New Monkey Island games only the beginning of its nostalgia kick.
After years of neglect, it seems LucasArts has finally remembered that it has a catalogue of games that don’t revolve around lightsabers and stormtroopers. The Star Wars obsession has been a particularly disappointing aspect of where LucasArts has gone as a company, while beloved franchises like Maniac Mansion and The Secret of Monkey Island lay forgotten.
This is changing in a big way. At E3, LucasArts announced a two-pronged revival of Guybrush Threepwood and his Monkey Island adventures. A faithful remake of The Secret of Monkey Island has been made in-house at LucasArts, and now has a release date of July 15th on Steam. We are also about to be treated to a whole new series of Guybrush antics through Telltale Games’s episodic Monkey Island series. The first game, Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, is due for release today.
It seems that these two products aren’t the only ones headed back to our screens. In a surprise announcement, LucasArts revealed ten classic titles that are headed to Steam tomorrow. These range from some of the company’s classic adventures to action games (including the criminally under-appreciated Armed and Dangerous), and there are certainly some incredibly nostalgic moments contained within.
- Armed and Dangerous
- Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
- LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure
- LOOM
- Star Wars Battlefront II
- Star Wars Republic Commando
- Star Wars Starfighter
- The Dig
- Thrillville: Off the Rails
The list is perhaps most interesting when one considers the big-name games that aren’t on it. LucasArts has indicated that if the remake of The Secret of Monkey Island performs well, then it is open to giving other franchises a similar treatment. This would indicate why titles like Maniac Mansion, Day of The Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road, and Grim Fandango are nowhere to be seen.
This doesn’t preclude us from experiencing The World’s Largest Ball of Twine, or ensuring that there is a vacuum cleaner in every basement. It just means that LucasArts is holding back on its most beloved franchises until it sees just how dead the adventure game genre is. Not only is this one hell of a nostalgia kick, it has potential to introduce a new generation to some of the funniest games ever made.
Supporting our habits:
mikelward
2009.07.17 23:54
Launch of the Screaming Narwhal was really fun. It felt like a proper Monkey Island. Well worth the money.
Also downloaded the remake of Monkey 1, which filled me with nostalgia, particularly the sword fighting, but some puzzles would be very frustrating if you hadn't played the game before (e.g. flowers, red herring).
Teaspoon
2009.07.22 18:00
Those damn flowers…
I played through it and could vaguely remember most puzzles and was trying to only do things that it had been hinted at that I needed to do. The only hint I could find for picking the yellow flowers was the one from pressing the hint button a couple of times when I couldn't find any suggestions from anybody about how to handle the poodles.
Also, I needed the in-game hint system to show me where the fort was on Monkey Island because I somehow missed it even after carefully sweeping the mouse through a search grid across the volcano area. At least it popped up a big green arrow so that I could click the tiny dot at the tip of it… o.0