Udvarnoky

Awesome news! Best of luck to you guys!

What always fascinates me about Warcraft Adventures is that, to hear the stories, Blizzard didn't necessarily feel that they'd crafted a bad adventure game, but merely a dated one. (And one, it would seem, that was nearly complete.) It's also kind of amazing that the excellence and state-of-the-artness of The Curse of Monkey Island was apparently a very real factor in the decision to shelve Lord of the Clans. If it had seen release in '95 and The Dig had been the game's contemporary instead, Blizzard's creation might have very well blown the LucasArts competition out of the water. Just kind of incredible to think that an entire and likely decent game was scrapped specifically so it wouldn't have to exist as "second best," but that is the Blizzard way I suppose. Anyone placing bets on when this alpha will wind up leaked to the orgasmic delight of genre enthusiasts?

I don't know, but Back to the Future seems far more natural for Telltale given how well they've consistently executed interactive time travel stories with the likes of Chariots of the Dogs and The Tomb of Sammun-Mak. Plus there's the Dave "I was 50% project leader on Day of the Tentacle" Grossman factor to consider. Of the two licenses, Jurassic Park is definitely the "How the hell are they going to approach that as a story game?" one, and I'm anxious to see how they handle it.

Is awesome.

Surely E3 is when we'll finally get the unveiling of the new Zelda game, yes? The one supposedly coming out at the end of the year?

Still impatiently waiting for a nearby retailer to be able to keep this game in game in stock long enough for me to get to it. On the bright side, Demon Blade is a lot of fun. The style of the New Super Mario Bros. games strikes me very much as being in the vein of the original Super Mario World, except sharper and with 3D characters. Simply copying another game's aesthetic would indeed be tantamount to half-hearted visual design, but Super Mario World always felt "plainer" and less interesting-looking to me than Super Mario Bros. 3 or, really, any of the others, and I think in choosing to use that game as its primary influence, NSMB is simply inheriting those characteristics. (While I haven't played it in awhile, I don't think Yoshi's Island had any of those problems for me that its immediate predecessor did.) The look of NSMB reminds me a lot of the way Nintendo updated the look of the first three games in Super Mario All Stars or for those GBA remakes - they were primarily just adapting the games to another, pre-existing style instead of creating a fresh one, which is fine for remakes and less fine for what should be a brand new (however familiar) experience.

Although the PC version has been out forever and completely free I've been waiting for the Wiiware release because this is a game I'm dying to experience on a console. Don't know what's going on with the release, though. As Kolzig noted it seems to have fallen off the map.

I probably won't have time to play this for a month, but man am I stoked for more 2D Mario goodness.

Great game, and like all the others very much Monkey Island. The Monkey Island games have always juggled between "legitimate supernatural pirate tale" and "surreal jokey anachronistic Disneyland ride," and Telltale is clearly leaning more toward the former aesthetic with their take on the series. It's also increasingly obvious to me that Michael Land's work is one of the unsung heroes of these episodes. Everyone kind of unconsciously knows it's excellent, but if it weren't there a lot of the atmosphere would be sapped. As much as I'm enjoying the game's story for the twist and turns, the occasion and highly welcome serious moments, and the way it's shaking things up in a way this series has needed for awhile, I'm really surprised more people aren't calling it out on the blatant similarities to the POTC movies. I mean, we all pointed out how those movies "ripped off" MI when they came out, but now TMI's key plot points seemingly all being lifted directly from the POTC sequels doesn't get any kind of notice for some reason.

More of the same.

I never got what all the fuss was about when I got to the Meat Circus. In terms of platforming it's probably hard relative to the rest of the game, but compared to the general difficulty level of most hardcore platformers it was a breeze. Anyone who's completed Super Mario 64 (I used to assume that was everyone) wouldn't bat an eye at Meat Circus. I think what bothers people is that Meat Circus is basically straight-up platforming where as previously the game was more puzzle and exploration oriented. I think the fact that the Meat Circus is substantially harder than the rest of the game is fair - the last level should be a bit of a bitch. If any part of a game should be the hardest, it's the last level. The most disappointing thing about Ocarina of Time to me was the fact that Ganon's Tower was not the dungeon to end all dungeons, which had been the case in the previous games, but rather this hub of light "best of" rooms. There is a line, of course, but I think it's only appropriate that the final level of a game throw down the gauntlet a bit. And the Meat Circus isn't anywhere close to impossible.

