Like Ron Gilbert wrote in one of his previous blog posts, Monkey Island 1 and 2 were (what is today called) pixel art because pixel art was "state of the art" a

Like Ron Gilbert wrote in one of his previous blog posts, Monkey Island 1 and 2 were (what is today called) pixel art because pixel art was "state of the art" at that time. He already (co-)created a retro pixel art game with Thimbleweed Park, no need to do it again...