My brain is slightly breaking with the news that: 1) a new Monkey Island game is coming; 2) it's led by Ron Gilbert, the designer of the first two piratical comedy adventure games; and 3) it's a direct sequel to Monkey Island 2, a game which already has a sequel. Remarkable news. Come watch the trailer announcing Return To Monkey Island.
]]>After a few years back in dry-dock, Tales Of Monkey Island has returned to the open sea. Following Telltale Games' infamous scuttling back in 2018, many of the story-driven studio's works were taken off sale - going down with the ship, if you'll pardon. Slowly, tales of shamblers and caped crusaders have resurfaced, and now Guybrush Threepwood's 3D follow-up has found its way back onto Steam and GOG.
]]>Telltale's The Walking Dead, Monkey Island, Jurassic Park, and Back To The Future games have have been pulled from sale on Steam, though folks who already own any can keep playing them and other stores do still sell 'em - for now. This comes as the company goes through the final motions of legally shutting down, settling assets, and all that after laying off most employees in September and those remaining in October.
]]>Writing a long post about how you'd remake Monkey Island sure is a funny way of demonstrating that "I have no plans to make another Monkey Island." Threepwood co-parent Ron Gilbert's done it anyway, and while I believe him when he says he's currently not working on any such game, it's hard not to tin-foil-hat-read his post as essentially a public pitch to Disney now they've taken LucasArts down to the bottom of the garden. He even mentions Kickstarter, for heaven's sakes. This is calculated. Whether anything will ever come of it is anyone's guess - I would imagine it's less a case of resistance at Disney, and more one of corporate wheels turning too impossibly slowly and safely to even notice this sort of thing.
Anyway, the main event: how Gilbert would tackle a Nu-Monkey, given the opportunity.
]]>So, it's bloody Talk Like An Idiot Day. Oh, internet, you're good at some things, but you're not at others.
]]>Here's my theory for how Telltale works out their pricing structures for their episodic adventures: They get a big wheel, almost as big as the one on Wheel Of Fortune, and they label each segment with things like, "$8.95 a month" or "$34.95 for the whole season only", or "Sell the first four chapters individually, then at the last moment change it so you have to buy all five to get the last chapter, then realise that's insane." When first launched the new Tales of Monkey Island adventures had landed on the second choice, somewhat questioning the purpose of episodes. Fortunately a month or so later someone at the company must have given the wheel a nudge, clicking it over to the first option, with all five episodes now available individually from Telltale's site (but not on Steam). With the final episode five coming out on the 8th December anything could happen with that crazy wheel. But whichever way it goes this time, they've put together a fun trailer reminding people of the story so far, in case people lost track over the last five months. Do I really need to point out it therefore contains spoilers? No? Good.
]]>There was a bit of a kerfuffle a while back over Telltale's Monkey Islands not being entirely treated as episodes. In that you could only buy them as a job lot, despite the staggered release dates. Like, duh. American internet-folk will be glad to hear they no longer need to invest in five episodes up-front if they're not entirely sure whether the series is for them, as Amazon is selling these bite-sized retromanced adventure games individually. $8.95 each, which as far as I can tell is in keeping with what Steam and Telltale's e-store charge for single Sam & Max, Strongbad et al instalments. Hopefully this breaking up of Guybrush's bulk will spread to other services and continents soon.
]]>The demo for the first Tales of Monkey Island episodic adventure is available now. As indeed is the game. It seems so soon after the first announcement that it exists. This time you don't appear to be able to buy the episodes separately. Instead Telltale want you to commit to the full five episode series in one purchase.
]]>The year's most unexpected sequel is barrelling towards us, and Telltale hope to whet a few more preorder whistles by finally releasing a smidgen of interface'n'puzzle footage - specifically, the opening minutes of the reborn point'n'click adventure. Episode 1, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, is out in just six pirate days (which are like normal days, but with a looser moral code), and if you're convinced you're going to love it, you can pay pirate money (which is much like normal money, but with a slight scent of seaweed) for it right now. Video below. Comments that will almost certainly annoy someone are also below.
]]>Even a week after the announcement, the news that there's to be more Monkey Island still seems hard to believe. LucasArts, once an adored development house, has become known in recent years for little other than churning out Star Wars themed products of varying quality. Attempts at new licences during president Jim Ward's realm failed (possibly in no small part because they very were attempts to create new IP, rather than just damned fine solo games), seeing the company once more fall back into the space flick's safety net. Last year saw Ward step down, and in April he was replaced by Darrell Rodriguez. A man who, if the murmurs I heard at E3 are true, is genuinely trying to see the company rediscover its roots. Then there's the news that Telltale are to be making brand new episodic Monkey Island games, with original LucasArts developers on the project. Reimagining the original Monkey Island is an important act for a number of reasons.
]]>Shock! Classic comedy-adventure Monkey Island is coming back - twice. First up, we've got a remake of the original Secret of Monkey Island, complete with new graphics and - ooh, controversial - voicework. Then, Telltale (who handled the recent, divisive Sam & Max comeback series) will work with Lucasarts on five new gamettes, to be known as Tales of Monkey Island. Blimey. Hell just froze over, pigs flew, and the pope did his business in the woods. Details and some footage below.
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