Sure that's not something LEC or Gilbert slapped on there? I don't see the Monkey Island cover on the box on Amazon.com.

Wasn't it, like, a million? And it was cancelled.

Well, of course. 18 years might have had something to do with that. On the other hand, the game is surprisingly faithful - the fact that they built it right on top of the old game (right down to apparently drawing over hold backgrounds and retaining the restriction of animation frames) tells you something. Maybe it was wrongheaded, I don't know. When I was referencing discrepancies I was referring more to quirky changes (rather than mistakes) that can be found between different versions of the game, such as the flying chest I mentioned. Now that you bring them up, though, I would definitely consider the old pixels in the SE as being very comparable to the unfinished VGA conversion art (in some cases of backgrounds in addition to sprites) in, say, Last Crusade. That's precisely what I'm describing. Is it really that far off? Excepting the character designs, MI:SE edition is way more slavish to its source than the CD-ROM version of Loom was to its original version. What's more unfaithful, changing Guybrush's hairstyle or rewriting a game's entire script and overhauling all non-interactive segments? And it's incredibly surprising to me that you would bring up the NES port of Maniac Mansion being that it is way more different than than what you see when you tap F10 during MI1:SE. I probably agree, but it's not like I was lied to about what game I was buying.

It's spoken, but the text is also there as in the original. To me adding voice to that is pretty pointless, just like narrating that "Hours later" and "Meanwhile in LeChuck's lair" text, but it's hardly a big deal. (And hey, there narrator is Denny Delk!) I've got to say, I think the majority of the complaining I've seen here is pretty over the top, and feels like it's rooted more in nostalgia than in objective criticism. I'm not trying to invalidate anyone's opinion here, but would merely like to point out that for most complaints lobbied at the SE compared to the CD VGA version upon which it's based, analogous whines could be conjured when comparing the VGA version against the EGA version. Things get reinterpreted for a project like this - that's part of the deal. If that notion is inherently scandalous to you, then it's probably best to completely stay away. This title is billing itself as a remake, not a replacement. It's called a "Special Edition" - and from the same people who made Special Edition an infamous moniker, no less. I've got gripes about some of the stylistic choices made with the characters not to mention a lot of other things, but maybe someone in the early 90s had a similar problem with the VGA version's photo realistic character closeups versus the original Purcell ones? Perhaps our precious VGA version that we're viewing the SE as a mockery of was considered taboo by a diehard few for the liberties it took and potential detail that was sacrificed in updating the original game to 256 colors? Maybe for every visual gag like the "LOVE" thing that can be whined about, someone could also whine about that flying chest being replaced by a flying rock in the EGA/VGA conversion, or the lost stump joke in the CD version? There are countless other discrepancies that I'm sure ATMachine would be happy to share if you asked him, each as inconsequential as the next. And yeah, the voicing feels slightly weird, because the game was built on top of the original code and the dialogue was never meant to be spoken. But we already knew that. For the parameters worked under, the voice work is as good as can be, and satisfies the "I wonder what it would sound like voiced" itch that many people wanted to have scratched, more out of curiosity than because they thought it would make for actual improvement. The talent is top notch, and it's fun to experience the original game with Dom and company taking a whack at delivering lines people have been pretending they were saying since CMI came out. This game will succeed in introducing newcomers to the series (a good thing), and for the old timers it's meant as nothing more than a harmless boon to take or leave, but for some reason some people like to treat it more like a threat to the game's legacy, or more likely their childhoods. I for one will probably not play the SE much again after my initial playthrough (though I think it was worth playing and feel like I got my money's worth out of it), because I already have my preferred version of the game. That's the thing, we all have our preferred, "correct" version. I might slightly bemoan the fact that some kid today will be first exposed to MI through this version when I feel it's inferior, but there might be some people close to 30 who played The Secret of Monkey Island on the Amiga alongside his dad who would feel sorry for me for being exposed to the VGA PC version first. At the end of the day LEC's concoction is just the latest release of Monkey Island 1 in a lineup of them, complete with strengths and weaknesses.

