In a land before time...
In the 90's point and click adventure games were the big deal, and LucasArts was one of the big Point n' Click developers. In 1990 they published Secret of Monkey Island a game created by Ron Gilbert, Tim Schaffer and Dave Grossman, the game was based on Pirate stories like Treasure Island, Pirates of the Caribbean (not the movie the theme park ride.) and many other piratey tales. What it did was parody the whole genre and be one of the funniest games (And later on series) in gaming history. Monkey Island quickly became one of the biggest titles in the whole point n' click genre and it spawned 3 sequels, being the last one released in 2002, when the whole genre was...well dead.
So the point n' click adventure games were buried under the sands of time of gaming and the name that was once synonymous of exotic and funny adventure was forgotten to a newer audience. That was until 2009 and the company named Telltale Games, decided to bring back Monkey Island to the gaming scene, and give back its former glory and fame. So did they do it?
Tales of Monkey Island it's the name of this newest entry to the series, and unlike its predecessors it comes in form of episodic gaming.(A way that Telltale Games uses for their Sam and Max franchise.) The first episode is called Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, and the player once again gets to play the mightiest of pirates: Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate! The whole series will have 5 episodes in total that are going to be released monthly. (The series will be complete in November 2009)
The story kicks off with Guybrush saving (Again.) his beloved wife Elaine, from the hands of the Evil Ghost Zombie Demon Pirate LeChuck. Using his voodoo filled cutlass, Guybrush fights LeChuck for the love of his life and to save some poor mistreated monkeys, but during the fight, the ship they in explodes, and Guybrush is left to drift in the middle of the ocean all alone. Guybrush then wakes up in an island named Flotsam, which is plagued by some strange winds that keeps the residents on the island with no means to leave it. So Guybrush must find a way to escape Flotsam Island, defeat LeChuck, reunite with Elaine and save some poor monkeys victims of some bad voodoo. To do this he is going to do some piratey stuff inclunding ship stealing, bar fighting, tresure hunting and of course...Swashbuckling!
The gameplay in Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is the old traditional point n' click style, you point to the thing you want to pick up/use/combine/talk/insult/drink/whatever, click on it and something is bound to happen. But, unlike the old Monkey Islands you have to move Guybrush manually, using the mouse or the WASD keys of the keyboard. Using the mouse can be quite hard to get the hang of and in many occasions (Most of the time due to some silly camera angles.) it can get awkward to use it. But if you can't get around using the mouse to move, you can always use the WASD keys, which feel less messy and complicated. Possibly after some time playing, the movement will start to feel natural and the player will end up mixing the both.
The other big difference to the original Monkey Islands is that Tales keeps the 3D looks of Escape of Monkey Island (Monkey Island 4). But where Escape failed Tales succeeds. What Tales does well is that it enhances the 3D looks and environment of Escape, but at the same time it keeps the feel of the 2D looks of Curse of Monkey Island (Monkey Island 3). While it feels and looks modern, for "old timers" Tales is still the same Monkey Island of the 90's, and not only it adds cool points but it keeps most nostalgia players happy.
The animation does look really bad in some screenshots and even in the gameplay trailers, but in the game the animation is great. The characters move in a natural way (as natural as you can in a game with cartoon looks) and the ad-lib with the voice acting works perfectly too. The only downside is the dreaded "Dead Eyes" that plagues a lot of 3D stuff like Tales. If you don't know what is the "Dead Eyes" is when a 3D character is talking or doing something, they seem to have the dead cold eyes of a killer which ends up looking silly and sometimes bad, removing any emotion that the character is transmitting with its body.(If you still don't know what I'm talking just look at some of the older 3D movies of Pixar or Dreamworks.)
It looks better ingame...really!
The music and soundtrack of Tales is composed by Michael Land, who was involved in all Monkey Island games, and the soundtrack, while not memmorable(apart from the Monkey Island theme) is quite fitting for the genre, it feels very "Piratey" and "adventurous" much like the old Monkey Island games. Too bad that the Monkey Island theme song is not displayed very long.
