Tales of Monkey Island Impressions - Story, Humor, and Five Months of Updates

We get a look at this new Monkey Island adventure game being developed by Telltale Games for LucasArts.

E3 2009 is still under way, and one of the many games on display at the show is Tales of Monkey Island, the all-new episodic adventure game being developed by Telltale Games for publisher LucasArts. Tales of Monkey Island will be an all-new adventure series starring the classic characters from the lighthearted Monkey Island pirate adventure games, including on-again, off-again pirate Guybrush Threepwood, his lady-love Elaine Marley, and the dastardly ghost pirate LeChuck.

Who's Making This Game: Telltale Games, a studio founded by LucasArts adventure developer refugees that has gone on to create episodic adventure games such as Sam & Max and Wallace & Gromit.

What The Game Looks Like: Like Telltale's other games, Tales of Monkey Island has a bright, colorful, cartoonlike look to it. Characters have exaggerated, stylized features.

What There Is To Do: Guybrush has been cursed by LeChuck, causing one of Guybrush's hands to glow strangely and his behavior to become erratic. He has also been bamboozled by LeChuck and washes up on an unfamiliar shore at the start of the game. As Guybrush, you must find your way off the island, remove the curse, and rescue Elaine from LeChuck.

How The Game Is Played: Like in other Telltale games, you can take direct control of your character (Guybrush in this case) to walk around the world, talking to other characters for clues and picking up objects to add to your inventory, though in Tales of Monkey Island, you can also combine items to form composite items that you may need to solve later puzzles. One of the puzzles we saw was at the very beginning of the game as Guybrush washes up on the mysterious island. In order to escape, he must commandeer a ship, so we headed to the port to find the only ship moored there. The ship was presided over by a jolly fellow who didn't seem to mind Guybrush's bold claims that he was going to commandeer the ship. Then Guybrush tried to board. First he walked up the gangplank and slid right back down because the boards were covered in slippery bacon grease. Then he tried to climb the anchor chain, only to have the ship's jovial owner dump hot coals on him.

What They Say: This will be an adventure game unlike any that Telltale has yet put out. While it will be episodic like the others, the episodes will not be stand-alone adventures but will be very closely tied together in terms of story and will be released every month, for five months.

What We Say: It's definitely good to see a new Monkey Island adventure game, and Telltale seems to have the experience and pedigree to make something like this work. The first episode will launch this summer.

50 Comments

  • Jhraxlin

    Posted Jul 9, 2009 6:37 pm GMT

    My brother has the pc version and says it rocks. I'm thinking I might go for the Wii edition, but I'll wait how it turns out first.

  • Guib

    Posted Jul 9, 2009 4:58 pm GMT

    Yes it did (the 7th). Available for download at telltalegames.com.

  • jnjreams76

    Posted Jul 7, 2009 12:51 pm GMT

    what happened? did this launch today?

  • yummyjibblybits

    Posted Jul 6, 2009 12:01 pm GMT

    AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I cant wait!!!! :-)

  • mastercleric1

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 7:53 am GMT

    If this rocks, then I shall likely pee myself with nostalgia (first game I ever played was the second game in the series). If it turns out so bad as to be an insult to the series, I'll likely be rather upset and very disappointed.

  • MrDrew816

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 9:58 pm GMT

    The anxiety of playing this game again after all these years makes me a little lightheaded.

    "I'm Guybrush Threepwood. Are you my mommy?"

    Also, I hope they have the insult swordfighting in this. Some of the fondest memories I have are from those scenes!

  • zuljin11

    Posted Jul 1, 2009 2:18 am GMT

    Waiting for another monkey island game has become a religion. I filled it in on census forms and on my facebook page. Thinking of the possibility that it may actually happen one day soon made me almost fall to my knees in praise. This is the F***ing rapture of me!

  • taddia

    Posted Jun 18, 2009 2:22 am GMT

    OMFG O__O YES!!

  • lukaszsw

    Posted Jun 16, 2009 2:12 pm GMT

    Let's hope it will be better than Wallace and Gromit. I liked Sam and Max from Telltale Games although the gameplay became tedious after a few episodes. I hope they can insert some insult fiting. That was always fun

  • treava

    Posted Jun 14, 2009 1:40 am GMT

    that's the most wonderful thing happened ever since they begin to release new sam and max series.And that's what we are waiting for all these years.
    After playing new sam&max and wallace&gromit,im pretty sure this one's gonna be really goood

  • vito_128

    Posted Jun 13, 2009 12:07 am GMT

    It has finally happened! My inner Threepwood is both scared and excited.

  • Lennah

    Posted Jun 11, 2009 3:59 pm GMT

    Wow, a new Monkey Island! I'm so excited. But why episodic and Wii ware?! I"m gonna have to get this for PC.

  • macedonia_sucks

    Posted Jun 10, 2009 7:18 am GMT

    I was so young when I played the original

  • no_cultureicons

    Posted Jun 10, 2009 5:06 am GMT

    Oh yes!!! Not crazy about it being episodic but I'm just glad it's happening.

  • SQUALL20XX

    Posted Jun 9, 2009 2:59 pm GMT

    Can't wait for it

  • neil108

    Posted Jun 9, 2009 2:48 pm GMT

    Hey Telltale, while you are at it, can we have a new police quest, space quest, and king's quest game. I loved those classics. Gabriel knight too! That was the best.

  • lime05

    Posted Jun 9, 2009 3:45 am GMT

    OMFG I CANT BELIEVE IT

    THEY DID IT ! ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOO HOOOOO

  • o0phantom0o

    Posted Jun 8, 2009 11:45 pm GMT

    hmm, they've gone for the MI2 guybrush look, the face cudv been a little less long though

  • o0phantom0o

    Posted Jun 8, 2009 11:43 pm GMT

    ...how appropriate...you fight like a cow!!!

  • Poisoned_Waffle

    Posted Jun 8, 2009 4:40 pm GMT

    Bleh, why can't they continue another game, like Gabriel Knight, instead?