I don't know if I'd say CMI works "perfectly" in SCUMMVM, as last time I checked it still didn't fully support iMUSE, but it's an excellent alternative if you can't get the game to run natively (which I still manage to pull off with Win95 compatibility mode) or if you're running it on a different platform.

Why is that a given, again?

The issue with the VGA close-ups is not that they aren't great, but that they are stylistically inconsistent with the rest of the game, which is definitely a bit more whimsical (to the extent that the detail allows). I've always greatly approved of the VGA version overall (Bill Eaken!), but yeah if you purport to be the ultimate purist then the EGA version is the only true version of The Secret of Monkey Island. I guess that's why I'm quite happy with Monkey Island: Special Edition. As Jake said, reinterpretation of the art is not new thing. Certainly, the SE takes it to a far greater level (which makes sense given that it was made 19 years later instead of the, what, year gap between the EGA and VGA MI1?), but I think there's a point where you have to just accept that a remake is what it is, and decide if you're in the audience for it. I for one would never consider the SE a replacement for the originals, and yes there are some pretty suspect stylistic decisions, but overall you have to give LucasArts credit for putting clearly legitimate love and effort into this project. I consider some of the choices made to be blasphemy, but then, some people were saying the same thing about the removed sunrise on the Melee Island docks for years. There's the original, and there's everything else, and we all have our preferences.

You're crazy. I think the way Gilbert handles the situation is irresponsible, not malicious. However innocuous his intent, "Ron is God" forum trolls are nevertheless the direct result. He is fueling that kind of behavior. As far as me seeing him as some mastermind who does it for kicks or to stroke his ego, that's just you imagining things I never said.

For the record, I don't doubt at all that Gilbert had some general idea for a third Monkey Island game which involved/addressed the line between the fantasy world and the real world - I simply refuse to believe that he has/had it all mapped out to the extent that he's suggested, nor do I subscribe to the belief that he originally envisioned it as one neat trilogy that's just waiting to be properly wrapped up. Isn't there some story that the ending of MI2 is how he wanted to end MI1, but Grossman and Schafer basically urged him to reconsider? It was both, surely. It's pretty much verified that Ron always intended to eventually drop the "it's a kid's imagination" bombshell at some point, so such references can't be considered insignificant. Ron himself was inspired to create Monkey Island by riding the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, with the idea of the game being borne out of wanting to get outside the boat and explore the pirate ships and stuff - the idea of putting that concept into the game could almost be considered autobiographical. Whether or not it was a good idea in the first place is debatable, although I do admit I've always loved the sheer surrealism of MI2's ending. Obviously, the anachronisms and 4th wall jokes also just work (and I'm quite sure were designed to work) as amusing gags on their own, and of course CMI and EMI continued the tradition of the world being simultaneously in the 17th century and modern day.

Correct.

