Those loyal fans who have been playing Tales of Monkey Island for several months can now opt to upgrade their series to the ultimate DVD collector's package in standard or deluxe edition. Telltale Games has put together two DVD packages which include the complete Tales of Monkey Island series on a DVD PC-ROM which can be upgrade to by current series owners or purchased by those late to the party.
The first option is the standard edition which comes with a DVD which includes the following:
* The complete five episode season of Tales of Monkey Island
* Highlight reel with commentary from Telltale design team
* Production art gallery
* Five fan-created "I Wonder What Happens" video collection
* Two Tales of Monkey Island official trailers
* Preview of Telltale's next game, Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse
* Desktop wallpapers and fun forum avatars
If you already own all the episodes from Tales of Monkey Island, then this DVD is free plus shipping and handling. It's $34.95 for first time buyers.
The second option is the deluxe edition which includes all the stuff listed above and the following:
* DVD slip case designed by Monkey Island art legend Steve Purcell
* A previously un-discovered new card from the Voodoo Lady's deck
* Gulf of Melange Map
* Commemorative button from Guybrush's Trial of the Century
* Drink coaster from Club 41
* Piratey piece of eight coin
If you already own all the episodes from Tales of Monkey Island, then you can upgrade to the Deluxe Edition for only $14.95 plus shipping and handling. It's $49.95 for first time buyers. Head to the Telltale Games site to pre-order yours now.
If you've been playing the Tales of Monkey Island games like I've been, you know Episode 4 finishing on a cliffhanger and the outcome was not good for our hero, Guybrush.
On December 8th, Telltale Games will release the 5th and final episode in the Tales of the Monkey Island series, Rise of the Pirate God. Fans will finally get to find out the fate of our favorite mighty pirate.
I really hope that Telltale decides to create another block of episodes for the Monkey Island franchise like they did with the Sam & Max franchise. I have been massively impressed with their reboot of the series and don't want them to stop.
If you haven't checked out any of the Monkey Island games yet, please do. You can now purchase single episodes of the game for $8.95 or the full package for $34.95. There's also a demo available for the first episode. You can find everything here.
Telltale Games is slowly posting all the entries from their Halloween Art Contest and though mine is up yet, there are some pretty cool entries so far like the one above: Evil Max playing pumpkin ball.
Check out all the entries from Day One, Two and Three that they have posted so far and maybe soon they'll post mine.
Telltale Games has posted 4 new pictures for the upcoming episode 4 of Tales of Monkey Island. Stan the Boat Salesman is back and Elan has been infected by the pox. Also its ladies night at Club 41. I can't wait to play the new episode.
Created by Monkey Island super fans, Andrei "SilverWolfPet" Constantinescu, Marius Fietzek, Thorsten Fietzek and Mihai Constantinescu, I'm More Piratey Than You is a tribute song to the fabulous Monkey Island series as well as a celebration of International Talk like a Pirate Day.
This video was too cute not to post, especially when you hear their accents.
As everyone knows my blog is always plastered with videogame crafts cause I love to support other artists that share my love of the game crafts, so want better way to get to find new artists than to join up with a like-minded artisans group?
The Destructoid Artisans Group is a group full of Destructoid community member that create game crafts via all sorts of materials. We share a common search tag on Etsy and once a month we band together to give back to the Dtoid community that puts up with us posting our art all over our c-blogs day after day.
This month we are holding a contest that celebrates the joy that are SCUMM games. SCUMM was a script language used by LucasArts to make games like Maniac Mansion, Secret of Monkey Island and more back in the day and we want artists of all kinds to make themed art around these games.
To the best 5 art pieces, we will reward a copy of Tales of Monkey Island for the PC, thanks to our friends at Telltale Games, and a donated, handmade item from a member of the Artisan group like a crocheted purple tentacle or a Sam & Max magnet set.
Today Episode 3 of Tale of Monkey Island is available, so hurry up plunder bunnies and download the newest episode to find out what happened to Guybrush Threepwood after the last episode.
Watch the video for a special appearance of our favorite evil skull, Murray.
Episode 1 is still free and there's Murray in the 3rd episode. See, I have photographic proof, so why want any longer. GO AND DOWNLOAD THESE GAMES!
Few people know that you can still get your free demo copy of Tales of Monkey Island - Episode 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, if you just follow this link - FREE DEMO HERE
Episode 3: Lair of the Leviathan will be available for download on September 29th, so I suggest you hurry up and download the 1st and 2nd episodes if you haven't already. Both 1&2 are also available as Wiiware titles if you prefer.
