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By Brad Cook

Like many epic stories, Tales of Monkey Island begins in media res (in the middle of things) as our favorite buccaneer-in-training, Guybrush Threepwood, prepares to defeat his arch-nemesis LeChuck, who has kidnapped his wife, former island governor Elaine Marley. As usual, LeChuck wants to force Elaine into marrying him, but Guybrush has nearly finished collecting all the ingredients he needs to turn his ordinary sword into the powerful Cursed Cutlass of Kaflu and finally defeat LeChuck.

Tales of Monkey Island

But this is Guybrush Threepwood we’re talking about. If anyone can screw up an imminent victory, it’s him, and sure enough, you’ll soon find your puzzle-solving has been in vain: Guybrush breaks the bottle of fizzy root beer needed to enchant his sword, forcing him to improvise. He thinks he has succeeded anyway, thanks to some grog mixed with plant root and breath mints, but when he stabs LeChuck, the undead pirate turns human and his voodoo power spreads across the Caribbean in the form of a pox.

The pox also affects Guybrush’s hand, causing him to lose control of it. His cursed hand, which has turned a nauseating shade of green, flings the sword away — it hits a cannon and the resulting shower of sparks ignites the root grog. The resulting explosion flings him into the ocean and he wakes up on the shore of Flotsam Island. All he needs to do is find a ship and sail away in search of Elaine, right? Wrong: Flotsam Island’s winds all blown inward, so Guybrush will need to solve that problem before he can go anywhere.

A Screaming What Now?

And thus begins Guybrush’s latest misadventures. During the course of escaping from Flotsam Island, he learns that the only way to reverse the voodoo infestation is to find La Esponja Grande, a voodoo sea sponge that can soak up the pox. He also meets the Marquis de Singe, who believes Guybrush’s infected hand is the key to eternal life; Guybrush would prefer to keep as many of his preferably pox-free appendages as possible, thank you very much.

Of course, sailing away from Flotsam Island is simply your first step into the never-before-seen Gulf of Melange, where more islands and characters wait. As in the previous Monkey Island games, you’ll need to collect items and solve puzzles along the way — don’t forget that many objects can be combined with each other, or used with people or things in the environment. And make sure you talk with everyone you meet: not only are the conversations amusing, but many characters drop useful hints, particularly if you talk to them again after solving a puzzle or causing something to happen.

Will Guybrush find Elaine? Was LeChuck killed in the explosion, or is he still menacing Elaine? Will you see Monkey Island again? And why the heck would anyone call a ship the Screaming Narwhal? You’ll uncover the answers to those questions and more in Tales of Monkey Island’s five chapters: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, The Siege of Spinner Cay, Lair of the Leviathan, The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood, and Rise of the Pirate God.

We just hope that at some point along the way you get to yell: “Look behind you, a three-headed monkey!”

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A pirate ship.

LeInferno. A concept image of LeChuck’s ship.

Sailor holding a bottle and a sword.

This Won’t End Well. Guybrush moments before he drops that precious bottle of fizzy root beer.

Sailor running from a large sea creature.

Actually Quite Roomy. Guybrush will learn that being inside a giant manatee really isn’t such a bad experience.

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System Requirements:

 
Hand sticking through grave.

May You Not Fight Like a Dairy Farmer

Stumped? Visit the Telltale web site to read the walkthroughs that will get you through the entire Tales of Monkey Island adventure. Assuming you want to take the easy way out, of course. Fine, yes, we understand; everyone’s busy these days. No, no, go ahead and read those walkthroughs.

The Second Biggest Adventure Game Series We’ve Ever Seen!

“Hi, my name is Guybrush Threepwood and I want to be a pirate.” That simple line of dialogue launched one of the most popular series in videogame history when The Secret of Monkey Island debuted in 1990. During the years since then, designer Ron Gilbert has cited Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride as an inspiration, but, as he reveals in a post on his Grumpy Gamer blog, “that was really just for the ambiance.”

His true jumping-off point, he explains, was a 1988 historical fantasy novel called “On Stranger Tides,” which, in an interesting twist of fate, has a connection to the fourth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie that is currently in development. “If you read this book you can really see where Guybrush and LeChuck were plagiarized derived from, plus the heavy influence of voodoo in the game,” Gilbert writes. “Fantasy was all the rage back then and I wasn’t keen on doing another D&Dish game, but pirates had a lot of what made fantasy interesting without being fantasy.”

Gilbert developed the first Monkey Island game with Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman at LucasArts. It was part of the company’s larger focus on adventure games, which included Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, a pair of Indiana Jones titles, Sam & Max Hit the Road, and others. Irreverent humor was a major part of many of them, and the Monkey Island games were no exception, quickly drawing a large fan base that remains devoted to this day.

Gilbert, Schafer, and Grossman collaborated on a sequel, 1991’s Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, before Gilbert left LucasArts and Schafer and Grossman moved on to new projects within the company. Other designers picked up the creative torch, however, leading to The Curse of Monkey Island in 1997 and the final entry in the series for the time being, 2000’s Escape From Monkey Island.

A New Hope

Monkey Island may have gone dormant while LucasArts phased out development of many of its adventure series, but fans patiently waited for more stories. They were rewarded when Telltale Games, staffed by many ex-LucasArts employees, licensed the property and created Tales of Monkey Island. Grossman returned to lead the game’s development, and Gilbert provided input during the planning stages.

The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition

Tales of Monkey Island is part of LucasArts’ renewed focus on its classic adventure games. The company has also released an updated version of the first game, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, which you can play on your iPhone or iPod touch. “Hopefully this will open up the pure pleasure that is Monkey Island to a whole new generation of gamer that knows only how to use a console controller,” Gilbert says on his blog. “It’s strange and humbling to see something you created 20 years ago take on a life of its own.”

Meanwhile, Gilbert reveals in an interview at World of Monkey Island that he has his own ideas for what the third installment in the Monkey Island series would have been, had he been involved. And he admits in a Q&A at Gamespot that he knows The Secret, which fans have speculated about for many years, and someday he may even reveal it. Stay tuned.

 
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