I mean, I'd want to see it, but I largely agree with Thrik. I think he had some sort of idea for MI3, but I don't agree at all that it was always mapped out in his head any more than Leia being Luke's sister was mapped out in Lucas' head in 1977. I also have a hard time believing that fans would be all that receptive to his version of MI3 since, as you say, it seems to pull the rug out from underneath the idea that the Caribbean world Guybrush exists in is a real place. Who honestly wants that? I mean, yeah, it's an interesting idea, but I think the interpretative analysis that MI2's ending leaves us with is as far down that path as we need to go, and makes the mystery more exciting anyway. As a "what if" it's fascinating, as anything more...well, I dunno. It's so out there that it could either be brilliant or utterly horrible, but what it wouldn't be is a Monkey Island game as fans expect them to be. People who worship Ron Gilbert's "true vision" just based on the fact that it's Ron Gilbert who came up with it have in fact been encouraged by Ron's incessant flaunting of such ideas as the "real secret" and "the real third game." Ironically, most people on the internet who are on a crusade to de-legitimatize any non-Gilbert Monkey Island game seem convinced that the Guybrush Is A Daydreaming Kid thing is utterly irrelevant and that the "real," bigger revelation is some separate, amazingly crafted twist entirely. Frankly, Ron himself is to blame for these lunatics. I love the guy, but I hate the way he fuels the fire whenever the topic is brought up during interviews. He gets to add to his image the spurned genius who had that amazing discontinued vision, which he conveniently will never have to show anything for. Besides which, we can't ignore the fact that the ending of MI2 goes out of its way to make sure that CMI's plot could be possible. I don't get the impression that Gilbert was all that confident his MI3 would get made (or if it would be any good if it was). He left LEC right after the second game came out, so he clearly wasn't that uncomfortable leaving the third game in other hands. And we know now that the team of CMI knew of Ron's general idea for a third game, some of them having worked on LeChuck's Revenge. Maybe they were trying to respect Ron's vision by giving him the option of making his alternated version someday. Or maybe they just knew better than to deliver to fans a Monkey Island game that said, "By the way, you're not really a cool pirate in this awesome, rich Caribbean world that you've grown to love - it's in fact all fake!"

While I consider it a minor quibble, I do agree about LeChuck - he looks smaller, both from a height and girth standpoint, than expected. Although his shape and size has changed over the years (he was an effing giant in CMI and EMI), he was always physically intimidating compared to Guybrush. From what I've seen of TMI he looks more like LeChuck Jr. I feel like Guybrush could take him in a barfight if no voodoo magic was involved. I like his new design otherwise, though, with the glowing beard being a nice touch.

This could just be an apologist's words, but I'm less inclined to hold my problems with EMI against the team so much as the environment I imagine it was built in. Even as long ago as 2000 LEC had pretty much stopped making adventure games, and most of their adventure game talent had left. I suspect that LEC management requested a fourth Monkey Island with the mandate of a small budget and a tight schedule, and the remaining adventure folks over at the company jumped desperately at the chance because MI4 was something they were passionate about doing, at least relative to painting textures for the next pod racer game. EMI definitely gives off the feel of a really well-executed rushed game to me.

Something I've noticed while replaying EMI for a Mojo article is that it's simultaneously an example of the best and worst humor in the entire series. It's very scattershot - the jokes are either hilarious or they fall flat on their face. It might actually have some of the sharpest writing, but what it lacks is the consistency of the other games. I do agree that the comedy being a little less "charm" and a little more crass and rude like Sam & Max makes it stand out. I think as is always the case when you go for the Being Random route, the results are mixed. Guybrush saying "And another thing, I think that the staple gun was completely uncalled for" after a black screen accompanied by weird noises is funny; belabored honeymoon jokes aren't. And yet, despite the juvenile stuff, some of the pop culture and literary nods are pretty extreme. I know Monkey Island games are no strangers to such things, but geeze. Tipping the hat to Iron Maiden, Close Encounters, 2001, etc. etc. is one thing, but EMI is as liberal with references to Peter Carey novels and Percy Bysshe Shelley sonnets as it is with any fart jokes. Also, random exchange from the game that made me laugh when I ran into it earlier, mostly thanks to Dom's delivery of "three times": Guybrush: Mister Charles is really LeChuck! You know, the ghastly zombie ghost pirate? Harbor Mistress: I'm really getting tired of all this negative campaigning. LeChuck is dead. Mr. Charles has a solid record as a normal human being. Besides, weren't you the one who killed LeChuck? Guybrush: Well, yeah... three times, but... Harbor Mistress: See? Lies and distortions.