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Tales of Monkey Island

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The Tales of Monkey Island logo
The Tales of Monkey Island logo
Developer(s)Telltale Games
Designer(s)Dave Grossman
Writer(s)Mark Darin
Michael Stemmle
Sean Vanaman
Composer(s)Michael Land
SeriesMonkey Island
Platform(s)Windows, Wii
ReleaseWindows
July 7, 2009[1]
WiiWare
Genre(s)Graphic adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Tales of Monkey Island is a graphic adventure video game developed by Telltale Games in collaboration with LucasArts. The game was announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June 2009 alongside LucasArts' enhanced remake of the 1990 title The Secret of Monkey Island. The fifth game in the Monkey Island series, Tales of Monkey Island puts players in the position of hapless pirate Guybrush Threepwood as he once again attempts to rescue his love from his nemesis LeChuck, while saving the Caribbean from a voodoo pox. The game will be released for Windows and Wii, the latter through WiiWare. Tales of Monkey Island will be released in five monthly episodic chapters starting from July 7, 2009. In contrast to Telltale's previous episodic adventure games, each chapter forms part of an ongoing narrative as opposed to individual stories.

Gameplay

File:Flotsam Island (Tales of Monkey Island).jpg
Tales of Monkey Island features fully 3D environments; preceding installments used pre-rendered 2D backgrounds

As with its predecessors, Tales of Monkey Island is a graphic adventure game. Players assume the role of protagonist Guybrush Threepwood, a mighty pirate, in exploring 3D environments and solving a variety of puzzles.[5] Puzzles consist of traditional adventure game conundrums where the player must use the environment to pass a predicament, as well as puzzles that require the use of items that the player has collected and stored in their inventory to complete.[5] In contrast to previous games by Telltale Games, but in keeping with preceding Monkey Island games, Tales of Monkey Island allows players to combine certain items in their inventory to create new items.[5][6] The game world is explored through use of the keyboard and mouse on the PC, and the Nunchuk on the Wii.[5] In addition, a new system of navigation to Telltale adventure games is used: instead of clicking where the character should go to, the player can hold and drag the mouse to move Guybrush in the desired direction.[7] Each chapter of the game is estimated to be between two and four hours, depending on the player's ability to deal with the puzzles.[5] To assist players who struggle with the game's puzzles, a subtle hint system is also integrated into the game.[5]

In addition to the standard gameplay, Telltale included a separate "Treasure Hunt" feature.[8]The treasure hunt has the player take Guybrush through the jungle on Flotsam Island once again, this time finding real world prizes. In order to access the hunt feature the player must find "maps" on various websites, including the official Telltale website and fan blogs.[9]

Synopsis

Tales of Monkey Island is set several years after Escape from Monkey Island.[6] Guybrush has spent the last few years traveling the seven seas to find artifacts needed to create a voodoo sword capable of destroying LeChuck once and for all. With all the artifacts in hand, Guybrush races to save his wife, Governor Elaine Marley from LeChuck's hands. However, he botches the first attempt to create the sword, and is forced to improvise. When Guybrush stabs LeChuck, the flawed cutlass turns LeChuck into a human, while causing Guybrush's hand to be infected by the "Pox of LeChuck", giving the hand a mind of its own.[6] A resulting explosion on the ship hurls Guybrush into the ocean, and he later washes up on Flotsam Island.[6]

On Flotsam, Guybrush encounters the Voodoo Lady, who reveals the Pox will affect all the inhabitants of the Caribbean if it is not soaked up by La Esponja Grande ("The Big Sponge").[10] The Voodoo Lady directs Guybrush to her former boyfriend, Coronado De Cava, who had sailed to the Jerkbait Islands to find La Esponja Grande. However, to leave Flotsam, Guybrush must disable an ancient Merfolk relic that is drawing the winds inward to the island, preventing his departure. He comes to meet Marquis de Singe, and learns that the mad doctor is using the relic to draw in pirates for his experiments. Guybrush manages to overcome the Marquis and reverts the wind pattern to normal, unwittingly causing the Pox to spread across the sea. Guybrush departs in his newly acquired ship, the Screaming Narwhal, while the Marquis hires the services of Morgan LeFlay, Pirate Hunter, to capture Guybrush. En route to the Jerkbait Islands, Morgan boards the Narwhal and duels with Guybrush, cutting off the Pox-infected hand, which she takes it back to the Marquis when bested off the ship by Guybrush.