Some of the voice actors of the old Monkey Island games came back for Tales, Guybrush is still the same actor from Monkey Island 3, sadly the voice actor for LeChuck isn't. But it's not bad because the voice acting is very well done in Launch of the Screaming Narwhal(cannot vouch for the rest of the Episodes cause they aren't out yet), and the actors do a great job at bringing life to the characters. Apart from Guybrush you will find quite the memorable characters, most of the time due to their mannerism and their voices, you have a crazy French Doctor with the mandatory French/English accent, (Everything he says is awesome) the old pirate selling glass Unicorns, the old voodoo lady makes a return and others. At the end of the day you will remember most of the cast, due to their unique voices, the nice animation and design and the most important part the writing.
That leads to another important aspect of Launch of the Screaming Narwhal and point n' click games in general. The writing in a point n' click adventure game is very important, even more when the series is based on humour. Launch of the Screaming Narwhal does a pretty good job at keeping the whole thing funny but not stupid or crude. The gags and jokes are well made and it's not a game that plays out like an interactive sketch show. But it's not only on jokes that Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is based on, there's also character development and a plot. Both are handled great considering the length of the game, and aren't trampled for cheap gags. Being the first episode of the series don't expect much plot development, there's alot of foreshadowing of future events, but the story doesn't move that much. The whole episode can be described as "Guybrush escaping Flotsam Island", and that's it. But then again it's the first episode, don't expect to have a lot of story to handle. Dave Grossman from the original Monkey Island is back on this game (don't know if he was involved with all Monkey Island games) and Ron Gilbert gave a hand in some parts of development, so it's a nice treat to the nostalgia folk.
But apart from the writing the other important part of a point n' click and what makes up for most of the game is its puzzles. Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, might not have the best puzzles ever in point n' click history, but it doesn't have horrible ones either. Most of the puzzles can be solved by thinking and reflecting for some minutes (Yes you must think on this game! Leshock!), but they aren't entirely easy either, in which the solution is so basic that even a blind person could solve them.
If the player is stuck on some puzzle the game has a "Hint" mechanic in which Guybrush drops a clue in how to solve the puzzle the player is stuck on. The hint mechanic does have its problems, it can either be too descriptive defeating the puzzle by giving away its solution, it can be extremely vague or it can actually be helpful, which doesn't happen that often. All of this can be tuned in the options screen so you can turn on and off the hint feature when you want, and save you from hearing for the 10th time "This jungle is noisy!". But not all puzzles can be solved by just applying grey matter, there's a couple of Trial and Error puzzles, which the player will find himself just clicking on everything they can, because the solution is quite easy, but the way to get there is amazingly stupid and only by clicking randomly on stuff you get to beat the puzzle.
Marquis de Singe! He pokes people with science. True story. He is also French.
But the main problem of Launch of the Screaming Narwhal it's not in the game itself, it's the price! Oh yes the damn price. This game costs 32 Euros on STEAM! (Probably 35 USD and £25) You are forced to buy the whole pack; fine when the rest of the episodes come out the game will end up making up for it, but why is it that there's no option to buy Launch of the Screaming Narwhal on a stand alone feature? Episodic gaming is usually quite short-and yes this will be monthly episodes no Half Life 2: Episode 3 business here-and paying for the full pack right away is quite extreme. Buying all the 5 individual episodes would probably end up more expensive than buying the full pack now, but I would feel less ripped off right at the start. Having both options would be much better, long time fans are probably going to buy all of the episodes no matter what package they come in, but for newcomers to the series (You can pick up this game without playing the old Monkey Islands, you are going to miss some jokes but the premise is quite simple and a no-brainer) having to pay that much for one episode and they end up not liking it, its not a cool thing to do, even if the newcomers will get the full game when all the episodes are released. It's better to spend something around 8-10 Euros than 32 Euros, if you not to sure if the genre is right for you or not. (Even with the demo out.)
But in the end?ITS FRIKKING MONKEY ISLAND!! Launch of the Screaming Narwhal feels like the old Monkey Islands and that is awesome, if the following episodes keep up the quality and improve it, Tales of Monkey Island might be one of the best "Game franchise revivals" ever, and one of the best experience of the year or of the decade. (Too much fanboyism?) If you are a long time fan of Monkey Island and the Point and Click adventure genre, BUY IT now. But if you having second doubts about the price, wait till November when all the 5 episodes are released, so you can have the full experience on one go. But either way BUY IT!
*Review is based on the PC version of Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, there's also a Wii version.
NOTES: Damn...that was long...Can't believe that I wrote so much of such a short game...Also I couldn't find a screenshot of the crazy french doctor, who is the best character of the whole game, and just is design alone is cause for laughs.
