Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Monkey Island, is Back; Factsheet

It would seem that the great original tongue and cheek adventure game returns after what seemed like a permanent vacation from Lucasarts. And we get news in two folds:

1) The Secret of Monkey Island will be repackaged as a "special edition". This is no doubt an effort to introduce a new generation to the great story of Guybrush, the wannabe pirate.

The Good:
  • Newer graphics, more color, 1080i
  • Newer music
  • Newer interface, allowing fuller screen & intuitive controls
  • Voice acting is consistent from MI4 and the next release
  • Compatible on newer PCs and Xbox 360, no more DosBOX
  • Still has classic mode option/hot swap
  • Blessed by Ron Gilbert

The Bad:
  • Guybrush's new look is drab
  • Its a talkie, with voices from MI4, which were meh, but hard to compete with ones imagination
  • Done by LucasArts
  • Available on XBox, but not Wii (see below)




2) The bigger news is the announcement of: Tales of Monkey Island, a new original story in the MI universe.

The Good:
  • Done by Telltale, not Lucasarts. Presently, Telltale is one of the best in the Adventure biz
  • Lucasarts willing to outsource it license to Telltale (think Full Throttle and Grim Fandango)
  • First episode in July
  • Both physical and digital options
  • All episodes under $40
  • Its more Monkey Island for Gods sake
  • Dave Grossman and other original members on the team
  • Michael Land, original composer on project
  • Ron Gilbert blessed the new project
  • Although its called "Talles of" each chapter will have an overall story arch.
  • MI still alive after 20 years, glad I am too.

The Bad:
  • Are we being milked? As MI4 was not as good as MI3 (which was still good), but was not as good as MI1 & MI2
  • Only five parts, of unknown length
  • Episodic material has been hit and miss
  • Same '3D' art style from MI4, which was a poor cartoony style
  • Same voice acting from MI4, which was mediocre
  • No Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer, the real masterminds of MI1 & 2
  • No announcement of a Gametap deal
  • Available on the Wii, but not XBox

No comments: