Tales of Monkey Island: Rise of the Pirate God

The fifth and final chapter of the Tales of Monkey Island series ends it with a relative bang. The true plot finally takes shape as the actual villain is finally out in the open, and all sorts of plot threads that have been strewn about are tied together to bring the saga to fitting and relatively tidy close, while still leaving a hook for further adventures with Guybrush. It's pretty well done, and very fun considering you spend most of the game dead. Not only do you have to return to the land of the living, you have to reunite with your corpse as well, and the whole process is clever and a solid resolution to a lot of what they built up over the last few games. This is where the episodic stuff really comes into play - you can play them out of order if you really want, but to fully understand everything and have it make sense you have to start at the beginning and end up here. It is isn't perfect - I could swear the game ignored me when I found the correct solution to something the first time, and a few bits of the plot are tired, and the controls for moving around are still bad. But it's a good conclusion to another strong series by Telltale. I'll be starting the third season of Sam and Max soon, and I have high hopes for that.

Tales of Monkey Island: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood

After a couple of decent but less than stellar episodes, this was a nice little turnaround. It does reuse a previously explored location, but presents it in a different way that makes it seem fresh, and there's enough stuff that wasn't there before that it doesn't quite feel like a retread. And more importantly, the puzzles are quite good. There are two main phases, the trial and completing a voodoo recipe, both of which go beyond the standard "do three things" formula and require you to actually think a bit instead of just clicking on objects haphazardly. They even give you a map that can be refolded to magically alter the jungle's layout. It's pretty fun. Plus the plot finally really gets into gear, and the climax is one of the better ones Telltale's done in a while. They tend to work out best when they just put you in a precarious position with everything you need and just have you work it out, and it's done to great effect here. It's really just more setup for the finale, but they did a good job of righting the ship beforehand. Also, it was fun to see Stan again, and at least his voice actor was better than the one from that special edition remake.

Tales of Monkey Island: Lair of the Leviathan

I've briefly mentioned the badness of this series' control scheme before, but I feel like I should give some more explanation. In typical old adventure games, you walk somewhere by clicking on your destination. Sometimes you can double click to run there or something, but basically it's click and move. Not terribly elegant, and it can sometimes cause issues, but it works. This is what Telltale did with earlier episodic games, and it was fine. Then with Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventures, they added arrow key movement, which worked out great. It was simple to go wherever you wanted, and basically played like a regular game. So did they keep this system for their Monkey Island series? No. Well, did they at least revert to a system that had been proven to work for decades? No. There's an all new system where you click anywhere on the screen, hold the button down, and then move the mouse in a direction to basically Guybrush there. I can't tell you how bad this is. It is basically playable, it just leads to more frustrations than a control scheme ever should. You can still click on objects to walk right up to them, but the standard movement is just painful for no reason.

Anyway, chapter three! It wasn't that great. It wasn't bad either, and I enjoyed it about as much as the second game. It's a game spent convincing people things that aren't actually true, and there's a bit of creativity in how you're supposed to go about it, it just results in puzzles that don't make as much sense as I'd like. The things it gives you to figure out what you should be saying don't seem quite as useful or easy to mess with as they should be, and it just made the whole game feel a bit laborious. It's the sort of thing where it works as the third part of a story, but it would be totally unsatisfying as a stand alone game, and since that's how I'm trying to experience these while remembering the context of the whole story, it does suffer a bit. Luckily it's just a bit of a lull in the saga and it never does anything that bad anyway. It just felt more like a chapter that I had to get through rather than one I wanted to experience in full.

Tales of Monkey Island: The Siege of Spinner Cay

Overall, I really can't say that the second chapter of this series was as strong as the first. It's possible that the first chapter was just extra beefy to introduce the whole plot, but Spinner Cay felt insubstantial in comparison. I don't mean just in length, because the first was actually a bit long in the tooth, but in having a fulfilling arc to the story and gameplay. It didn't have the real three act structure I've come to expect, and it's not like the puzzles that were there made up for it much. I had some trouble figuring a few out, and it's not like they were particularly clever, the solutions just didn't make logical sense, not even by wacky cartoon standards. Plus it's always an issue when an area that's vitally important to finishing the game is so easy to overlook with the way they made the interface. I also can't say I'm big on the subplot with Guybrush being jealous of Elaine spending time with the "good" LeChuck - come on, it's just a matter of time until it turns out he's REALLY EVIL AND OH I HAVE TO SAVE HER. It wasn't a bad game, though. Pretty funny in places, and it's pretty fun just to be in Monkey Island's world. Plus I figured out how to run with the game's awkward control scheme! So that's useful.

Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal

Tales of Monkey Island is another in a long string of successful adventure game series based on another license, although this one purports to have more of a focus on a continued storyline than a bunch of loosely connected episodes. So much so that at first you could only buy the whole thing as a package deal, although now individual episodes are for sale. The first chapter is one of the meatiest and most enjoyable the company has done, and I got a solid amount of enjoyment from it. The dialogue is funny (though like the original game, not really enhanced by full voice acting), the story nicely sets up a fairy robust story arc, and the puzzles are pretty dang good. Consistently fairly tricky but capably solved if you pay attention, and also suitably clever to go with the game's silly mood. I tend to judge a game's puzzles by how rarely I had to get help in-game or out, and I handled this one mostly on my own, which is a lot more satisfying. Not everything is perfect, but it's a cute, solid adventure game, and the beginning of something suitably grand and entertaining. Definitely started on the right foot.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

The Special Edition of the original Monkey Island isn't a perfect upgrade, but it's a very accessible one that adds full voice acting, redone music, revamped graphics that are mostly quite attractive, and a robust hint system that helpfully nudges you in the right direction before it hits you over the head with the solution. I've only ever played a few minutes of the original game, so this was a nice way to experience a classic adventure in a friendlier way.

The game itself holds up for the most part. A few puzzles are a bit obscure, but that's pretty much par for the course in this genre, and a lot of them make up for it with the humor behind their cartoon logic. The writing itself is funny too, not exactly laugh-out-loud stuff in a lot of cases but consistently clever and unique even today. Sometimes the voice acting adds to the humor, although at others it actually detracts, either because it's really not necessary for the joke or the actor isn't right for the part. Whoever did the casting for Stan clearly never saw a used car commercial in their life. The key to a game like this is its storyline, because it has to keep you moving forward and informing you on how you need to proceed, and they do a good job of giving you a suitably adventurous quest while allowing room for the comedy and other important things. I have a few little issues, like how the game's first and most significant goal is never officially finished, but for the most part it's a competent homage to and send up of classic pulp adventures at the same time.

Oddly enough the weakest part of the game is the new interface. At any time you can press a key to switch to the original version of the game, which is only an interesting addition until you realize it's practically required for certain time-sensitive puzzles. Since they devote the entire screen to the pretty new visuals, you only have two basic commands available to you at any time without arduously scrolling through available actions or pressing buttons to call up some menus. The original game has everything on a single screen, and when the 19 year old version of the game you're upgrading has a superior inventory system you might consider rethinking it a bit. When it becomes an issue, you can call up the old version temporarily to quickly solve a puzzle, so it doesn't end up being a big deal, it's just a really weird way around the issue.

It's mostly a small annoyance in a game that's more enjoyable for the experience than the gameplay. I would have liked some more insult sword fighting or a more involved climax, but overall it's a fun, very cute game. The sequel is already getting the Special Edition treatment, and I'll be keeping my eye open for it, whether they fix the interface or not.