In the 90's point and click adventure games were the big deal, and LucasArts was one of the big Point n' Click developers. In 1990 they published Secret of Monkey Island a game created by Ron Gilbert, Tim Schaffer and Dave Grossman, the game was based on Pirate stories like Treasure Island, Pirates of the Caribbean (not the movie the theme park ride.) and many other piratey tales. What it did was parody the whole genre and be one of the funniest games (And later on series) in gaming history. Monkey Island quickly became one of the biggest titles in the whole point n' click genre and it spawned 3 sequels, being the last one released in 2002, when the whole genre was...well dead.
So the point n' click adventure games were buried under the sands of time of gaming and the name that was once synonymous of exotic and funny adventure was forgotten to a newer audience. That was until 2009 and the company named Telltale Games, decided to bring back Monkey Island to the gaming scene, and give back its former glory and fame. So did they do it?
Tales of Monkey Island it's the name of this newest entry to the series, and unlike its predecessors it comes in form of episodic gaming.(A way that Telltale Games uses for their Sam and Max franchise.) The first episode is called Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, and the player once again gets to play the mightiest of pirates: Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate! The whole series will have 5 episodes in total that are going to be released monthly. (The series will be complete in November 2009)
The story kicks off with Guybrush saving (Again.) his beloved wife Elaine, from the hands of the Evil Ghost Zombie Demon Pirate LeChuck. Using his voodoo filled cutlass, Guybrush fights LeChuck for the love of his life and to save some poor mistreated monkeys, but during the fight, the ship they in explodes, and Guybrush is left to drift in the middle of the ocean all alone. Guybrush then wakes up in an island named Flotsam, which is plagued by some strange winds that keeps the residents on the island with no means to leave it. So Guybrush must find a way to escape Flotsam Island, defeat LeChuck, reunite with Elaine and save some poor monkeys victims of some bad voodoo. To do this he is going to do some piratey stuff inclunding ship stealing, bar fighting, tresure hunting and of course...Swashbuckling!
The gameplay in Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is the old traditional point n' click style, you point to the thing you want to pick up/use/combine/talk/insult/drink/whatever, click on it and something is bound to happen. But, unlike the old Monkey Islands you have to move Guybrush manually, using the mouse or the WASD keys of the keyboard. Using the mouse can be quite hard to get the hang of and in many occasions (Most of the time due to some silly camera angles.) it can get awkward to use it. But if you can't get around using the mouse to move, you can always use the WASD keys, which feel less messy and complicated. Possibly after some time playing, the movement will start to feel natural and the player will end up mixing the both.
The other big difference to the original Monkey Islands is that Tales keeps the 3D looks of Escape of Monkey Island (Monkey Island 4). But where Escape failed Tales succeeds. What Tales does well is that it enhances the 3D looks and environment of Escape, but at the same time it keeps the feel of the 2D looks of Curse of Monkey Island (Monkey Island 3). While it feels and looks modern, for "old timers" Tales is still the same Monkey Island of the 90's, and not only it adds cool points but it keeps most nostalgia players happy.
The animation does look really bad in some screenshots and even in the gameplay trailers, but in the game the animation is great. The characters move in a natural way (as natural as you can in a game with cartoon looks) and the ad-lib with the voice acting works perfectly too. The only downside is the dreaded "Dead Eyes" that plagues a lot of 3D stuff like Tales. If you don't know what is the "Dead Eyes" is when a 3D character is talking or doing something, they seem to have the dead cold eyes of a killer which ends up looking silly and sometimes bad, removing any emotion that the character is transmitting with its body.(If you still don't know what I'm talking just look at some of the older 3D movies of Pixar or Dreamworks.)
It looks better ingame...really!
The music and soundtrack of Tales is composed by Michael Land, who was involved in all Monkey Island games, and the soundtrack, while not memmorable(apart from the Monkey Island theme) is quite fitting for the genre, it feels very "Piratey" and "adventurous" much like the old Monkey Island games. Too bad that the Monkey Island theme song is not displayed very long.
