Mario and Sonic may be the more famous gaming heroes of the early '90s but Guybrush Threepwood is right up there. The lovably inept pirate was the star of the classic point and click adventures Secret of Monkey Island 1 & 2. A weaker third and fourth in the series appeared in the late 90s but the reputation of the original two games remains intact. A remake of the first game is launching on Xbox Live and PC next week but for the future of the series look no further than Tales of Monkey Island. This is a five-part episodic affair - it costs 34.95 dollars for the lot - with Episode 1 launching today.
From the off you feel on familiar territory with Guybrush and wife Elaine facing up to old pirate foe Lechuck. A smidgeon of comedy followed by some quick item combination and the game kicks off, leaving Elaine and Lechuck missing presumed dead and Guybrush washed up on a nearby island. From then on the game follows a familiar pattern of puzzle solving and conversation with the locals.
It's at this point that fans of the original may miss the simple on-screen controls from back in the day. While not technically a point and click game – you move Guybrush via the WSAD keys – you are able to move around via the mouse. But don't bother. Mouse control is generally frustrating and fiddly. Keyboard control is much more intuitive.
Still, the game does look a lot better than the original two, with a cartoon style that is always engaging. The graphics will hardly test your PC's graphics capabilities but the art design at least helps give Guybrush some personality. The same can't be said for the other character models, which lack variety. You often feel you have already met a new character already. Luckily the voice acting across the board is sparky enough to ensure you won't throw your keyboard through the monitor when listening to repeated vocal passages.
Humour and puzzles have always been the key Monkey Island elements and the developers Telltale have got it about right here. There are some genuinely amusing moments – a rarity in modern gaming – while the puzzles are generally logical and satisfying to solve. Some do feel undercooked though. A map-reading jaunt around the jungle is not particularly fun the first time round and certainly not when a similar mechanic is used later. But there is nothing as obscure as some of the conundrums in the original game and even newcomers to the series should get by. An in-game hints system helps to a degree but the lure of online guides will be strong for many. Which is a shame as solving a puzzle is always satisfying, especially when you were trying – as in my case – to get on board a ship for about 45 mins. Ahem.
What else? Well, loading screens crop up more often than you would like or expect. And the plot – think voodoo, pirates and a possessed hand - while thin does enough to keep you interested. The same can't be said for a couple of over long cut-scenes. There are also some nods to the original game – occasional references to Melee Island – which help evoke some pleasant nostalgia. The inclusion of the original theme tune will be enough to take many veterans back to those heady days of Amiga disc-swapping.
Nostalgia is important here but Tales of Monkey Island stands up on its own. Even the often criticised episodic format feels right here. The game took me about 4-5 hours to finish and a month isn't too long to wait for the next episode. What with Tales of Monkey Island and the HD remake of the original game this is a good time to be Guybrush.
