A few things I understand were borrowed from Curse of MI, but you don't need to know them beforehand. They were borrowed because they are charming and funny, not because they add something to the canon (cannon?).
Actually you should just play them because they're bloody brilliant, as jonplackett said.
There are remakes for modern ish systems available:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/32360/The_Secret_of_Monke...
https://store.steampowered.com/app/32460/Monkey_Island_2_Spe...
3 4 and the Telltalle series... you won't miss much. But 1 and 2 are why this game launch made it even to HN.
Fair enough about the others, but that’s a controversial opinion about 3, which is critically acclaimed and a classic for anyone played it as a kid in the late 90s. It only gets criticised because Ron Gilbert wasn’t involved.
The voice acting cast from it are nearly all in Return, along with lots of references, so it’s canon for Gilbert purists now too!
Was it the one with monkey combat? And time travel? Or time travel was in 4...
Curse was the 2D-cartoon one with demon LeChuck, Elaine turned into gold statue, chickens and rollercoaster of death.
- 1, 2, Return <- "Gilbert Canon" or, "OVA"
- 1, 2, Curse, Escape, Tales <- "Extended Canon", "Guybrush Universe", "Guybrush Muyou"
A little bit of Curse is going into Return, which is the loosey goosey part**. Memorable characters/gags, and less the events of Curse.
* Full disclosure, I haven't played Tales, or Return yet.
* *Well, also PC gaming is a thing in the MI universe, and pirates are shilling LOOM in the SCUMM bar.
Yes, I can tell. Return to Monkey Island explicitly references events from all the previous Monkey Island games.
When it comes to the timeline, I won't comment on it, as that's kind of a spoiler. It becomes obvious early in the game though.
I mean. I have a day job. I won't have time until the weekend to play it. It's only been out like 9 hours!