Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1 Launch of the Screaming Narwhal

1. Vital Stats

Publisher: Lucasarts

Developer: Telltale

Platform(s): PC, WiiWare

Version Tested: PC

Release Date: 07/07/2009

Genre: Adventure

We give it:

After almost a decade wait the Monkey Island returns with a new adventure. Does the episodic format suit the series? Is the magic still there or should you abandon ship? Find out inside...

Its been a long wait for a new Monkey Island game and a lot has changed in the video game industry. When the last game (Escape from Monkey Island) was released back in 2000, the PS2 was in its infancy and the idea of releasing video games digitally was laughable with the 56K connections at the time. Back then it was obvious that the adventure game genre was dying.

Fast forward six or so years and Telltale games, a company formed of ex-Lucasarts employees tried a new approach to adventure games by releasing them episodically over the net. Their first success came with the Sam & Max series and Monkey Island is the latest IP for Telltale to apply their episodic method to.

Their first release is Tales of Monkey Island: The Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, the first in a five part series of Monkey Island. The game starts of with Guybrush pursuing LeChuck once more, whom has kidnapped his wife Elaine, so standard stuff so far. Guybrush manages to screw up the rescue though by dropping the root beer required to defeat LeChuck and using a substitute instead. This manages to turn LeChuck into a human being and infect Guybrush's hand. Guybrush is then knocked off the ship and drifts onto Flotsam island, an island whose wind has been inwards for the past three years, bad for someone trying to leave the Island. 

The usual Monkey Island structure is in place with Guybrush having to gain a ship and find a way off the island. Being episodic the story isn't completely resolved by the end of the game, however a funny sub plot develops throughout the episode and is fully resolved by the end, so you will finish the game satisfied by the ending. Unlike other Telltale games, this is the first to have a cliffhanger ending and it certainly does work as you'll be dying to play the next episode by the time the credits roll.

For those who are worried the classic Monkey Island humour has remained with plenty of funny jokes and making fun of modern culture within a pirate setting still remains, the best of which involves a joke referencing a very popular website of today. Dominic Armato does a good job as Guybrush Threepwood and remains the strongest of the cas, some of the voices are a bit shaky but deliver the lines good enough to get some laughs across.

The game remains in 3D and you can tell its a telltale game as character models and environments have a similar style to their previous games. This is in no way a bad thing as it presents a cartoony style which fits the series and means it still looks good on lower end computers. Whilst being in 3D, the series has returned to a point and click interface. Instead of the Scumm system you click on items to perform the default interaction with them. You can combine items in your inventory, which adds a layer of gameplay, but I felt was a bit clunky in its current implementation.You also have the ability to examine items in the inventory which comes in handy as sometimes you are required to look at maps in order to navigate through some mazes.

To move around you either click and drag with your mouse or use the directional keys on the keyboard. I could not get on with the mouse method of moving around the environment as the keyboard method seemed to be a more reliable control set. This is the only major problem with Tales of Monkey Island, is that the interface can be a bit cumbersome to use. Accessing the inventory quickly can take some getting used to and it would be nice if you could click in the direction you wanted Guybrush to walk in. This problems are only slight downers on a very enjoyable game to play.

Being episodic the game can be finished in an afternoon, especially with the game not being too complicated to play through. I only managed to get really stuck once and the problem only seemed to be that I was over complicating the solution. So if you're a hardcore adventure game player then you might be disappointed to hear this, however for most players it goes at a nice pace that you can enjoy it for short bursts or a long period of time. 

Whilst there are a few issues with control, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is a great start to the Tales of Monkey Island series. It is a funny game to play, has good links back to the original games (and one reference to Wallce & Gromit) and is faithful to the Monkey Island series as a whole. The game is enjoyable to play through and some puzzles do require you to use your brain and be a bit observant. All in all, get this game and you will enjoy it.

So while it has been a long wait, the wait has been worth it.