This review is a reposting of the review that I wrote for the Warwick Boar – complete with intended italics.
Only a month ago, the landscape of PC adventure gaming seemed a desolate and barren place, Telltale’s episodic offerings being the only visible remains of one of the bastions of traditional PC gaming. Since then Lucasarts had confirmed that they were returning to work on Monkey Island, one of the most infamous of adventure gaming franchises. Indeed, it was soon confirmed that not only were they working in collaboration with ex-Lucasarts staffers on development of a quintet of new Monkey Island episodes, titled the Tales of Monkey Island, but also on a special edition rerelease of the first Monkey Island title, the Secret of Monkey Island, resplendent with both a graphical overhaul and new voice acting. Only hours before this writer put fingers to keyboard, Lucasarts further announced that they would start releasing their back catalogue of titles on the digital delivery system Steam, starting on Wednesday with a selection of ten titles ranging from LOOM to Battlefront II. Perhaps adventure gaming could be stirring from its long forgotten ashes?
The first of these Monkey themed releases is the Tales of Monkey Island, whose five monthly episodes begins today with The Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, which I’ll be looking at here.