At the Merfolk city of Spinner Cay at the Jerkbait Islands, Guybrush finds Elaine safe along with the human LeChuck, who is trying to reform and make up for his evils deeds of the past. After Guybrush helps the Merfolk deal with Pox-infected pirates who have threatened to blockade the islands, the Merfolk leader directs him to the use of three ancient relics to call forth sea creatures that will help him locate La Esponja Grande. Elaine offers to stay behind to watch over LeChuck's actions closely. As Guybrush follows the creatures on the Narwhal, Morgan reappears, having been told by the Marquis that all of Guybrush is needed. As they duel, neither Guybrush or Morgan can react in time as the Narwhal is swallowed whole by a giant manatee.

Inside the manatee, Guybrush and Morgan discover De Cava, along with his crew that have purposed hid themselves from De Cava. De Cava, still on his quest for La Esponja Granda, is unable to make the manatee direct them towards to the sponge due to a missing cochlea, which Guybrush finds in the hands of De Cava's crew. Guybrush restores the cochlea, and the manatee swims towards its mating grounds. After helping the manatee woo an even larger, more vicious female manatee guarding the sponge, Guybrush is able to collect it, finding it to be much smaller than expected. Guybrush and Morgan are forced to repel an attack by a jealous De Cava, believing Guybrush has become the Voodoo Lady's true love. After they successful get away from De Cava, Morgan knocks Guybrush unconscious and sets sail for Flotsam Island with her bounty.

Morgan reluctantly delivers Guybrush to de Singe, but the townspeople use a cursed summons to bring Guybrush to trial for several civil indiscretions. Though Guybrush is able to wile his way out of them, he is still accused of bringing the Pox to the islands. Guybrush tries to bring Elaine forward as a witness to clear his name, but she has been taken over completely by the Pox, attacking anyone that gets close, including Morgan once she realizes she is somewhat attracted to Guybrush. Instead, Guybrush is saved by LeChuck, who reveals that the Pox release was all a plan between himself and the Voodoo Lady; the two are put into prison and Guybrush is freed. The Voodoo Lady tells Guybrush of the means to activate the sponge by giving it a feast for the senses.

As Guybrush attempts to satisfy the sponge, he finds that Morgan has been fatally stabbed in de Singe's laboratory, and vows revenge, but later discovers her body missing. With all of the sponge's feast requirements satisfied save for a final, giant belch, Guybrush makes for the giant wind machine. There, he is trapped along with Elaine by de Singe; de Singe has already put to use Guybrush's Pox-infested hand to create a small amount of an elixir of life, and plans to drop the Pox-infested Elaine into the wind machine in order to disintegrate her into molecules to get enough of the elixir to give himself immortality. Guybrush is able to trick de Singe into the wind machine, who is promptly disintegrated. Guybrush then throws the sponge into the machine, which as the Voodoo Lady promised, sucks up all the Pox in the islands, reverting all the pirates, including Elaine, back to normal. LeChuck soon arrives to help free the two, but as Guybrush thanks LeChuck, LeChuck runs him through with his sword. As Elaine tends to the dying Guybrush, LeChuck soaks up the Pox back into himself, reverting to his ghost pirate form. Elaine and LeChuck prepare to swordfight as Guybrush dies.

