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Monkey Island To Return
Briareos was one of several readers to write with news that TellTale Games, along with LucasArts, will be bringing new Monkey Island games later this year. Tales of Monkey Island will be a series of episodic games released for PC and WiiWare in the coming months, and The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition will be a remake of the original 1990 game, available on the PC and Xbox Live. A trailer is available for the former, and this is what the press release says about the latter: "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." Grumpy Gamer has a nostalgic look back at the franchise.
Please don't ruin it.
Wow! This is the second best slashdot article I have ever seen!
'Nuf said. The controls from W&G were a huge step backward from Sam&Max, I hope they don't do that to a game in a traditionally mouse-driven series...
You fight like a dairy farmer!
This sig does not contain any SCO code.
If they mess this up there will be many people who will want to roll through the gates of hell carrying the developers heads on a spike... While they use their arm to pat kittens of course.
Guybrush Threepwood: Well, if there's one thing I've learned, it's this: never pay more than 20 dollars for a computer game.
Elaine: What's that?
Guybrush Threepwood: Never mind. I don't know why I said that.
I'm doubly thrilled at this announcement; first because I love the first two Monkey Island games, and second because it's been so long since Telltale's Sam and Max Season 2 ended and I miss playing episodic adventure games with my wife. None of Telltale's series since Sam and Max interested us so Monkey Island is doubly appreciated for finally filling the void!
These Telltale adventures are the perfect activity to enjoy with a loved one. They're clever and funny and have great stories, plus the frustrating bits are that much easier when you put two heads together on a puzzle. My wife and I would always count the days until the next Sam and Max episode, so I did not hesitate to preorder the Monkey Island season the moment I learned heard this announcement last night (plus I got a free game of my choice from their site last night for doing so).
Telltale is a studio I put my full faith into, and in my 24 years of PC gaming that's been a very rare thing for me to say. Their games are well programmed, the art style is creative and attractive, and the writing is consistently outstanding. I also love that you can get a very attractive DVD of the season plus some extras for free (plus about $7 shipping) if you own the digtal download season.
Now please excuse me - I'm off to practise my insult swordfighting.
I remember this being released on the Amiga computer. The second best game of this era was Zack McCrackin and the teenage mind benders!
Long live the Amiga!
Actually they were more than ok if you played them with a Gamepad, as for mouse driven, they were not ideal, but far from the broken controls Grim Fandang, Dreamfall, or MI4 had.
I personally even liked it more with a gamepad because it allowed me to play W&G in the livingroom sitting on a sofar with the laptop being in front of me and the gamepad being plugged in.
The second video shows gameplay, and it looks like it's very true to the original. I'm going to stay positive on this one, given that I need excuses to buy more games for my Wii... ;)
.: Max Romantschuk
Ever heard of them? Lucasgames/arts? Were one good too, made quality games, treated their customers rights etc etc. Then management happened. For me the rot set in when a Star Wars game had a third party logo in it.
So Telltale for me is good, for as long as they are good.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
"Please, please *mmpphh* keep feeding our *slurp* deficit spending addiction!" *splat* *gulp*
-Tim "TurboTax" Geitner
E3 is on, basement dweller.
Every other story that has been run lately has been about games.
That happens around video gaming trade shows such as E3. Expect it to die off by the end of the week.
You write like a dairy farmer.
No nostalgia here either, i recently installed ScummVM on a nokia 770 tablet, and replayed all the monkey Islands, they were absolutely fantastic. There are a lot of good handheld games these days too, but nothing comes close to the level of comedy or cinematics as did Monkey Island.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONmmlOJzE5E
So good!
Will someone cut George Lucas' hands already so that he cannot mess with our childhood memories any more? Geez!
-dZ.
Carol vs. Ghost
And Grim Fandango worked great with a gamepad too. Or did you not try that?
I'm not a basement dweller, I just have better things to do.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." --Mark Twain
"According to LucasArts, these efforts are "just the start of LucasArts' new mission to revitalize its deep portfolio of beloved gaming franchises.""
Come on guys, give us Grim Fandango 2. Seriously, the original is my favorite game of all time.
Many readers of TFA won't realise that 'Grumpy Gamer' is Ron Gilbert, one of the creative geniuses behind Monkey Island. His blog post is fascinating.
One of the few PC games I think about still. Great story and graphics of the era. So funny too, I remember laughing my butt off as a pre-teen.... Looking forward to it!
