When we last left Guybrush Threepwood: Mighty Pirate^TM, he had narrowly escaped the mystic winds of Flotsam Island, as well as the mad doctor who wanted his voodoo-cursed hand. But, the pirate hunter Morgan LeFlay has boarded his ship en route to rescue Guybrush’s wife Elaine. A swashbuckling battle ensues, and Morgan chops off Guybrush’s cursed hand, leaving him with a ‘handy’ hook. Now, setting sail for the Jerkbait Islands, Guybrush encounters a group of androgynous Mer-Folk, who task him with finding three mystic artifacts. These artifacts can lead him to a magical voodoo sponge that can soak up the Pox of LeChuck that Guybrush has unwittingly released, which is infecting pirates all over the Caribbean. But can Guybrush find them all before a group of nasty infected pirates completely take over the Mer-Folks’ home of Spinner Cay?

Tales of Monkey Island is an episodic point and click adventure game from TellTale Games, makers of similar styled adventures based on other popular properties like Sam & Max, Strong Bad, and Wallace & Gromit. Each episode, which has roughly 4 to 6 hours of gameplay, will be released separately about every month or so, and you can download them at TellTale’s Web site. Similar to other TellTale games, use the mouse to point and click on objects and people to gather clues, talk to others, and collect items you can use to solve the games many wacky puzzles.  TellTale’s other episodic adventures are fairly self-contained.  But since Tales of Monkey Island still makes references and keeps items from past episodes, it’s best to start from the first episode this time.

One new aspect is the ability to combine items to create new ones to help crack the riddles. By clicking and dragging two items from your inventory into circles and pressing the ‘combine’ button, you might be able to use two things at once. For instance, when you combine a magical looking glass with a fish eye, you get a magical magnifying glass, handy for reading tiny print.

Similar to TellTale’s Wallace & Gromit adventures, you click on items with the mouse and move around with the WASD keys. It would’ve been nice if you could have controlled the whole game with the mouse, but they had to do it this way since the game will also eventually be on WiiWare and played with a controller. Really, moving around with the arrow keys didn’t bother me at all, personally, but it might bug others.

The only other problem I had with this game is some of the puzzles were not as intuitive as I would have liked, and some of the items were not as easy to spot. Luckily they improved the jungle maze, and it’s easier to navigate this time. But these problems are only minor. If you had doubts before about TellTale handling the Monkey Island franchise, this latest episode will put your mind at ease. As with all other TellTale games, Tales of Monkey Island is highly recommended for point and click adventure game fans.

Kid Factor
Tales of Monkey Island is rated E-10 for Everyone 10 and up. ESRB descriptors include Alcohol Reference, Comic Mischief, Mild Language, and Mild Suggestive Themes. You can’t have a pirate adventure without a little “Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum,” but nobody actually drinks anything. Even though Guybrush gets his hand chopped off, it’s no worse than in Star Wars. Guybrush doesn’t even wince in pain and his hand still lives on (I bet he’ll get his hand back somehow in a later episode). The game is full of Looney Tunes style slapstick antics and Simpsons-like parody and satire. And the sexual innuendos are very subtle and will go over most kids’ heads. Because of the trickier puzzles, Tales of Monkey Island would probably be best enjoyed by older kids. But the whole family would be able to play this one together. In fact, an extra set of eyes is always helpful to solve the puzzles.

Tags: Game Reviews