Chapters

No. Chapter title PC Release date US WiiWare Release date European WiiWare Release date
1 "Launch of the Screaming Narwhal" July 7, 2009 July 27, 2009 July 31, 2009
2 "The Siege of Spinner Cay" August 20, 2009 August 31, 2009[11] September 25, 2009
3 "Lair of the Leviathan" September 29, 2009 October 26, 2009[12] November 6, 2009
4 "The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood" October 30, 2009 2009 2009
5 "Rise of the Pirate God" December 8, 2009[13] 2009 2009

Development

Design director Dave Grossman worked with Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer to create the first two games in the Monkey Island series

Tales of Monkey Island is being developed by Telltale Games, under license from LucasArts.[10] The game marks a first collaboration between the two companies; Telltale Games was formed from former LucasArts members in the wake of the cancellation of Sam & Max: Freelance Police in 2004, after which LucasArts appeared to have abandoned the adventure game genre.[14][15] Though Telltale Games had been considering a Monkey Island game since the company's inception, Telltale's design director Dave Grossman credits the go-ahead for Tales as the correct alignment of interested parties, including the then-new president of LucasArts, Darrell Rodriguez, for helping to champion the cause for adventure games within LucasArts.[16] Announced by LucasArts in a joint press release at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June 2009, the game counterparts an enhanced remake of The Secret of Monkey Island developed by LucasArts.[17] The game's trailer was also unveiled at the convention.[17] Tales of Monkey Island was previously hinted at by Telltale Games as a major new series to be announced at the convention.[18] Design work on the game began in late 2008, while production got underway at the beginning of 2009.[19] Each episode has taken approximately four months of work to complete.[16]

The development team is headed by Grossman, one of the original designers for the first two Monkey Island games, with Michael Stemmle, who co-designed Escape from Monkey Island and Sam & Max Hit the Road, contributing to design and writing the story.[20] The game's artistic direction is developed by several other former LucasArts members, with experience from both The Curse of Monkey Island and Escape from Monkey Island, as well as several preceding LucasArts adventure games.[20] While not intimately involved with development, series creator Ron Gilbert assisted in brainstorming the project; the development team asserts that Gilbert's "thumbprints are all over" the game.[6] On his blog, Gilbert wrote that he was "very excited" for both Telltale's adaptation and LucasArts' reimagining of the original game, stating that "it's strange and humbling to see something you created 20 years ago take on a life of it's(sic) own".[21] While both Gilbert and Grossman are engaged with development, Tim Schafer, the third co-designer of the original game, has not been mentioned in association with the project.[22] Grossman noted that there was a "legal wrangling" getting Gilbert involved due to his involvement in another game development studio, and it would have been too much trouble to also include Schafer.[16] Schafer later declared that he was "really happy" for the new game in an interview with Joystiq, and that the project was in good hands under Grossman's lead.[23] The game's limited-edition slipcover artwork will be painted by Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell, who was responsible for the box art to The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge.[24]

In regards to audio, the composer behind the preceding games in the series, Michael Land, returns to score Tales of Monkey Island's soundtrack.[25] Dominic Armato, the voice actor introduced for Guybrush in The Curse of Monkey Island, described by LucasArts' David Collins as "the ultimate Monkey Island fanboy",[25] reprises his role as the central protagonist. The voice actress for Elaine Marley in The Curse of Monkey Island, Alexandra Boyd, also returns to voice the character.[26] After Adam Harrington voicing Demon LeChuck in the first episode and Kevin Blackton performing Human LeChuck in episodes 2-4, Earl Boen returned to perform LeChuck at the end of the fourth episode. To assist the actors' portrayal of characters, Telltale have implemented a lip sync system to present a large range of facial expressions on character models.[6]

According to Grossman, Telltale Games does not consider Tales of Monkey Island to be Monkey Island 5, as Monkey Island 5 needs to be "a blockbuster, epic 40-hour gigantic experience like the earlier games; what we're doing instead is a Monkey Island series".[26] Instead, he views Tales of Monkey Island as being set after an "imaginary" Monkey Island 5.[26] As with Telltale's other products, Tales of Monkey Island is developed episodically, split into five parts; Grossman explained that Telltale prefers to split a story into segments rather than have one game that is too long for people to comfortably play.[5] However, unlike previous games, each episode is not considered a standalone tale but rather a single chapter in an ongoing narrative.[27] Very few game resources are reused between episodes, removing the central hubs and "comfort zones" that were present in Sam & Max Save the World and Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures.[6] For the first time in the series, the game is fully rendered with 3D graphics; even the nominally 3D Escape from Monkey Island was based on 2D pre-rendered environments.[26]

