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Welcome dear readers to the final part (for now) of our Monkey Island mini-blowout. Episodic gaming is a tricky beast to master, you have to be careful not to peak too early but you still have to keep the quality of the episodes high. This is especially true once you reach the middle of the series as Telltale have with their latest offering: Lair of the Leviathan.
After the obligatory catch-up speech from the Voodoo Lady the game opens to what I’m sure is the strangest setting in any MI game to date; the innards of a giant manatee. Anyone else in this situation would become resigned to their fate, but not Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate. After a little exploration you bump into Coranado de Cava, the man that the Voodoo Lady sent you to find all the way back in episode one. Unfortunately it seems the De Cava has been driven a little mad during his quest for La Esponja adding yet another enemy to Guybrush’s growing list.
The first entry in Telltale’s new episodic Monkey Island series Launch Of The Screaming Narwhal was a very fun game despite a few niggling flaws. I forgave quite a lot of the problems I encountered, often putting them down to getting the series started. After playing through the first episode and enjoying it as much as I did, I most definitely had high hopes for the next iteration in the series.
We rejoin our hero, the mighty pirate Guybrush Threepwood right where we left off. Sailing away from the cursed Flotsam Island at the mercy of an unknown sword-wielding maniac. However, you are soon made aware that this maniac is none other than Morgan Le Flay, pirate hunter and Guybrush’s biggest fan. She’s been sent by the Marquis de Singe to retrieve Guybrush’s hand. The same hand that is infected with the festering pox that he accidentally released upon the surrounding seas.
Welcome to what looks to be a bit of a Monkey Island extravaganza here on Negative Gamer. Stay with us as we play catch up with the first two episodes of the Tales of Monkey Island series in preparation for the release of the newest episode later this week.
The Monkey Island series holds a very special place in many gamers’ hearts, and rightly so too. The original Lucasarts series was the granddaddy of point and click adventure gaming, combining ludicrous humour with a fantastic story. It’s understandable then that the Tales of Monkey Island series is surrounded by a fair share of hype and anticipation. However, I think many fans of the old games don’t know whether to get excited or not, especially with the game once again entering 3D territory (we all know how well that went last time don’t we?). Another question I couldn’t stop asking myself before playing was this: can Telltale really do justice to an old series whilst still keeping it fresh and enjoyable?
While at PAX, Wardrox and I were given the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Kevin Bruhner, co-founder of Telltale Games. Telltale are responsible for Sam & Max, Strong Bad’s Cool Game For Attractive People, and the new episodes of Monkey Island. Kevin had some pretty interesting things to say about the company, episodic gaming, and the industry as a whole. Even if he doesn’t think we’re negative enough.
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A couple of weeks ago we ran a competition to win a free telltale episode and it now falls upon me to judge the entries.
The question put to users was “What would you do with a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle?”
Most of the entries were fairly good and I have now, according to my own mysterious criteria, chosen a winner.
This amazing prize shall be awarded to Playing Mantis for his ridiculously detailed entry that is far too long to quote here. It had something to do with a tiny diesel motor, custom accessory belt and a lie detector, which somehow turned the rubber chicken-pulley into an interrogation device. Well done.
You can check out all the entries here and then tell me why I’ve chosen the wrong one or something. In the meantime, I shall be sleeping and Playing Mantis should hopefully be playing a free telltale episode.
I recently purchased Tales of Monkey Island, which rewarded me with a coupon code that can be used to get a free episode from the Telltale store. I’ve decided to give this code away in a competition due to the fact that I’m a supposedly nice individual and for no other reason.
Telltale make episodic adventure games such as Sam & Max, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures and the aforementioned Tales of Monkey Island. This code will get you an episode from one of their games for free though Tales of Monkey Island seems to be only available as a bundle at this point so it won’t work there. Sorry.
I’m not as creative as I wish I were and having struggled to come up with a decent competition of my own I shall be using an idea that Wardrox suggested instead. In order to win you must leave a comment below answering the following question:
What would you do with a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle?
Your entry can be a written comment, image or video and the winner will either be the best entry, or randomly selected if we can’t pick a best one. You must be a registered user to enter. The competition will close a week from now on July 17th.
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