Upon hearing from TellTale Games that Guybrush Threepwood is being revived for a brand new adventure, I immediately thought of all my old adventures with the "Mighty Pirate" back in the 1990's. As with all reboots, the wish of following through and not ruining your childhood sits in the back of your mind. TellTale Games amazingly captures the same game play and feelings we had with Guybrush in the 1990's, minus the dial up connection.

Guybrush, Elaine, LeChuck and the Voodoo lady are all back in this grand adventure. As well as all of the great humor, one-liners, and head slapping puzzles we experienced a decade ago.

"Launch of the Screaming Narwhal" is the first episode of a five part monthly series which has already grabbed my attention. In talking to some people that I know, many of them either has never heard of “Tales of Monkey Island” or have never played a game like this. These types of games are story driven around the main character Guybrush Threepwood. While playing through the story you will come across challenges which usually consist of you needing something, and somebody clearly has that something you need to continue your quest. While you can use the humorous dialog to receive hints on how to solve the task at hand. These challenges can really be frustrating and they require you to think out side of the box. In one puzzle I became so frustrated I had to take a nap and continue at a later time, before realizing everything was in place...except my thinking. After slapping yourself and laughing out loud at the response you get from various characters, you get to continue your quest to go save your lovely wife Elaine from the evil pirate LeChuck. What does this game style mean to gamers who have never experienced this type of game play? It doesn't require a ton of skill to play, you don't need an insane computer to run it, and you for sure don't need to aim to blow peoples heads off. (Yes, which is a good thing. This game is NOT about living or dying, the only way you can “lose” is by giving up and stop playing. (That is not very pirate-like.) Oh and you probably may want to grab a pencil and paper to jot notes down, not required but makes some puzzles easier.

The game play was solid, Guybrush was actually pretty easy to control. His movements were either controlled by your usual WASD keys, but they added a new mouse control function to this adventure. When using your mouse to move a small transparent ring pops up around your character with an arrow attached to it. You just roll your mouse around to get the arrow in the direction you would like Guybrush to go and he will start moving...granted nothing is in the way of your character. The movement was very fluid in the game, some minor glitches came up while roaming around. They were VERY few and far between, and plus the review copy was not the final version. I really enjoyed not having to run everywhere around the map! I don't want to ruin the game but you will be traveling around an island, once you get to a landmark you can just click there on the map to get sent there immediately with not having to weave around the jungle.

The artwork for Tales of Monkey Island are bright, colorful, and matched the style of humor the story provides. There is a large amount of detail in the graphics. Little details such as clouds moving, textures of buildings and background objects not being smooth and blended into other objects draws you into the overall experience of the game. Guybrush has his own set of details from his own swagger, to his hair bouncing while walking. TellTale Games did a great job managing the detail while keeping the cartoony humorous feel to it.