Assumed dead and buried for some time now, the fondly remembered Monkey Island series is coming back courtesy of Telltale Games in the episodic Tales of Monkey Island and LucasArts in a modernized special edition of the original The Secret of Monkey Island. Yes, pirate wannabe Guybrush Threepwood is back in a big way, although many modern gamers are unaware of his exploits and adventures (and in-jokes). What is this "Monkey Island" thing and what makes it important? Alistair Wallis over at GameSetWatch guides us through the series through his own childhood experiences, while Monkey Island maven Ron Gilbert takes us on a personal journey over at Grumpy Gamer. Here's a bit from Alistair:
For a story driven game, it’s actually a relatively simple task to sum it up quickly: Somewhere in the Caribbean, Guybrush Threepwood wants to be a pirate. He works his way through a series of trials, falls in love with Governor Elaine Marley, only to have her kidnapped by the ghost pirate LeChuck, and then rescues her. It’s not so much the plot that really drives the game forward – it’s the scenarios, the characters, the little details, and most of all, the humour. Oh, the humour.
I'm not up to speed on my Monkey Island lore, so the past few days worth of research have been an interesting crash course for me. We'll be talking with someone from Telltale Games about Tales of Monkey Island this week on Kombo Breaker, so if you have anything you'd like us to ask, feel free to let me know (by Wednesday afternoon; we do have deadlines, after all).