I hated the Grim Fandango gamepad controls. I much prefer point+click, even if the cursor is controlled by a pad.
I replayed Secret and Curse about a year ago, and they're still as fun and awesome as they were the first time I played them. A lot of games don't age well (especially PlayStation 1 titles, most of which have become virtually unplayable), but that definitely does not apply to the first two Monkey Island games.
Pirates of the Caribbean ripped major thematic elements from Monkey Island!! Hopefully some people will notice this now and cry fowl! This was from the time when games needed to have a storyline not just super graphics. Now all I need is New Kings Quests....New Space Quest...Star Control 2 Remake (that rocked) and some Wing Commander Privateer remakes and the return of my gaming childhood will be complete. http://streetstyles.ch/ - Swiss Band & Fashion Tshirts
will it come with DRM or lamo-copy protection?
You're on Slashdot, so you're obviously lying.
they recruited Tim Shafer to help manage the project. He was there for MI 1 + 2. This guy had a talent for helping producing some of Lucas Art's more creative adventure games: Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, and Full Throttle ... skip the last one, they force him to do that. Since Lucas Arts killed their adventure games department and focused on rehashing Star Wars themes, its been hard for me to get excited about anything they announce lately, as it's probably motivated by money more than anything else. Oh well, at least Brutal Legends is coming out soon.
Then change slashdot preferences to not show Game articles.
Sorry, I meant your slashdot preferences.
Ever heard of them? Lucasgames/arts? Were one good too, made quality games
Just to illustrate; Tie Fighter, one of the best-loved games of all time, followed X-Wing and was actually an improvement; by most accounts XvT is either better or about the same, and came still later. Meanwhile, Star Wars: Battlefront II has less and usually smaller maps than the original. Having sequels superior to first releases is a sign of a healthy game company. When the sequels are inferior it's clear that management is pushing stuff out the door.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Seeing those screen shots make me think of one thing - Amiga ..
Right thats it - i'm going to play rocket ranger tonight and win the game (been trying to win it for 2 decades now)
I loved this series. In fact, when I first met my (at the time) wife-to-be, I was playing the entire series. And she still married me (Can you believe it?). My other favorite was Day of the Tentacle ("I feel smarter... stronger... Like I could..." *boink* *boink* "TAKE OVER... THE WORLD!"). My other favorite... Discworld (the first one; never played the sequel). What I especially love about the LucasArts games and the Sierra Online games were the creative energy poured into them. I think these kinds of games help shaped my sense of humor and let me see things, not just from outside the box, but from the crow's nest perched at the top of the Christmas tree. I look forward to these Monkey Island releases. I just hope they don't do to these what was done with Legends of Zork (*shudder*).
Urban Legions
"That pig shaped bush frightens and confuses me."
- Guybrush Threepwood, Escape from Monkey Island
"That's the second biggest monkey head I've ever seen."
- Guybrush Threepwood, Escape from Monkey Island
"Somehow I knew that in hell there would be mushrooms."
- Guybrush Threepwood, Monkey Island
http://www.quoteaddict.com/
LOL at releasing this for xbox kiddies. "like wtf how do u mak him kill a hooker?"
And gone to heaven! A new Monkey Island game... really? And by TellTale, arguably the best high-quality commercial adventure game producer out there right now? It's too good to be true! The only thing better would be if LucasArts had headed up the project themselves. *Drools* I can't wait... wave goodbye to many hours as I unproductively play through these new games!
Greatest news of the week. I love Monkey Island series.
Not to nitpick, but the original Tie Fighter games were actually made by a third party, so its kind of always been like that :)
The problem is, what we remember as a game will return as a product of the entertainment industry.
You only need to look at the production credits. The art. The writing. The music. The vocal talent.
These are pros, man.
You don't play "Grim Fandango" for the puzzles it offers.
You play it for the stories it offers.
It shone pale as bone,
As I stood there alone.
And I thought to myself,
How the Moon that night,
Cast its light,
To my heart's true delight,
On the reef,
Where her body was strewn.
yes I know we all hate these, but this time it's worth it
In Soviet Russia, Monkey Island returns to YOU!
(I can't find a proper link, but there was a VERY old release called "Return To Monkey Island", for the Apple II etc)
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Telltale best tread carefully: blasphemy is unforgivable