LucasArts Reveals Monkey Island Return.

[Layabout]

Fuck Yes!

There I said it.

Jet, MI SE doesn't have vector graphics. They are all digitally hand painted. The sprites look properly animated as well.

[Laserschwert]

That's a question I was going to ask: will Dominic Armato be Guybrush also in the TellTale game? I like very much his voice and interpretation!

He is voicing Guybrush in the Telltale series as well

[blueskirt]

Personally, I am not that interested in the special edition of MI1. The graphics looks stiff and lost their good old pixely warmth, voices I never truly cared for in adventure games except in the case of Grim Fandango, as for the enhanced soundtrack, I have trouble listening to the MT-32 version of old games' soundtrack because it doesn't sound like it did on my adlib/soundblaster card. If the music is that great, I'll just download the soundtrack and if I want to play MI1, I still got the original in my folder of games to preserve until the end of time (which I played far enough already anyway).

I am more interested in Tales Of Monkey Island and more importantly what is Ron Gilbert's involvement in the project.

Also, in case any of you are interested, Ron Gilbert posted some behind-the-scene tidbit regarding Monkey Island 1 on his blog.
http://grumpygamer.com/

[Greg Squire]

So those rumors were true after all!  I am a happy man.    This is a good day for adventure gamers indeed!   

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I just wish Ron was listed as part of the Telltale team. Oh, and Dave Gilbert. Get the gang back together!

Are you sure you don't mean Dave Grossman?    He's already done work for Telltale so it's no stretch for him to be involved in some capacity, though since he was the programmer I'd be more interested in seeing Tim Schafer added to the team.

Edit:  I don't get why they made Guybrush and Elaine look so ridiculously cartoony in the closeups but made the other characters look like rougher-edged versions of the originals.  Also, Guybrush's hairstyle is utterly, completely horrible.  Looks like he could saw people in half with the sides of it.

[Eggie]

I'm not much digging the style of the new graphics either, it's nice to them to include the option to switch back.
The voices'll be nice though. I always thought that was one thing they got really right in the post-Gilbert era of the franchise.

ANYWAY, what is on my mind now (because my mind has already been through the actually important things but I'm still having trouble not thinking about the fact these games are going to exist) is whether or not this will hail the triumphant return of having a 'look at' command. I'm hoping yes because MI is always something that's going to benefit from a device that doubles it's capacity for throwaway gags and, honestly, I've missed it. Hopefully Telltale will be confident that the new audience for adventure gamers has matured enough for this quantum leap.

[Frodo]

Wonderful news.  I'm very excited about this.   

I'm especially looking forward to Monkey Island Special Edition.
Not so much impressed with Telltales Tales Of Monkey Island, but I'll probably buy it anyway, cos it's Monkey Island.   

[Kweepa]

Ugh! The SE graphics are appalling! What the hell is with that hat Guybrush is wearing?

Telltale's Guybrush is adequate. At least Elaine looks ok! Let's hope the gameplay is up to par. I've been enjoying their other adventures...

Oh, and jet, Telltale didn't do the 3d graphics for MI4.

[TheJBurger]

Am I the only one who doesn't find Telltale's 3D graphics appealing in their games for the most part?

Their simplistic style works for Wallace & Gromit, as well as Strong Bad, but the whole thing gives off this amateurish vibe to me. It's not the fact that it's 3D that's unattractive--it's just the execution.

I mean, compare any Telltale game to any DoubleFine game and you can see the difference.

[monkey0506]

Despite what some others might have said on the matter, the Monkey Island series has played a huge role in my life. I was thinking quite seriously on this today, and if I hadn't gotten so horrifically stuck on The Secret of Monkey Islandâ,,¢ for so horrifically long, I honestly doubt if I ever would have gotten into the adventure game scene at all. Sure I like Loomâ,,¢ but that was the only other adventure game title I ever played as a child, and I beat it in a reasonable amount of time like a normal person.

It took me years of playing SoMI (off and on) to finally complete the game, only shortly before the release of EFMI. I didn't play Sam & Max, Day of the Tentacle, or many other titles which I know a lot of you grew up playing ([insert the entire list of Sierra titles here] anyone?).

Any sane, sensible person of course would have given up on the game after having been stuck in the same spot for so very long (like my older brother did), but not me. No, I continued thinking and searching and digging always trying to come up with new ideas (just ask my brother!). Somehow the game invaded my mind in a way I can't quite explain. It's what inspired me to my current dream job as a professional game developer.

The fact that there are finally, after all these years, some official, licensed developments in this game series which has become such a huge part of my life...just makes me explosively happy.

