Jump to content

The MONKEY ISLAND and other Adventure Games thread


Jay

Recommended Posts

I know this was already briefly mentioned in the "last video game you played" thread, but I figured there was enough Monkey Island / Adventure game fans here that we'd generate enough discussion to warrant its own thread

 

After a 9 year absence, the Monkey Island series is continuing!!

 

Press release: http://www.lucasarts.com/company/vip/monke...ess_release.pdf

 

Quote
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif – June 1, 2009 – LucasArts today announced that the original hilarious pirate adventure is back, with two new projects underway based on the classic Monkey Island franchise. First, Telltale will premiere the Tales of Monkey Island™ game series, delivering a completely new epic storyline and swashbuckling flair that will unfold across five monthly episodes on PC and WiiWare™ beginning with the season premiere episode on July 7. The Monkey Island celebration continues later in the summer when LucasArts publishes The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition, a completely re-imagined version of the first game in the series that adds updated high definition graphics, a re-mastered musical score, and full voiceover to the classic adventure game originally launched in 1990. The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition will be made available on Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and PC.

Today's announcement represents a new partnership between LucasArts and digital entertainment pioneers Telltale who are crafting new experiences for today's audiences with engaging stories delivered through regular monthly episodes. Tales of Monkey Island is developed by Telltale, whose team includes designers and artists who worked on all of the previous Monkey Island games. The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is being developed internally by LucasArts, the company that started it all with the original Monkey Island games.

“We couldn’t be any more excited about bringing Monkey Island to today's gamers -- both in our special edition of the original classic, and through our collaboration with Telltale on the episodic series,” said LucasArts’ President Darrell Rodriguez. “We can’t wait for Guybrush Threepwood and LeChuck to return to gamers’ screens.”

 

 

So we have The Secret Of Monkey Island: The Special Edition coming out "sometime this summer"

Official site: http://www.lucasarts.com/games/monkeyisland/

 

There's a great, lengthy video on that site showing lots of gameplay footage and screenshots. It looks like they VERY faithfully re-created the original game down to every detail, just with better graphics, music, and actual voices throughout. Ron Gilbert, Dominic Armato, and Jesse Harlin are interviewed, and it shows them recording new live music for the game! One cool feature the game will include is a button to on-the-fly switch back and forth between the original version and the new version!

 

 

Then there's Tales From Monkey Island coming out as a 5 part series, the first of which arrives July 7th.

 

Quote
Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island brings the adventures of pirate Guybrush Threepwood into a new era with an explosive storyline that becomes deeper and more entangled during the course of the five-episode saga. While battling his nemesis, the evil pirate LeChuck, Guybrush accidentally unleashes an insidious voodoo pox that threatens to transform the buccaneers of the Caribbean into unruly pirate monsters. Players will experience the humor, romance, and swashbuckling action the Monkey Island games are famous for and unravel an insidious plot which is revealed across the course of the series. Tales of Monkey Island is set to premiere on PC and WiiWare in the coming weeks.

"The Monkey Island series set the standard for storytelling and character development in games," said Telltale CEO Dan Connors. "The next several months should be filled with all kinds of surprises as we continue the dramatic stories of Guybrush, Elaine and LeChuck. We are happy to be working with LucasArts to make this happen."

Telltale has posted a video preview and screenshots today at http://www.telltalegames.com/monkeyisland, and has opened up pre-orders at this site.

 

The 5 episodes will be titled:

  • Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
  • The Siege of Spinner Cay
  • Lair of the Leviathan
  • The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood
  • Rise of the Pirate God

 

Official site, where you can pre-order it: http://www.telltalegames.com/monkeyisland

IGN Article: http://wii.ign.com/articles/988/988570p1.html

Adventuregames.com preview: http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,1024

Gamespot first look: http://e3.gamespot.com/story/6210602/tales...eneric_comments

 

I can't F'ing wait! Now I REALLY need to replay the original games!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think this Secret of Monkey Island remake is all I needed to fully embark on my project to build a full Melée Island Replica in LEGO

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:lol:

 

Anybody besides me watch the video on the official site for the SOMI remake?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I enjoyed being able to see him too!

 

And also was surprised to hear about how much of a MI geek he is!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I'd read about that before. Isn't that weird Armato cue on the MI3 soundtrack that's floating around some promotional clip he made to get the voice acting job? (That clip features JP among several other music snippets, if memory serves)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Repost from another thread:

 

John Crichton said:
Pre-ordered Tales of Monkey Island! (Man I love being able to say that) I highly recommend everyone else that wants it does so as well, preordering gets you:

- All 5 "episodes", obviously.

- The collector's DVD with a physical copy of the whole season, plus tons of goodies! The Sam & Max Season 2 DVD featured all the cutscenes from each ep, with two tracks of commentary from the development team; deleted scenes and outtakes; and lots of concept art.

- A DVD slipcase with exclusive artwork from Steve Purcell.

- Access to a special MI forum at Telltale's website.

- AND...a free Telltale game of your choice! Obviously I recommend something Sam & Max.

If it looks like I'm a shill for Telltale, I am. They've very quickly become my absolute favorite game company in existence today, and that was before Monkey Island was announced.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While someone can explain it better, I am sure, it is essentially software available for download at the Wii Shop, the games being made by mostly third-party (or smaller) developers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While someone can explain it better, I am sure, it is essentially software available for download at the Wii Shop, the games being made by mostly third-party (or smaller) developers.

