and a makeshift compass.

He meets the ghost of a debutante who was seduced by LeChuck, who stole the diamond from her heirloom engagement ring and sold it to smugglers on nearby Skull Island.

LeChuck reveals that Big Whoop, the treasure Guybrush sought in the prior game, is actually a portal to hell which turns those who pass through it into immortal undead.

Learning that Captain Marley and his crew had a map to Big Whoop, Lechuck stole the debutante's diamond, sold it to the smugglers, bought a ship, and beat them to its location on Monkey Island, where he passed through the portal and gained supernatural powers.

LeChuck built the Big Whoop Carnival to lure sailors onto a roller coaster which carries them into a river of lava, turning them into his skeletal army.

Jumping off at dioramas depicting scenes from the previous games, Guybrush improvises an explosive and sets off an avalanche, burying LeChuck under the theme park.

This was only brought to light when Tony Stacchi, a concept artist for the project, sent his work to The Scumm Bar, a Monkey Island fansite.

Feed; Alan Young as Haggis McMutton; Michael Sorich as Edward Van Helgen and Charles DeGoulash (Ghost Groom); Gregg Berger as Cutthroat Bill; and Leilani Jones Wilmore as the Voodoo Lady.

Other voice actors included Kay E. Kuter as Griswold Goodsoup, Tom Kane as Captain René Rottingham and the Flying Welshman, Patrick Pinney as Stan, and Victor Raider-Wexler as Slappy Cromwell and the Snowcone Guy.

[7] Notables among the remaining voices include Mary Kay Bergman as Minnie "Stronie" Goodsoup (Ghost Bride), Gary Coleman as Kenny Falmouth, and future Angel star Glenn Quinn as Pirate #5.

The Curse of Monkey Island sold 52,049 copies in the United States by the end of 1997, according to market research firm PC Data.

[19] Louis Castle of Westwood Studios estimated The Curse of Monkey Island's lifetime sales at 300,000 copies by 2002,[20] while LucasArts' Bill Tiller stated in 2003 that CMI sold over half a million units worldwide.

[28] Next Generation remarked that the game is superficially attractive, with LucasArts's usual superlative production values showing in the music, artwork, voice acting, and animation, but suffers from uninspired puzzle design, a lack of a strong narrative pull, an absence of genuine innovation over the first two Monkey Island games, and a number of pop culture references that serve only to jerk the player out of the atmosphere.

[citation needed] Although Adventure Gamers cited the graphic style's "refusal to take itself seriously" was adding "immensely to the game's charm", they found the secondary characters "criminally underdeveloped" and the ending as anticlimactic.

[40] In 1998, PC Gamer declared it the 33rd-best computer game ever released, and the editors called it "a grand, timeless adventure, sharply written and flawlessly voice-acted".

[42] In 2008, Ron Gilbert praised The Curse of Monkey Island, calling it "great" and remarking that "they did an excellent job of capturing the humor and feel of the game".