One thing I especially appreciate about SoMI SE is that you can seamlessly switch back and forth between the SE and the original pixelated graphics at any point during the game (according to the video on LA's website).

And from what I've seen TT's work is good so I'm very much looking forward to the TMI series...

By the way, using a hyper-complex uberalgorithm, I years ago decided that if there were to be another game in the MI series, it would have to be TMI (hence my pet project I've been working on since that time). So I highly adore the fact that TT stuck with that idea. :

[Krazy]

I can not believe this is real, I am very excited. It makes me wonder where things would have gone if Sam & Max: Freelance Police hadn't been cancelled. Would our pants currently be a lot dryer at this junction? It's funny how things work out...

Also, the Guybrush design in the special edition: what the hell? Seriously... what... the hell?

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

With Telltale's style, I think to be fair we've only really seen them take on two comic series so far (S&M and Bone) so their adaptations have had a clean (if uninspired) comic look to them.  I think the graphics shown for Monkey Island look different and more detailed than Sam and Max, but only time will tell whether or not the visuals are actually richer.  I do agree that Telltale's games tend to have a sterile look to them presentation-wise, so I'll withhold judgment on Monkey Island until I see more than a cutscene.

[Nacho]

I agree with JBurger... I have seen the images and they made me feel a bit... "Eeeek".

[Snarky]

I just wish Ron was listed as part of the Telltale team. Oh, and Dave Gilbert. Get the gang back together!

Are you sure you don't mean Dave Grossman?    He's already done work for Telltale so it's no stretch for him to be involved in some capacity, though since he was the programmer I'd be more interested in seeing Tim Schafer added to the team.

Tim Schafer was what I meant to say. Who can keep all these geniuses with their confusingly overlapping names apart? (Also: I blame jetlag.)

Grossman is already working on the game. And as I understand it, all three of them wrote as well as programmed the original game.

This is already pretty amazing news, but if we were getting a new Monkey Island game (nay, a series of Monkey Island games!) made by a team including Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer, Dave Grossman, Steve Purcell and Michael Land--and Dave Gilbert too, why not?) I'd be squealing like a schoolgirl at a Hannah Montana concert.

[Stee]

I'd be squealing like a schoolgirl at a Hannah Montana concert.

Or after a Michael Jackson concert.

[Krazy]

http://www.adventuregamers.com/article/id,1024

This enthusiastic preview article from Adventure Gamers confirms the presence of a look at function and the ability to combine items. Something I definitely missed in Telltale's Sam & Max game so that's good news, as is the apparent little reuse of locations. Also confirms a direct control scheme... which will probably not sit well with a lot of people.

Also apparently Alexandra Boyd from Curse of Monkey Island is back in her role as Elaine, so, cool that i guess. I liked that voice better than the one in Escape...

[Scummbuddy]

How did Rodekill get the part of Guybrush in the remake?

[SSH]

[Huw Dawson]

I don't think it's possible for me to describe how incredibly happy I am today after reading this news.

Remake of the original game? I just finished it 4 days ago for the first time, and now I get to replay it!   I'm struggling to decide whether I'm going to enjoy the new music or the new voices more... and they appear to have kept the "Ask me about Loom" pirate.
Telltale making a new episodic series? That's awesome on a whole other level.

Anyone else noticed how anti-LucasArts the Meet the Team page is for ToMI? It mentions how awesome Sam and Max: Freelance Police would have been and mentions that one of the designers "Kept as far away from Star Wars as possible" in his tenure over at LucasArts...

I actually like the weird hairstyle that Guybrush has in the remake, and the fact that he seems quite a bit older in ToMI than EfMI. My sole complaint is that LeChuck looks silly...

- Huw

EDIT: LucasArts are officially out of my bad books. It only took them 5 years.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I don't really mind the direct control scheme at all; it didn't bother me in Escape from Monkey Island.  What worries me about Telltale's games is that in streamlining the controls they tend to rip out much of the fun the player was able to have with scenery and characters and greatly limits the amount of interactions on screen, though I'm certain this is a design decision more than an engine limitation.  I remember when I first played Telltale's S&M I felt like half of the interface was shut off once I left their office because there was hardly anything to interact with on some level that wasn't part of a puzzle.  I can see that this reduces confusion for the casual audience, but still...

Hopefully they will merge the direct control with a verbcoin of some sort that provides easy access to the commands as well as the inventory and save/load.  I'd rather not see them go the road of the Broken Sword DS where all your available options are mapped out for you to the cursor with very little room for doing anything different/silly.  It might be fine for Stobbart not to talk to a moosehead trophy but for Guybrush it's all in a day's work.