Pads & Panels

Title: Tales of Monkey Island – Chapter 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood

Platform: PC (Also Wii)

ESRB Rating: E10+

Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Rating:

Review by: Kevin Haverty

After escaping from the belly of a manatee then being a wingman for the same manatee, Guybrush is back at Flotsam Island for the fourth chapter of Telltale Games’ Tales of Monkey Island. He is welcomed with a summons to pirate court for his various crimes during the series. Each crime bears the death penalty, so Guybrush must channel his inner Phoenix Wright to save his neck.

Telltale brings back the slick talking Smilin’ Stan S. Stanman to face Guybrush in the courtroom as well as sell souvenirs outside the courtroom. It is great to see Stan back with his flailing limbs and trademark suit, where the texture stays stationary. (more…)

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Title: Tales of Monkey Island – Chapter 3: Lair of Leviathan

Platform: PC (Also Wii)

ESRB Rating: E10+

Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Rating:

Review by: Kevin Haverty

In the third chapter of Tales of Monkey Island, our hero finds himself in inside a giant manatee during his search for La Sponge Grande. Guybrush needs to infiltrate the democratic pirates stranded in the belly of the beast and reconstruct the inner ear of the manatee so he can escape. Telltale Games proves its dedication to the Monkey Island franchise by bringing back another classic character and using him perfectly, with respect to the series. (more…)

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Title: Tales of Monkey Island – Chapter 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay

Platform: PC (Also Wii)

ESRB Rating: E10+

Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Rating:

Review by: Kevin Haverty

Chapter 2 of Tales of Monkey Island kicks off by introducing the new adversary Morgan LeFlay, Mighty Pirate HunterTM. LeFlay makes a name for herself by cutting off Guybrush’s infected hand in order to cash in on the bounty. Guybrush, sans hand, then heads to the Spinner Cay, part of the Jerkbait Islands, to find his fiancée and get his mast repaired. While there the game keeps a good balance of a self-contained storyline for the chapter while keeping the overall arc of the series moving along.

As is usually the case with Telltale Games’ releases, the basic mechanics haven’t changed from chapter to chapter. Gamers control Guybrush as he talks to everyone who will listen, pilfer anything that isn’t nailed down and solve any puzzles along the way. (more…)

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Title: Tales of Monkey Island – Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal

Platform: PC (Also Wii)

ESRB Rating: E10+

Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Rating:

Review by: Kevin Haverty

In 1990, Guybrush Threepwood debuted across CRTs, uttering “I want to be a pirate!” And almost two decades later his dream is still alive. Telltale Games has revitalized the Monkey Island series for its newest episodic adventure series, Tales of Monkey Island. Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal kicks off the series a few years after the events of 2000′s Escape from Monkey Island.

”Launch of the Screaming Narwhal” begins with Guybrush trying out his new voodoo sword on LeChuck to save his wife, Elaine. Guybrush improvises with ingredients and the result turns LeChuck human while it curses Guybrush’s hand with the Pox of LeChuck. The ship explodes and Guybrush washes up on Flotsam Island. This lays the framework for the series as well as the first chapter, in which Guybrush must find a way off of the island. (more…)

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Title: Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventures Episode 3: Muzzled!

Platform: PC (Also on XBLA)

ESRB Rating: E

Publisher: Telltale Games

Developer: Telltale Games

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

At this point there seems to be a trade off in the Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventure series. The first episode, Fright of the Bumble Bees, was a strong first showing for the four-episode series. The second, The Last Resort, did an even better job of emulating the style of creator Nick Park’s world, but lacked a bit in the puzzle aspect. Along comes Episode 3, Muzzled, ramping up the puzzle difficulty but falling slightly behind on the aesthetics.

Make no mistake; Muzzled’s story is still quite amusing. Wallace and Gromit come across three dogs in need of shelter and take them in. One of them is the shakiest, shyest, most hapless pooch anyone has ever seen, pulling at the heartstrings of the gamer. They aptly name it Twitch. (more…)

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Title: Sam and Max Save the World Season 1

Platform: Wii (Also on PC, XBLA)

ESRB Rating: T

Publisher: The Adventure Company

Developer: Telltale Games

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

The extremely busy environments of Steve Purcell’s Sam and Max comic strip translate almost perfectly to Telltale’s point-and-click adventure genre. The always zany Max, a “hyperkinetic rabbity thing,” and the six-foot, suit-wearing detective dog, Sam, provide enough inane dialogue to leave no moment dull throughout the six-episode series, and the environments stay varied enough to keep repetition to a minimum, though when playing them through in one run that repetition does seem to set in just a bit. (more…)

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