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Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
Text Review
If you like point and click adventure games, you probably already know all about the Monkey Island series, but for those of you who have missed the previous games in the series, here's a quick recap. The game follows self-proclaimed “mighty pirate” Guybrush Threepwood who goes on adventures in a comedy/fantasy version of the Caribbean during the golden age of piracy. Other major characters include Guybrush's (as of the third game) wife Elaine Marley–Threepwood. The series’ main antagonist is the ghost/zombie/demon pirate LeChuck whose main goal in death is to convince Elaine to marry him instead.
Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is the first chapter in a series of episodic Monkey Island games created by Telltale Games who have already given the episodic adventure treatment to a few other franchises. The game starts with Guybrush on a ship pursuing LeChuck who has captured Elaine.
However during the resulting confrontation a Voodoo spell meant to destroy LeChuck instead ends up turning him into a human and infects Guybrush's hand with the "Pox of LeChuck". After yet another accident, the ship is destroyed and Guybrush ends up floating ashore on Flotsam Island.
It is soon revealed that Flotsam has been cursed so that the wind always blows toward the island which means that no ship can leave. Of course the objective of the episode becomes to return the winds to normal so that Guybrush can get back on the sea and search for his wife.
If you have ever played a point and click adventure game, you know what to expect from the gameplay. You move around and talk to people, pick up items and use said items to solve puzzles. The puzzles are of a varying difficulty - some of them are a little tricky, but I found most of them to be a bit on the easier side. There is also a hint system that gives you a clue if you get stuck, but you can change how frequently these hints are given or even turn them off completely if you want to.
The graphics are simple and colorful. It may not be filled with all the unpronounceable graphical effects that most games have nowadays but the cartoon-like graphics fit this game perfectly.
The music is composed by series veteran Michael Land and has the same distinct style as the other games in the series. I must admit the songs are not quite as memorable as the ones in the earlier games, but they are still very good. The voice acting is also great, both Guybrush and Elaine are voiced by the same people who did their voices in the 1997 classic Curse of Monkey Island and the rest of the cast does a good job as well.
The Monkey Island games are probably best known for their hilarious humor and great characters.
This game does an admirable job with the humor but the jokes never reach the same level of brilliance as the previous games in the series. Also the new characters do not have nearly as much depth and personality as they used to and look suspiciously similar to each other. It is as if the developers changed the clothes and some features from existing models. I'm not saying that the humor and characters are bad, but they don't quite live up to the high quality expected from a Monkey Island game.
Most episodic games have a self-contained story so that you don't need to buy all episodes in order to follow the storyline. Tales of Monkey Island has a plot that spans over all five episodes.
This means that you will miss parts of the storyline unless you play every episode, but on the other hand it also means that the storyline gets more time to develop, which was probably the right approach. This game will take you about 2-3 hours to complete and presumably the next four episodes will have the same length, so if you pick up all five episodes you get about the same amount of gameplay as you would from a standard retail game.
Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is available for both PC and as a WiiWare download on Nintendo Wii.
Both versions are the same in terms of content, however, the WiiWare version does have some slowdown as you enter a large area. Considering that the WiiWare service has a size limit of around 40 MB per game, I am very impressed that the Wii version can even exist, and it even has all the voice acting intact without any noticeable lowering of the sound quality. Overall I'd say that the PC version is slightly better than the Wii version, but if you prefer to play on the TV with your Wii-Mote then the small amount of slowdown should not make the game any less enjoyable.
The first episode of Tales of Monkey Island is a very fun game that any adventure fan is sure to enjoy. But there is also a lot of room for improvement in the coming episodes.
- Christian Ljungqvist
Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is the first chapter in a series of episodic Monkey Island games created by Telltale Games who have already given the episodic adventure treatment to a few other franchises. The game starts with Guybrush on a ship pursuing LeChuck who has captured Elaine.
However during the resulting confrontation a Voodoo spell meant to destroy LeChuck instead ends up turning him into a human and infects Guybrush's hand with the "Pox of LeChuck". After yet another accident, the ship is destroyed and Guybrush ends up floating ashore on Flotsam Island.
It is soon revealed that Flotsam has been cursed so that the wind always blows toward the island which means that no ship can leave. Of course the objective of the episode becomes to return the winds to normal so that Guybrush can get back on the sea and search for his wife.
If you have ever played a point and click adventure game, you know what to expect from the gameplay. You move around and talk to people, pick up items and use said items to solve puzzles. The puzzles are of a varying difficulty - some of them are a little tricky, but I found most of them to be a bit on the easier side. There is also a hint system that gives you a clue if you get stuck, but you can change how frequently these hints are given or even turn them off completely if you want to.
The graphics are simple and colorful. It may not be filled with all the unpronounceable graphical effects that most games have nowadays but the cartoon-like graphics fit this game perfectly.
The music is composed by series veteran Michael Land and has the same distinct style as the other games in the series. I must admit the songs are not quite as memorable as the ones in the earlier games, but they are still very good. The voice acting is also great, both Guybrush and Elaine are voiced by the same people who did their voices in the 1997 classic Curse of Monkey Island and the rest of the cast does a good job as well.
The Monkey Island games are probably best known for their hilarious humor and great characters.
This game does an admirable job with the humor but the jokes never reach the same level of brilliance as the previous games in the series. Also the new characters do not have nearly as much depth and personality as they used to and look suspiciously similar to each other. It is as if the developers changed the clothes and some features from existing models. I'm not saying that the humor and characters are bad, but they don't quite live up to the high quality expected from a Monkey Island game.
Most episodic games have a self-contained story so that you don't need to buy all episodes in order to follow the storyline. Tales of Monkey Island has a plot that spans over all five episodes.
This means that you will miss parts of the storyline unless you play every episode, but on the other hand it also means that the storyline gets more time to develop, which was probably the right approach. This game will take you about 2-3 hours to complete and presumably the next four episodes will have the same length, so if you pick up all five episodes you get about the same amount of gameplay as you would from a standard retail game.
Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is available for both PC and as a WiiWare download on Nintendo Wii.
Both versions are the same in terms of content, however, the WiiWare version does have some slowdown as you enter a large area. Considering that the WiiWare service has a size limit of around 40 MB per game, I am very impressed that the Wii version can even exist, and it even has all the voice acting intact without any noticeable lowering of the sound quality. Overall I'd say that the PC version is slightly better than the Wii version, but if you prefer to play on the TV with your Wii-Mote then the small amount of slowdown should not make the game any less enjoyable.
The first episode of Tales of Monkey Island is a very fun game that any adventure fan is sure to enjoy. But there is also a lot of room for improvement in the coming episodes.
- Christian Ljungqvist
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