For those of us, you have played the first two games, we'll have to be tied over with these new screenshots until Tuesday.
Tales of Monkey Island: Episode 2 – Siege of Spinner Cay
Telltales Games
Available as a PC Download and as Nintendo Wiiware.
Avast ye scurvy dogs, tis time for the next episode in the Tales of Monkey Island story. In July, Telltales games released the first episode in the Tales of Monkey Island series which received excellent reviews from the fans and the game media. On August 20th, Episode 2: Siege of Spinner Cay was released and I’m here to tell you if it’s worth following Mr. Threepwood’s adventures past the first cannon shot and witty remark.
If you managed to pick up the first episode, you’ll remember that we left our hero at the end of a pirate’s blade which we soon find out belongs to a famous pirate hunter hired by the Marquis who is still trying to catch Guybrush. After a few witty remarks and some quick reactions, Guybrush manages to escape the hunter with only a minor problem and decides to head off to find Elaine.
Arriving in Spinner Cay, he finds his sweet Elaine in good health but also trying to track down La Esponja Grande in order to remove the voodoo pox which is now affecting numerous pirates throughout the area. Elaine has teamed up with the now human LeChuck in order to convince the Merfolk inhabitants of Spinner Cay to give them the sponge. This does not make Guybrush happy and he does everything he can to save the day on his own in order to impress Elaine.
From here out, you must use Guybrush’s usual problem solving skills to search the island for the clues to finding the La Esponja Grande. You must collect items, talk to the natives and use your noggin to help Guybrush navigate all the problems he encounters on the islands. The puzzles were a lot harder this time around compared to the first episode and I’m ashamed to admit even I had to cheat on a puzzle or two.
Fans will be happy to know that even more Monkey Island references from previous games popped up in this new episode like insult sword fighting and the inclusion of the original Monkey Island theme. The humour in the game ring true again whether in it be in the dialog or the puzzles. You honestly can’t help but chuckle playing these games.
The controls are still the same in game with the option of using either the mouse or the keyboard. I still found the keyboard controls were much easier to move Guybrush around on screen. Though I found a few glitches in the first episode, I found no problems this time around but keep in mind that PC versions are different from computer to computer.
The graphics were still the same beautiful 3D models used in the first episode which are created on the same engine that Telltale games using in their other series like Sam & Max. I really can’t get over how spectacular the characters look in this game, especially after the disaster that was the 3D Playstation 2 version of Monkey Island, Escape from Monkey Island. That game is the reason no one originally liked the idea of another 3D Monkey Island game because it fought like cow. How appropriate you fight like a dairy farmer! Wait, what?! Never mind.
Still happy to see original Monkey Island veterans, Dominic Armato and Alexandra Boyd voicing Guybrush and Elaine as the game wouldn’t be the same without them, but I also would like to point out the grand job that Adam Harrington and Kevin Blackton are doing for LeChuck’s voices. I know a lot of fans are mad that veteran actor, Earl Boen didn’t return but he’s retired apparently.
Now most fans would have been smart and probably purchased the whole series when Telltale games offered it up for a discounted price but for those who haven’t purchase any episode yet or just bought the first, I can’t stress how great these games are. Telltale Games has not only breathe new life into an amazing series for new & old fans to enjoy but they have also inspired the dinosaurs over at Lucasarts to finally start re-releasing all the old titles from their catalogue starting with a Special Edition of Secret of Monkey Island. I personally can’t wait for titles like Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max: Hit the Road.
If I could kiss each and every one of the employees at Telltale game for what they’ve done for old school Lucasart fans, I would but hopefully they will consider this review like one big smooch instead. Definitely buy this and share it with a future gamer.
Tales of Monkey Island: Episode 1 – Launch of the Screaming Narwhal Telltales Games Available via PC download at the Official Telltale Games Website
Good news, all my plunder bunnies! The newest adventure in the life of Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate has finally arrived from the wonderful people at Telltale Games, the developers who brought us the new episodic adventures of Sam & Max, freelance police. Tales of Monkey Island, another episodic game series launched its first of 5 episodes on July 7th to the joyful tears of millions of old school LucasArts adventure game fans and this reviewer got the chance to check out an early press copy 5 days before actual release date. To think it wasn’t even my birthday.