Some of the voice actors of the old Monkey Island games came back for Tales, Guybrush is still the same actor from Monkey Island 3, sadly the voice actor for LeChuck isn't. But it's not bad because the voice acting is very well done in Launch of the Screaming Narwhal(cannot vouch for the rest of the Episodes cause they aren't out yet), and the actors do a great job at bringing life to the characters. Apart from Guybrush you will find quite the memorable characters, most of the time due to their mannerism and their voices, you have a crazy French Doctor with the mandatory French/English accent, (Everything he says is awesome) the old pirate selling glass Unicorns, the old voodoo lady makes a return and others. At the end of the day you will remember most of the cast, due to their unique voices, the nice animation and design and the most important part the writing.
That leads to another important aspect of Launch of the Screaming Narwhal and point n' click games in general. The writing in a point n' click adventure game is very important, even more when the series is based on humour. Launch of the Screaming Narwhal does a pretty good job at keeping the whole thing funny but not stupid or crude. The gags and jokes are well made and it's not a game that plays out like an interactive sketch show. But it's not only on jokes that Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is based on, there's also character development and a plot. Both are handled great considering the length of the game, and aren't trampled for cheap gags. Being the first episode of the series don't expect much plot development, there's alot of foreshadowing of future events, but the story doesn't move that much. The whole episode can be described as "Guybrush escaping Flotsam Island", and that's it. But then again it's the first episode, don't expect to have a lot of story to handle. Dave Grossman from the original Monkey Island is back on this game (don't know if he was involved with all Monkey Island games) and Ron Gilbert gave a hand in some parts of development, so it's a nice treat to the nostalgia folk.
But apart from the writing the other important part of a point n' click and what makes up for most of the game is its puzzles. Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, might not have the best puzzles ever in point n' click history, but it doesn't have horrible ones either. Most of the puzzles can be solved by thinking and reflecting for some minutes (Yes you must think on this game! Leshock!), but they aren't entirely easy either, in which the solution is so basic that even a blind person could solve them.
If the player is stuck on some puzzle the game has a "Hint" mechanic in which Guybrush drops a clue in how to solve the puzzle the player is stuck on. The hint mechanic does have its problems, it can either be too descriptive defeating the puzzle by giving away its solution, it can be extremely vague or it can actually be helpful, which doesn't happen that often. All of this can be tuned in the options screen so you can turn on and off the hint feature when you want, and save you from hearing for the 10th time "This jungle is noisy!". But not all puzzles can be solved by just applying grey matter, there's a couple of Trial and Error puzzles, which the player will find himself just clicking on everything they can, because the solution is quite easy, but the way to get there is amazingly stupid and only by clicking randomly on stuff you get to beat the puzzle.
Marquis de Singe! He pokes people with science. True story. He is also French.
But the main problem of Launch of the Screaming Narwhal it's not in the game itself, it's the price! Oh yes the damn price. This game costs 32 Euros on STEAM! (Probably 35 USD and £25) You are forced to buy the whole pack; fine when the rest of the episodes come out the game will end up making up for it, but why is it that there's no option to buy Launch of the Screaming Narwhal on a stand alone feature? Episodic gaming is usually quite short-and yes this will be monthly episodes no Half Life 2: Episode 3 business here-and paying for the full pack right away is quite extreme. Buying all the 5 individual episodes would probably end up more expensive than buying the full pack now, but I would feel less ripped off right at the start. Having both options would be much better, long time fans are probably going to buy all of the episodes no matter what package they come in, but for newcomers to the series (You can pick up this game without playing the old Monkey Islands, you are going to miss some jokes but the premise is quite simple and a no-brainer) having to pay that much for one episode and they end up not liking it, its not a cool thing to do, even if the newcomers will get the full game when all the episodes are released. It's better to spend something around 8-10 Euros than 32 Euros, if you not to sure if the genre is right for you or not. (Even with the demo out.)
But in the end?ITS FRIKKING MONKEY ISLAND!! Launch of the Screaming Narwhal feels like the old Monkey Islands and that is awesome, if the following episodes keep up the quality and improve it, Tales of Monkey Island might be one of the best "Game franchise revivals" ever, and one of the best experience of the year or of the decade. (Too much fanboyism?) If you are a long time fan of Monkey Island and the Point and Click adventure genre, BUY IT now. But if you having second doubts about the price, wait till November when all the 5 episodes are released, so you can have the full experience on one go. But either way BUY IT!
*Review is based on the PC version of Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, there's also a Wii version.
NOTES: Damn...that was long...Can't believe that I wrote so much of such a short game...Also I couldn't find a screenshot of the crazy french doctor, who is the best character of the whole game, and just is design alone is cause for laughs.