Grossman stated that they opted to release the WiiWare version of Tales alongside the PC version as part of their model; they have opted to bounce releases between WiiWare and Xbox Live Arcade, as well as wanting to "give the Wii a little love as well".[16] Telltale Games has not ruled out a future release on Xbox Live as well as potentially porting their games to the PlayStation 3, Mac OS and Linux systems.[16] The first episode for PC was released on July 7, 2009, with the Wii version following on July 27, 2009.[28] According to Michael Stemmle, Telltale's episodic production cycle results in development work continuing on aspects such as the game's graphics right up to the release deadline.[28]

Reception

Aggregate review scores
Title Metacritic GameRankings
"Launch of the Screaming Narwhal"
79%[29]
80.69%[30]
"The Siege of Spinner Cay"
77%[31]
79.71%[32]
"Lair of the Leviathan"
82%[33]
84.16%[34]
"The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood"
81%[35]
83.67%[36]
"Rise of the Pirate God"
—
—

The first episode of Tales of Monkey Island was released to positive reviews. Critics praised the way the feeling of the previous games has been transferred to the new game, including the return of almost all voice actors from the previous games (with the notable exception of Earl Boen as the voice of LeChuck, who does however return to voice the demon LeChuck in the fourth episode), the witty dialogue and pop culture references and new characters.[7][37] 1UP.com welcomed the character and animation of Guybrush, calling him "the most convincingly expressive Telltale character yet", the return of Michael Land for the game's music, and the improved design of the game's storyboard compared to the episodic Sam & Max series, considering these all factors that Telltale Games "got right".[38] Despite the general positive reviews, there were several negative points highlighted by critics. IGN criticized that the episode has no lasting appeal after it has been played once and that the plot serves more as a setup to future episodes.[37] Eurogamer praised the excellent puzzle design and comedy value of the episode, but criticized that the supporting characters are too two-dimensional and stereotypical as well as too similar in style and with poor graphics compared to the main character.[39]

Telltale's Mark Darin has stated that the first episode of the season was very successful, and that Tales marks the "most successful Telltale franchise to date".[40]

Marketing

To celebrate the International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19, 2009, Telltale has announced that everyone could receive the first episode of Tales for free at their homepage while subscribers will get a free episode of any other Telltale game.[41]

