Monkey Island Makes a Comeback
Wow.

Telltale games - the not-so-li'l indie game company that could - is releasing a bunch of games based on the abso-friggin-awesome-ly wonderful Monkey Island series. Entitled Tales of Monkey Island, this is a five-episode adventure. Hopefully they come close to recapturing the magic of the original games by Ron Gilbert & Crew. Amusingly, Ron Gilbert is now working at an indie game company that could be considered a direct competitor, with their episodic RPG / adventures. However, he was apparently consulted on this game over a period of several days, which bodes well. And Telltale includes some other team members that worked on previous Monkey Island games, which is also a plus.

Tales of Monkey Island Announced

On top of that, LucasArts is releasing an enhanced edition of the game that started it all, The Secret of Monkey Island. According to the press release, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition "faithfully re-imagines the internationally-acclaimed classic game (originally released in 1990) for original and new audiences alike. The development team at LucasArts is bringing the game into the modern era with all-new HD graphics, a re-mastered musical score, full voiceover, and an in-depth hint system has been added to help players through the game’s side-splitting puzzles. Purists will also delight in the ability to seamlessly switch between the updated HD graphics and the original’s classic look. "

It will be available for the XBox 360 (via Live Arcade) and Windows.

The video on the website includes snippets from the enhanced version, and commentaries by Ron Gilbert and the enhanced edition team.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

There's another tidbit to be found in the press release that may cause old-school adventure game fans to salivate. It claims that "these efforts are just the start of LucasArts' new mission to revitalize its deep portfolio of beloved gaming franchises." The original Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is an unlockable bonus in the upcoming Wii title, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings. It may not stop there - the press release hints that more announcements will be forthcoming.

Hey, there are a few LucasArts graphic adventure games I missed the first time around - I'd be happy to give 'em a go the second time around.

And that's not all...

Ron Gilbert, the original designer of the first two Monkey Island games, reveals that he's known about these projects for a while, and was apparently consulted (it's not clear) by the Telltale crew for his thoughts on their new project. In the course of designing his upcoming Deathspank, he replayed The Secret of Monkey Island for the first time in 15 years. He offers a bit of a retrospective on the design, little memories and stories from its development, and some lessons he learned from it.

Grumpy Gamer: Stuff and Things and Monkey Island

Enjoy!

Labels: Adventure Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:21 AM (Permalink)