Well, I'm with ya on that. I never saw the MI games as much more than a bunch of hilarity frosted onto a cake of fun pirate adventure. When it was done well, there was something more than just frosting, and it could be tasty, but at the end of the day it was still just cake. I never saw the deeper stuff, or ominous ghosts and voodoo tone mentioned (okay, maybe I lack imagination). And I have no idea where my baking analogies are coming from, so I'll stop with that.

But, I don't think MI1 and 2 hold up so well compared to current games either (and I have to admit I haven't played ToMI yet). They were great for their time, and I'd love to see some current games take the kinds of creative risks they did back then, but game design and production has evolved, and those games--even the special editions--don't really reflect that. I think MI1 has a better story structure than MI2, which was always too long and convoluted for me (plus the weird ending), but some of the humor feels pretty silly now.

Of course, we made a MI game also, but since I'm too close to that, it's hard to evaluate. I know that in terms of production values, it holds up better, simply because we had 640x480 resolution and full animation. But, in terms of game/story, we were following a bit of a template anyway. It was supposed to be "like the first 2" in a lot of respects, and then we bent and twisted that description where we could.

But, hey...even if none of the MI games hold up over time, I guess I have one career highpoint to hang my hat on: I did the cone of tragedy concept/animation. I can die a happy man.