Tales of Monkey Island

From Monkey Island wiki

Tales of Monkey Island The Tales of Monkey Island logo
Developer(s)	Telltale Games
Designer(s)	Dave Grossman
Series	Monkey Island
Engine	Telltale Tool
Release date(s)	July 7, 2009
Genre(s)	Graphic adventure game
Mode(s)	Single-player video game
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Wii
Media	Download, DVD
System requirements	2.0 GHz CPU 512 RAM 64 MB video card^[1]
Input	Keyboard and mouse, Wii Remote, Wii Nunchuk
Preceded by	Escape from Monkey Island
Followed by	none

Tales of Monkey Island (abbreviated as ToMI or TMI) is an adventure game being developed by Telltale Games in collaboration with LucasArts, and was announced at E3 2009.^[2] It takes place after an imaginary fifth game in the Monkey Island series. Players take control of Guybrush Threepwood who accidentally releases a voodoo pox that spreads throughout the Caribbean. He must save the Caribbean from this voodoo pox whilst at the same time rescue his love Elaine Marley from his nemesis LeChuck^[3]. The game is episodic, with the adventure being split into 5 parts. The first episode was released on July 7th 2009 and the remaining 4 episodes will be released on a monthly basis.

Tales is the third game in the series to be released on a console platform, the previous two titles being The Secret of Monkey Island (Sega CD and Xbox 360) and Escape from Monkey Island (Playstation 2)

1 Episodes
2 Gameplay
3 Islands
4 Development
5 See also
6 Reviews
7 Images
8 Trailers
9 Trivia
10 Pre-Order
11 References
12 External links

Episodes

No.	Chapter title	PC Release date	US WiiWare Release date	Euro WiiWare Release date
1	"Launch of the Screaming Narwhal"	July 7, 2009	July 27, 2009	July 31, 2009
2	"The Siege of Spinner Cay"	August 20, 2009	August 31, 2009	September 25, 2009
3	"Lair of the Leviathan"	September 29, 2009	October 26, 2009	November 6, 2009
4	"The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood"	October 30, 2009	November 30, 2009	December 11, 2009
5	"Rise of the Pirate God"	December 8, 2009

Gameplay

Tales of Monkey Island is set after the imaginary game, Monkey Island 5^[4]. As with its predecessors, Tales of Monkey Island is a graphic adventure game. Players assume the role of protagonist Guybrush Threepwood, a hapless wannabe pirate, and must explore 3D environments to solve a variety of puzzles. Puzzles consist of traditional adventure game conundrums where the player must use the environment to pass a predicament, as well as puzzles that require the use of items that the player has collected and stored in their inventory to complete. In contrast to previous games by Telltale Games, but in keeping with preceding Monkey Island games, Tales of Monkey Island allows players to combine certain items in their inventory to create new items. The game world is explored through use of the keyboard and mouse on the PC, and the Nunchuk on the Wii. Each chapter of the game is estimated to be between two and four hours, depending on the player's ability to deal with the puzzles.^[5] To assist players who struggle with the game's puzzles, a subtle hint system is also integrated into the game.

Each episode contains 4-5 hours of gameplay and around 1500 dialogue lines.^[6] Unlike other Telltale episodic games, the five episodes combine to tell a single linear, progressive narrative.

Islands

The 'Tri-Island' Area of Melange

Development

The game is being developed by Telltale Games, under license from LucasArts. With many of the Telltale employees being ex-LucasArts employees many of the current developers have worked on a previous Monkey Island game. The Design Director Dave Grossman worked with Ron Gilbert and Tim Schafer on The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. Michael Stemmle was a lead designer on Escape from Monkey Island.

Though Ron Gilbert, original creator of the Monkey Island series is not a member of the Telltale Games team, he spent several days with the designers early in the development process, discussing character motivations and his own personal view of the Monkey Island game universe. Some of the puzzles and story elements were brainstormed by Ron during this period.^[7]

Dominic Armato reprises his role as the voice as Guybrush Threepwood, and Alexandra Boyd reprises her role as the voice of Elaine Marley. Boyd previously voiced Elaine in Curse of Monkey Island, though her voice was not used in the sequel, Escape from Monkey Island. Earl Boen reprises his role as LeChuck from The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood onward, although he didn't voice LeChuck in the earlier episodes. The original composer, Michael Land also returns to score the soundtrack.
Screenshots and concept art are shown below^[8] and the Tales of Monkey Island trailer can be found here.

Reviews

Images

Tales of Monkey Island Image Gallery
Voodoo Lady conceptual artwork	Guybrush tries to scale the anchor chain of the Screaming Narwhal	Guybrush teaches a pyrite parrot some new words	Captain Reginald Van Winslow
LeChuck and a monkey	Guybrush on the pier	Elaine conceptual artwork	A sinister hut deep in the jungles of Flotsam Island
Voodoo mad science	A pleasant exterior view	The Voodoo Lady at work.	LeChuck conceptual artwork
Screaming Narwhal conceptual artwork	Guybrush with voodoo root beer	Guybrush conceptual artwork

Trailers

Trivia

This is the only game in the series, to date, where Monkey Island is not visited.
Additionally, Tales holds the largest body count of any MI game to date. Deaths in the game include Guybrush, Morgan, Marquis De Singe, Davey Nipperkin, Noogie, McGillicutty, and several others mentioned.

Pre-Order

[1]TellTaleGames had a promotion where if you pre-ordered the series before July 6th, you would get a bonus collectors DVD with exclusive artwork cover and a choice of any episode from any of the other series.