In the first episode, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, we are introduced to our favourite hero again, Guybrush Threepwood as she attempts to save his beloved wife, Elaine from LeChuck, the Zombie Pirate for 5th time I think. At this point, I’ve lose count how many times that woman has been kidnapped by LeChuck. Anyway, Guybrush uses a magical recipe on a sword to kill LeChuck but something goes wrong, and LeChuck is turned human, the boat blows up and Guybrush wakes up on an island only to find his hand has a mind of its mind. A nasty mind at that.
From here out, you must help Guybrush find a way off the island and back to his sweet Elaine. Much like previous adventure games, you must help Guybrush through his journey by talking to people, collecting items and solving his problems. Talking to people is done though dialog trees which give you a series of responses or questions to ask each person you talk to. Most responses are quite humorous which is what these games are famous for, that and three-headed monkeys.
Problem solving is usually complete with the aid of your item inventory, but you must remember not to use your item logically because that’s not how the game works. For example, in the beginning Guybrush drops his bottle of root beer, so you must replace the ingredient. Instead of finding for root bear, you instead find a plant with large roots and a barrel of grog which when combined together becomes root beer. See you have to think outside the box. Fans will love to hear that the plant is Chuck the Plant.
Fans of the previous MI series will be happy to know that former LucasArts employees worked on this game like Dave Grossman and Michael Stemmle and even MI series creator, Ron Gilbert helped brainstorm the initial project. Honestly you can tell these guys had a hand in the process because the game feels like series picked up right after Curse of Monkey Island and everyone forgot that horrible 3D version on the PS2 never even existed.
Graphically, Telltale Games decided to stay away from the original 2D graphics found in the first 3 Monkey Island games, despite cries from the fans and went with their successful 3D engine used on games like Sam & Max. The 3D cartoon graphics look spectacular and make each character really pop on screen. The control scheme is pretty decent with the use of either keyboard or mouse to move Guybrush around.
The music in the game is classic Monkey Island calypso with a hint of a jaunty pirate tune. The voice of Guybrush is provided by veteran voice actor, Dominic Armato, who provided his voice in Curse of Monkey Island and we also see the return of Alexandra Boyd, who voiced Elaine. Kudos to the developers for an excellent job on the voice sync, though I found it odd that text dialog picks didn’t come out the same vocally. The idea was the same but not the wording. They were still funny either way.
Now I did find a couple of glitches in the game but I had an early press copy that hadn’t been completely debugged yet. I found that the maps I found in the game when examined would be blank sometimes and I would have to re-examine them to fix the glitch. Also I had one spot where my inventory refused to open and I had to restart the game, but only happened once. Again though, I was playing an early build of the game and they always have a bug or two. The main game I’m sure with not have these issues, so honestly I can’t factor these in on final opinion of this game.
Now that I’m done reviewing the first episode of Tale of Monkey Island, the only thing I regret is that I have to wait another month to play the next episode. Obviously the purchase of this game should be a no-brainer for fans of the Monkey Island series, especially since there are so many long lost friends showing up to help Guybrush along the way and so many tributes to the franchise hidden in the game, but for the newbies uncertain about this game, I can only say this: Play this game and not only will you finally understand all the strange inside jokes your older PC gaming friends are making finally but you will open your mind to one of the greatest franchises that LucasArts has ever made. Well, besides Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
Note: This game will be available in the future on Nintendo Wii via Wii Ware download.
Tales of Monkey Island will launch its first episode, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal on July 7th and I am so excited. The game will be available for PC via the official site.
If you want a really good deal on this episodic game, I suggest fans grab the $34.95 pre-order deal now while its still available. It includes:
- All 5 episodes delivered to you monthly - A collector's DVD available at the end of season (you must pay shipping) - Access to exclusive Monkey Island content on the site - An exclusive DVD case slip painted by Steve Purcell - A free Telltale episode of your choice
Until then here's some game play footage to tide us all over.
BEST NEWS I'VE HEARD ALL DAY! Well, this and that The Secret of Monkey Island is coming to XBLA.
Telltale Games, the glorious people who brought back the old Lucas Arts, Sam & Max franchise, have managed to bring life back to the Monkey Island franchise and even include the voice of the original Guybrush Threepwood in the new game.
Tales of Monkey Island will be available as episodic content for Wii Ware and the PC starting July 7th. Once all the episodes are released, Telltales will release them as a collector's edition disc. There is PC bundle pre-order available for $34.95 which all 5 episodes and more.