References

  1. ^ "Tales of Monkey Island Premiere Episode Now Available". Telltale Games. 2009-07-27. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
  2. ^ "Nintendo Download: Monkey Island and Musketeers, Card Games and Sudoku". Nintendo of America. 2009-07-27. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
  3. ^ "Tales Of Monkey Island Hits WiiWare". Retrieved 2009-07-31.
  4. ^ "Store – Tales of Monkey Island". Telltale Games. 2009-06-01. Retrieved 2009-06-01.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Tong, Sophia (2009-06-01). "Tales of Monkey Island First Look". GameSpot. Retrieved 2009-06-01.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Kleinberg, Dante (2009-06-02). "Preview: Tales of Monkey Island first look". Adventure Gamers. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  7. ^ a b Kietzmann, Ludwig (2009-07-07). "Review: Tales of Monkey Island (Launch of the Screaming Narwhal)". Joystiq. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  8. ^ "Q: What's another word for pirate treasure?". Telltale Games. 21 July 2009. Retrieved 29 August 2009.
  9. ^ "Treasure Huntin' with us and Telltale". Tales of Monkey Island. 14 August 2009. Retrieved 29 August 2009.
  10. ^ a b "Tales of Monkey Island – Frequently Asked Questions". Telltale Games. 2009-06-01. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  11. ^ "Pirates, Puzzles, Rattlers and Role-Playing". Nintendo of America. 2009-08-31. Retrieved 2009-09-02.
  12. ^ "Nintendo Offers Downloadable Halloween Fun from Axe to Zombies". Nintendo of America. 26 October 2009. Retrieved 27 October 2009.
  13. ^ "R.I.P. Guybrush Ulysses Marley-Threepwood?". Telltale Games. 18 November 2009. Retrieved 18 November 2009.
  14. ^ Allin, Jack (2009-06-01). "Tales of Monkey Island swing into action in July". Adventure Gamers. Retrieved 2009-06-01.
  15. ^ Martin, Joe (2009-06-01). "New Monkey Island games confirmed". Bit-tech. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  16. ^ a b c d e Purchase, Robert (2009-06-23). "A tale of Monkey Island". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
  17. ^ a b Meer, Alec (2009-06-01). "LeChuck Me: Monkey Island Returns". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 2009-06-01.
  18. ^ Purchase, Robert (2009-05-15). "Telltale has new episodic series for E3". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  19. ^ "Tales of Monkey Island Preview". The International House of Mojo. 2009-06-03. Retrieved 2009-06-03.
  20. ^ a b "Tales of Monkey Island – The Team". Telltale Games. 2009-06-01. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  21. ^ Gilbert, Ron (2009-06-01). "Stuff and Things and Monkey Island". Retrieved 2009-06-01.
  22. ^ Purchese, Robert (2009-06-01). "E3: New Telltale series is Monkey Island". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2009-06-01.
  23. ^ Kietzmann, Ludwig (2009-06-09). "Interview: Tim Schafer and the art of selling out". Joystiq. Retrieved 2009-06-12.
  24. ^ Bailey, Kat (2009-06-02). "Telltale Announces Tales Of Monkey Island Pre-Order Bonus". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
  25. ^ a b O'Connor, Alice (2009-06-01). "Tales of Monkey Island Announced, Secret of Monkey Island to Be Revamped". Shacknews. Retrieved 2009-06-01.
  26. ^ a b c d Grossman, Dave. Tales of Monkey Island First Look Interview (Streaming media). GameSpot. Retrieved 2009-06-02. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)
  27. ^ Butts, Steve (2009-06-02). "E3 2009: Tales of Monkey Island Preview". IGN. Retrieved 2009-06-03.
  28. ^ a b "Tales of Monkey Island Q&A with Telltale Designer Mike Stemmle". Destructoid. 2009-06-25. Retrieved 2009-06-30.
  29. ^ "Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1: "Launch of the Screaming Narwhal" (PC: 2009) Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-10-03.
  30. ^ "Tales of Monkey Island Episode 101: "Launch of the Screaming Narwhal" Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 2009-10-03.
  31. ^ "Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 2: "The Siege of Spinner Cay" (PC: 2009) Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-08-29.
  32. ^ "Tales of Monkey Island Episode 102: "The Siege of Spinner Cay" Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 2009-11-01.
  33. ^ "Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 3: "Lair of the Leviathan" (PC:2009) Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
  34. ^ "Tales of Monkey Island Episode 103: "Lair of the Leviathan" Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
  35. ^ "Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 4: "The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood" (PC:2009) Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2009-11-08.
  36. ^ "Tales of Monkey Island Episode 104: "The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood" Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
  37. ^ a b Ocampo, Jason (2009-07-07). "Tales of Monkey Island—Chapter 1: "Launch of the Screaming Narwhal" Review". IGN. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  38. ^ Mackey, Bob (2009-07-14). "Three Reasons Tales of Monkey Island Got It Right". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
  39. ^ Reed, Kristan (2009-07-09). "Tales of Monkey Island: "Launch of the Screaming Narwhal"". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
  40. ^ Ogden, Gavin (2009-08-26). "Telltale: Tales of Monkey Island "most successful" series yet". Computer and Video Games. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
  41. ^ "Play like a Pirate this Saturday!". Telltale Games. September 17, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-19.
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