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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 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 for PC, 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 advice. It was released in November 2009 in Tiller's native Germany, and in 2010 everywhere else.


Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island provides examples of:

  • Accidental Misnaming: Papa Doc always gets Blue Belly's moniker wrong.
  • Big Fun: Blue Belly. A jolly friendly pirate who is also a good cook.
  • Bridezilla: Muriel, bride of Governor Derrick of Merry Cay. She also turns out to be a mermaid.
  • Dem Bones: Grimjaw and his first mate, Captain Red Rum, are skeletal pirates.
  • Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Jane Starling's ploy with Old Roger and Xilbaba. Interesting as this involves setting one Cthulhu scamming against another.
  • Fantastic Racism: The governor of Merry Cay Seems to have one for mermaids, as he cancels the wedding upon learning Muriel is one.
  • Ghost Pirates: As the title suggests, this is important to the story as well as the gameplay. For much of the game, the protagonists are ghosts separated from their bodies and puzzles revolve around utilizing their spectral abilities whilst working around their new limitations to return to their bodies.
  • 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. Even once you notice that the other character will nod if you the right gesture, and shake his head in response to the wrong one, the rest is still trial and error.
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power: While he's not a powerful voodoo witch doctor like Papa Doc or experienced and shapely spy like Jane, Blue Belly's cooking skills and down-to-earth knowledge come in quite handy in the process of saving the world.
  • Hook Hand: Pirate cook Blue Belly has a spatula hand.
  • Hollywood Voodoo: How the heroes end up as ghosts in the place, though Papa Doc can still use some to his own advantage once he gets his body back.
  • Mayincatec: The island had some Mayan inhabitants and you will be seeing their ruins as you go along.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Jane, full-stop. She has an Impossible Hourglass Figure with an especially large bosom she proudly shows off with her low-cut blouse. Jane even uses her sex appeal to her advantage quite a few times throughout the game.
  • 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.
  • Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Xilbaba, former paramour of Old Roger. She even boiled his pet rabbit.
  • Royal Brat: Young Emperor Pacal, though 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 farcical, anachronistic pirate story; the heavy helping of voodoo; the swirly clouds; the breath-mints...
  • The Starscream: Greenbeard sides with Zimbe to murder Flint and become Pirate King.
    • Itzakoka plans to kill Pacal and sellout the Azteclans to the Esperontaz, in return for the Esporontaz's elixir of immortality... the plague.
  • Straw Misogynist: Papa Doc's mild misogyny is used for comic effects.

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