Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
Verdict: my swash is buckled!
In a Nutshell: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal is the first chapter in the Tales of Monkey Island adventure game series and picks up where the Lucasarts Monkey Island series left off.
“While explosively stripping the evil pirate LeChuck of his demonic mojo, Guybrush Threepwood inadvertently infects the entire Caribbean with the arch-fiend’s expelled voodoo, which threatens to transform buccaneers into unruly pirate monsters. Pursued by a notorious cut-throat Pirate Hunter and a creepy French Physician who believes that Guybrush’s eerily-infected hand holds the secret of eternal life, Threepwood sails the seven seas in search of La Esponja Grande, a legendary sea sponge with unparalleled voodoo exfoliating abilities. But little does Guybrush know, his quest is part of a larger, more sinister plot, and good and evil are not always as they seem…”
- Fun Rating: Fun
- ESRB: E10+
- Players/Mode: single-player / campaign
- Game Duration: 3-7 hours
- System: PC, Wii
- Developer: Telltale Games
- Website: http://www.telltalegames.com/monkeyisland
- Cost: $34.95 from Telltale (Wii version is 1000 through WiiWare)
- Demo: from Telltale
| Would I play this again? | probably |
| Would I recommend this game? | yes |
| Was the story good? | yes |
| Was the music good? | yes |
| Were the graphics good? | yes |
| Was this game difficult? | no |
| Was this game frustrating? | no |
| Was this game offensive? | no |
| Was this game worth your time/money? | yes |
Playing the game
You are Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate. To move around use the W-A-S-D keys or hold down the left mouse button while dragging the mouse. If you don’t want to waste time looking around at the scenery, hold the Shift key or the right mouse button while walking to start running.
Clicking on objects or people will allow you to interact with them by starting a conversation or picking them up (respectively, as Guybrush isn’t charming enough to pick up anything but objects). Items collected go into your inventory which is accessed by mousing over to the right hand side of the screen, the Tab or I keys, or the middle button on your mouse.
What the game gets right
Telltale did a great job with the graphics as they are are nice and vivid. Since I play all of my pc games on a laptop, I had to turn the graphics detail level down to 3 on this one (instead of 11) to get the game to run smoothly. But, even at this level, or especially at this level, I was really impressed with how vibrant and fluid it all looked. Moving from the eyes to the ears, the script was very clever and had me rolling my eyes and cracking up at the appropriate times.
What pirate adventure would be complete without following a treasure map or two? None, I tell you. The map puzzles were nice and challenging and had some Myst-like elements to them which, to me, is a good thing.
And, speaking of challenging, if we haven’t mentioned it before, the “hint frequency” setting found in the Telltale adventures we’ve played is a very welcomed feature (maybe most adventure games have this?). Effectively a difficulty setting, this option has the characters giving you tips in an offhanded way to help you along to the next stage of the game.
What the game gets wrong
The one thing that was rather cumbersome and slightly irritating was the inventory screen. First off, the more stuff you have the more of your screen the inventory will cover. While it is nice to see all of your items at one time, sometimes this prevents you from looking at whatever it was you needed to find an item for. Next is item combination, requiring you to drag each of the two items you wish to combine to a different area of the inventory then press a button. Sure it works, but it feels clunky and extraneous as compared to simply dropping one item on another in your inventory. Both of these gripes are probably just personal taste and didn’t particularly take away from the fun.
Sum it up
I’ve been playing games for quite some time but this was my introduction to the Monkey Island world. I’m certainly looking forward to the next chapter.
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