Got it.

Wow, this is GREAT!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another nugget for excitement: series co-composer Michael Land of the famous Land, McConnell and Bajakian trio has been brought in to handle the score.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, Michael Land wrote the scores for all Monkey Island thus far, so having him back on board is the best decision they could possibly make.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Monkey Island 2 is probably my favorite video game score of all time

I love the way Largo LeGrande's theme weaves in and out of the underscore when he appears or leaves a screen you're on in the first town

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The iMuse engine combined with the MI2 score is stunning. The way it seamlessly morphs between different screens in Woodtick has never been matched by any game I've seen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, they certainly are! You just have to download scummVM, a freeware application.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jason LeBlanc said:
I love the way Largo LeGrande's theme weaves in and out of the underscore when he appears or leaves a screen you're on in the first town

 

The huge statement of LeChuck's theme when he appears at the end of the bone song is my favorite part.

 

The first three MIs are pretty equal in my eyes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't like the look of the remake.

There is something truly lonely and romantic about the pixel-art look of old adventure games that gets ruined when they get upgraded.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't like the look of the remake or MI5 either, but I'll take what I can get

 

I wish CMI and EMI had stayed in the same art style as MI1 and MI2, but what can you do

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, Tales of Monkey Island is not going to be "Monkey Island 5". According to the developers, it takes place after an "imaginary" Monkey Island 5. And to be honest, I would be happy if the games stayed in the style of Curse of Monkey Island, because that is the closest to the style of the first two they would be able to go without being lambasted for using "dated" graphics, if that makes sense.

Although, I am happy to read that the music will be re-recorded.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually, Tales of Monkey Island is not going to be "Monkey Island 5". According to the developers, it takes place after an "imaginary" Monkey Island 5.

;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't like the look of the remake.

There is something truly lonely and romantic about the pixel-art look of old adventure games that gets ruined when they get upgraded.

I don't know if I like the look of the remake because LucasArts insisted on providing such tiny screenshots and preview videos.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Graphics are irrelevant. I want good gameplay.

On the flip side, there's no excuse for releasing a game in 2009 that looks like it was made in 1994. If the story and gameplay are solid, though, I could overlook it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Based on what little (as Henry pointed out, literally little) we've seen it looks like LA has done a great job of staying true to the original for the remake. If it was too different you know there'd be tons of people screaming bloody murder.

Personally I like the design of Tales just fine. You just can't make a 2D game anymore, remember this is about expanding the MI fanbase by attracting new people as well as bringing back the hardcore fans. And Telltale has proven with their previous games that point 'n click 3D works just fine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Based on what little (as Henry pointed out, literally little) we've seen it looks like LA has done a great job of staying true to the original for the remake. If it was too different you know there'd be tons of people screaming bloody murder.

Yes, as far as I'm concerned, it looks great so far. I've even read a rumour (unfounded perhaps?) that it's still SCUMM-based... if that's true, we may end up being able to play it with ScummVM.

Personally I like the design of Tales just fine. You just can't make a 2D game anymore, remember this is about expanding the MI fanbase by attracting new people as well as bringing back the hardcore fans. And Telltale has proven with their previous games that point 'n click 3D works just fine.

It's ok. Not as butt-ugly as Monkey IV, to be sure. I disagree though that you can't make a 2D game... this is Monkey Island, it should do well as 2D, too (and I'm sure the remake will do just that). 3D is fine for the right game, e.g. Grim Fandango (although the controls were a bit annoying), but the cartoon world of the Monkey series so far has been much better served by 2D.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Based on what little (as Henry pointed out, literally little) we've seen it looks like LA has done a great job of staying true to the original for the remake. If it was too different you know there'd be tons of people screaming bloody murder.

Yes, as far as I'm concerned, it looks great so far. I've even read a rumour (unfounded perhaps?) that it's still SCUMM-based... if that's true, we may end up being able to play it with ScummVM.

Well, you're going to be able to transition between the old and new verisons "seamlessly at the press of a button" according to LA, and that the new version is built on top of the old one, so I would think that it would be SCUMM based.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alright gang, I finally got ScummVM installed last night, and copied my "Monkey Island Madness" CD-Rom to the hard drive to play the games, and ripped the CD Audio tracks from MI1 to mp3s so ScummVM can use them. Now, things weren't quite perfect... I have 2 problems hopefully somebody here can help me with

1> For MI1, the music wasn't QUITE in sync with the picture.... like the Lucasarts logo would gets its little sparkles on it before the music came in, and SOMI title appeared on screen before the music crescended.... anybody else have that problem?

2> In MI2 the music doesn't sound GREAT. I read all this stuff online about how Roland MT-32 provided the best sound, but no matter what settings I changed, everything always sounded exactly the same. Anybody know whats up?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yay, I beat the first one, so now I can move on to the second one! So excited!

EDIT: Jason, did your game have the problem of playing two Tracks simultaneously? When I got to the Ghost Ship, it played the Ghost Ship Shuffle and the Monkey Island music at the same time, it got really annoying.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just had a nerd moment! In Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Guybrush has the option of choosing "221B Baker Street" as his address! I feel like such a nerd for "getting it", but I thought it was pretty funny.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hope you got the other addresses too. :lol:

I can't remember the last time I sorted through all the books at the Phatt Island Library, they're loaded with great in-jokes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.